Manager of the Year

Okay so I’ve limited the candidates to the chiefs of the clubs I write about on a regular basis, but the short list is as follows; Keith Millen (Bristol City), Jamie Pitman (Hereford United) and Dean Smith (Walsall).

All three men have something in common – they took over during dodgy patches for their clubs and steered them to safety.

You could argue that Gary Waddock as manager of Wycombe (the only side on my patch to achieve promotion) deserves a mention and so he does. The Chairboys were excellent this term and fully deserved to go back up to League One, but in my humble opinion, the three candidates I've identified had a harder job.

Millen picked up the reins at City after Steve Coppell had jumped ship at the start of the season and left the place in turmoil. Even though he was already well liked in and around the club, he had to convince both players and fans alike that he had what was needed. Interestingly the local media appeared to be on his side from the outset and that always helps.

There was a point in the season when things were looking bad for Keith. I asked him how he was coping with the pressure and how it compared with other managers who he had worked with at City who had then gone on to lose their jobs. He didn’t blink and insisted that they were all in it together and fully focused on survival. Five minutes later in the car park one of the non-playing subs Christian Ribeiro told me exactly the same thing and added that every player was fully behind Millen. And so it turned out.

The coming months will show us whether Keith has the ability to take City a step further. Personally I think he can and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pressing for the play-offs next season.

Walsall was a disaster waiting to happen when Chris Hutchings lost his job, but Dean Smith took over and inspired what had been a team hurtling towards League Two. On the last day of the season the Saddlers managed to stay up by the skin of their teeth – the same side I’d seen being given the run around by non-league Fleetwood Town in the Cup.

It will be difficult for Smith to build on this escape act next season as the club don’t have a great deal to invest in players, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t steer them to mid-table respectability.

But my manager of the year award goes to Jamie Pitman at Hereford.

Like City and Walsall, the Bulls were all over the place when Simon Davy was in charge and playing the sort of football that depressed everyone – both on and off the pitch. They had won only one game in eleven and lost eight and relegation was already on the cards back in October.

Hereford aren’t one of football’s fashionable sides. They don’t have a lot of cash and don’t attract big crowds, but former player and physio Pitman took to the job immediately ... and, more importantly the players took to him.

The club were in serious danger of dropping out of the league when he took the job on and it’s fair to say that if bigger clubs like Oxford, Luton and Wrexham struggle to find their way back, little Hereford might never manage it again. Thus, league survival was imperative.

I also saw Pitman grow from a novelty appointment (as far as the media and most non-Hereford fans were concerned given his step up from club physio) to a fully paid up member of the gaffer’s union. The passion he showed was there for all to see and he has a toughness about him that will stand him in good stead in the future.

Pitman will be hamstrung by the lack of funds available to him, but he has enough about him to see Hereford finish higher up the table next season.

A special shout out goes to Chris Wilder at Oxford and Mark Yates at Cheltenham who also did good jobs at their respective clubs.

Wilder will be hoping to build on this season’s consolidation back in the league while Yates has already started reshaping his squad for a push at the play-offs next year.

At this point it remains to be seen whether Bristol Rovers will appoint Stuart Campbell to the role of manager in a full time capacity, but his brave if ultimately unsuccessful attempt to keep the Gas in League One also deserves a mention.

Northampton boss Gary Johnson will be glad to see the back of this season and the Cobblers faithful will be relieved to still be in League Two, but once he has developed his own squad in the summer, you can expect them to be battling at the other end of the table next season.

And the less said about Swindon this season, the better.