Fruits of the Football League, Players of the month and Wonderful Wycombe – Talk the Football
- Sam Greasley-Machin
- Sep 14, 2019
- 3 min read
Huddersfield’s John Smith Stadium, credit; Geograph (Neil Theasby)
The international break is finally over and so the entirety of the EFL is back in action this weekend. The past week though has been a particular uneventful one by the EFL’s usual high standards. Huddersfield announced their new managerial team in the Cowley brothers following their great rise from the depths of non-league, the players and manager of the month awards for August were announced, not without controversy, and Wycombe continued their superb start to the season despite difficult constraints, all that and more in this weeks column!
The fruits of the football league
Following a poor start to the Championship season Huddersfield axed manager Jan Siewart and turned towards Danny Cowley and his brother Nicky as the replacement. The brothers had been stolen from League One side Lincoln City following two promotions in three season from the National League along with an FA Cup quarter-final while still in Non-League.
But there story didn’t start there, the two brothers are somewhat of a rarity on the touchline in having two brothers lining up as manager and assistant. The siblings started their managerial career with Concord rangers in 2007 where they had retired playing in the same year. They then went onto manage Braintree before making the switch to Lincoln.
It’s refreshing to see a bigger EFL club turning to the fruits of the football league after a few years of opting to source from abroad. Clubs too often are too eager to look overseas for new management despite the Football League offering plenty options that aren’t necessarily typical ‘hoofball’ which is too often wrongly associated with the lower divisions.
EFL logo, credit; WikiCommons
The players and managers of the month
With the first month of the season out of the way along comes the ever controversial players/managers of the month. The Championship managerial award was gifted to Steve Cooper at Swansea and rightly so with the Swans top of the EFL despite losing manager and two of their best players over the summer, spectacular start. The player award then went to Daniel Johnson following his four goals and three assists in the opening month, although not without a few penalties, illustrating Alex Neil was right to play the midfielder in a more advanced role.
League One very much so controversy with Paul Lambert claiming the accolade despite having a side that is much above the rest of the division in quality and without topping the table. Gareth Ainsworth at Wycombe or Mark Robins at Coventry who took the two top spots with sides very much running on limited budgets and resources. Perhaps slightly less controversial was the POTM as Peterborough’s Marcus Maddison took the award after gaining three goals and six assists in August, a player surely worthy of a higher level. While in League Two Matt Taylor of Exeter rightly was given the award as his side top the table with Grimsby striker James Hanson winning the player award thanks to five goals.
Wonderful Wycombe
League One side Wycombe have had a wonderful start to the season and deserve more credit than they are yet to be given. Gareth Ainsworth is very much an exciting young manager destined for bigger things and is working wonders at a club with limited finances and owned by the fans. Signing Rolando Aaron’s was an impressive piece of business with the winger surely capable of playing in the Championship again.
The Chairboys top the division with the only loss this season in all competitions coming at the hands of Reading on penalties despite competing well with them for the majority of the match. They are very much a team to watch and will almost certainly be up there towards the end of the season providing they can keep their gaffer.
Why not check out last weeks column here discussing the EFL investigating three clubs, how bad the FA’s fine system is and the media snub of one manager. Also don’t forget to follow TalktheFootballleague on Twitter to hear all the latest Football League news and join in on the discussions @TalktheFL.
By Sam Greasley-Machin
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