Southport are looking for a new manager again. On Tuesday the club confirmed that Mark Duffy had left by mutual consent, only 19 days after being given the job on a permanent basis.
The announcement was brief. It thanked Duffy, wished him well and said nothing more. No replacement was named, and there was no update on Craig Noone, who joined as his assistant at the start of the month.
I didn’t expect it to end this fast. When Southport made the appointment permanent on 1 October, it looked like a sensible bit of continuity. Duffy is a former Southport player, he had been Neil Danns’ No.2, and he started his caretaker spell by beating Morecambe 2-1 at home.
That was as good as it got. As permanent boss he took charge of two matches, lost both and didn’t score in either. A 1-0 defeat at Harborough Town was followed by a 2-0 home loss to Radcliffe last Saturday, and the board moved quickly.
The table makes for ugly reading. Southport are 22nd in National League North with nine points from 12 games. They have won twice, drawn three and lost seven. They have yet to keep a league clean sheet and have collected one point on the road all season.
Across his caretaker and permanent spells combined, Duffy managed seven competitive games, with two wins, a draw and four defeats. One of those defeats was an FA Cup exit at Morecambe, the same Morecambe who were knocked out by eighth-tier AFC Rushden & Diamonds in the next round.
Seven games is nowhere near enough to judge a manager. But Southport aren’t a club with room to drift. Only last year they were staring at extinction before new owners took on the debts, and dropping out of Step 2 would hit them hard.
For Duffy, now 41, it’s a tough way to go. He was also let go by Macclesfield despite winning two promotions there. Sheffield United supporters still remember him as the Bounce Slayer, and he deserves a job where he gets more than a handful of matches to build something.
Southport are now on to their third manager of the season, and October isn’t over yet. Whoever comes in has no time to settle. Saturday brings a trip to King’s Lynn Town, followed by home games against Macclesfield and AFC Telford United.
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