When managers and chairmen fall out: Read John Smith's view
At the end of Corby Town's dramatic 2-2 draw at Northwich Victoria on Tuesday night, I and a couple of other journalists were waiting in the dressing-room area for our various interview choices to appear.
The Northwich manager Andy Preece went into his office, no doubt a bit cheesed off that the Steelmen had pinched an 87th-minute equaliser and moments afterwards his chairman went in for a quick chat about how they thought the game had gone and what had gone well and what hadn't.
Within seconds, voices were being raised and they got louder and louder and the air bluer and bluer.
It appeared Mr Preece was adamant that the reason Northwich didn't win was because the referee hadn't awarded them a penalty for Liam Dolman's second-half foul on Mark Connor, while the Vics chairman felt the reason was more because they hadn't taken their chances when they were on top.
As both men screamed at each other, it became quite evident that they had either forgotten the reporters outside the door or didn't care about them.
After a couple of minutes of shouting, the chairman burst out of the office and stormed off saying loudly that the manager was something that rhymed with a clucking tanker.
It was absolutely hilarious, but it also made me think that such a scenario was quite unlikely to happen at Corby Town.
One of the secrets to their success over the last couple of years has been the strong working relationship between manager Graham Drury and
chairman Peter Mallinger.
Mallinger has been the man looking after off-the-field matters like the new ground and has left team affairs solely to Drury.
It's a situation Drury likes and appreciates and he's never slow to express his gratitude to his chairman for the support he gives him.
Not all manager-chairman relationships are the same. But if something like what happened at Northwich on Tuesday ever happened in the manager's office after a game at Rockingham Triangle, it really would be time to press the panic button.
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Weather for Kettering
Monday 13 February 2012
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