John Schofield links up with Cambridge
By Nathan Jackson
July 6 2010
John Schofield has been handed a quickfire chance to get back into football with Cambridge United. Schofield left Cheltenham Town a few weeks back but has been offered the chance to join up with Martin Ling's staff on a trial basis.
Schofield was manager of City between May 2006 and October 2007, inspiring City to their highest League finish since returning to the fourth tier back in 1999, finishing 5th in the 2006/7 season. However, a horrible run of form resulted in Schofield leaving.
Spells at Scunthorpe, Walsall and Cheltenham followed, even managing the latter for a brief spell.
Speaking to Cambridge United's website, Martin Ling said "He (Schofield) is a highly qualified coach, he has every badge you can, his CV fits the bill but I think it's important the personalities match as well, and it must be a comfortable three match team with myself, John and Paul Carden."
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
If I remember the horrible run of form only came in when John Deehan joined the team as director of football.
Quote:theoutworker
"However, a horrible run of form resulted in Schofield leaving."
If I remember the horrible run of form only came in when John Deehan joined the team as director of football.
John Deehan joined on the same day that Schofield was appointed manager. From that point the club subsequently went to September 16th before losing (at which point we were the only unbeaten team in the Football League) and that was only due to a very controversial game against the MK Dons.
We won 7 of our first 8 away games, the final game in that run being the 1-0 win at Swindon that saw us go top....that two weeks after a 5-0 win at Barnet and a week after a 7-1 home win over Rochdale. Not to forget we didn't lose away from home against any of the sides who finished in the Top 7 with us.
We were also the top scorers in the entire country for a long time at one point. Not to forget that we had 50 points before the turn of the year.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:07:07:12:23:09 by Nathan Jackson.
There was a few weeks when John Schofield was on his own as caretaker.That period when he was on his own we had some brilliant football.
I still say it was when John Deehan came in it started to go down hill. Too many John's spoiled the broth if you get my drift.
Quote:theoutworker
Nathan,
There was a few weeks when John Schofield was on his own as caretaker.That period when he was on his own we had some brilliant football.
I still say it was when John Deehan came in it started to go down hill. Too many John's spoiled the broth if you get my drift.
Oh really? There's no other way to say this, you are simply wrong. Schofield was never just on his own, both were appointed on the same day. There were no games played between Keith Alexander resigning and Schofield AND Deehan taking over, therefore there couldn't possibly have been any "brilliant football" before Deehan arrived.
As you can tell from all of the below, both started their job at EXACTLY the same time, so saying that we went downhill as soon as Deehan arrived is basically saying that we didn't play well at all under Schofield.
First bit of proof - Third one down, press conference on June 15th 2006 stating that Schofield and Deehan are the new management team.
Proof Two
Proof 3 - Date of article - 16th June 2006
Four
Five - Match Report from Stamford vs Lincoln, 12th July 2006, quite clearly says it's the first game for Schofield and Deehan.....all of which is played before Schofield's first season as manager.
Six - See Schofield/Deehan era bit.
Seven - Lincoln's official website archive states Schofield started his job in June 2006.
All the above articles prove that Deehan arrived in June 2006, starting his job on the same day that Schofield was appointed and all before the season began. So again, I hate to say it but you are simply wrong about saying that Deehan's arrival sparked the destruction of the beautiful football of Schofield, simply because Deehan arrived before a ball had even been kicked with Schofield as manager.
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 2010:07:07:13:10:31 by Nathan Jackson.
I know Keith saw out the end of the season but was there a short period when Schofield was on his own?
(I'm not commenting on the above, just can't remember what happened when Keith was absent for a while)

John Schofield as far as I remember took charge of the imps from the end of 2005 as caretaker. He was still there up until the end of MAy 2006.
On the 15 June he was appointed as Manager along with John Deehan who was appointed director of football.
I am not criticizing the skills of John Deehan as a footballer or a manager.
All I am saying is that to many cook’s spoil the broth.
If John Schofield had been left to run the team on his own I personally think we would have had better results.
Also if John Deehan had been appointed manager and was left to run the team on his own we may have had better results.
That is my opinion.
Mansfield Match Report - First paragraph after the picture says Alexander and Simpson placed on leave
Statement from club on BBC - 3 days later
Keith's return covered by this site - Sorry about the question marks in there, SportNetwork struggled with speech marks at the time.
Match report from Wrexham game - Played January 7th, sixth paragraph under picture states that Keith Alexander was forced to make one change.
Quotes from Keith about the Wrexham game
This would all be so much easier if the club didn't get rid of their stories after 18 months.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:07:07:15:31:38 by Nathan Jackson.
Schofield massively f*cked up by dropping Mayo, although not everyone's favourite I know, and playing the right-footed Paul Green at left back for most of 2007. He also stuck with the very average Eaden at right-back, often playing the error-prone Nat Brown and Lee Beevers at centre-back. Not surprising that our defence became a shambles and the constant loss of points drained our confidence and, as a result, our attacking threat. The final nail in the coffin was the inexplicable substitution of Stallard for the soon-to-be-released Gritton with over half an hour to play in the semi-final home leg against Bristol Rovers when we needed at least 2 goals to win.
As I think I said at the time of his sacking, his committment was never in doubt, and I'm sure he'll do a decent job for Cambridge - good luck to him.
Then there wasn't to forget Spencer Weir-Daley. Forrester was suspended and Weir-Daley was in form, scoring the goals that took us second again and only two points off of top after beating Walsall (amazing how some people constantly mention how we fell away after October despite this).....Forrester returns and goes straight back into the side and SWD is dropped.
, didn't he go to Bradford on loan (then a league above) after us that season? Genuinely surprised that he was at Boston's lowly level last season but not surprised to see him score plenty of goals - still think he could do a good job at league level. His finishes against Walsall were superb and he would have been a great option to have to replace the out-of-form Forrester and Stallard at the back end of that season.
He's a bit like Beckett in many ways, someone who should be playing far higher than he actually is. Still surprised that Beckett is at Gainsborough.
