Is a change really as good as a rest?

So the Bees finally won their first game of the season. And at Grimsby too!!! Finally, we've managed not to lose against the Mariners after losing six out of six meetings between the two clubs. I bet that was hard to take for their sarcastic website, Cod Almighty. Well done Bees!!

Where then does that leave Paul Fairclough and the fans that want him out? Of course, having gained only one point from our first seven matches, the fans were absolutely entitled to be worried about the start of the season and to suggest that a change of manager might improve things. But would it?

Go back two seasons and fans were calling for Fairclough's head after sinking to third from bottom, and only above the relegation zone by courtesy of goal difference. A dreadful 5-0 hammering at home by another Lincolnshire club, Lincoln City had seemed the last straw for the Underhill faithful. But Fairclough turned things around with a fine run which saw the Bees take 21 points from 11 matches, flirt briefly with the idea of a play-off place and reach the 4^th round of the FA Cup for the first time in our history. A nice and safe 14^th place was achieved at the end of the season.

Talking of the FA Cup run, it was a couple of days after our 4-1, 2^nd round hammering of Northampton Town that we met an out of sorts Grimsby Town in the league at Underhill. Like this season, they had recently sacked their manager and Alan Buckley had just taken over and they came to Barnet and won 1-0, their first league win in ages.

This time around and Grimsby's change of manager hasn't been so successful with only one point from two matches so far for caretaker manager, Stuart Watkiss. Port Vale have also sacked their manager recently as well and their first match after the departure of Lee Sinnott saw them lose 1-0 at Gillingham.

Of course, it's early days so time will tell but a change of manager doesn't always work even if it appears to in the short term. Remember Ian Atkins' wonderful rescue job at Torquay United in 2005-06 when they seemed doomed with just a handful of matches to play. They may have stayed up that season. They may have started the following season winning 1-0 at Underhill on the opening day. But by the end of that season they were relegated to the Blue Square Premier and there they remain, currently in 12^th place.

Interestingly too, the previous season in the end of season run in, Oxford United appointed Jim Smith as manager and things looked rosy after they beat Barnet 2-0 at home and most people would have predicted that the Bees, who didn't sack their manager, would be more likely to be the one to be relegated. Oxford are currently 20^th in the Blue Square Premier, one place and one point above the relegation zone. Blue Square South anyone?