http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24015339 Been let go by Carlisle, a team only a point below Gills, pot may be getting hot for Allen.
It's a very long stretch to reach that conclusion. MA probably is under pressure, all managers are. But... Carlisle finished in the bottom 1/4 of div1 last year and were probably extremely disappointed anyway and their manager would have been under pressure to improve things (he was there last season wasn't he?). Whereas we walked away with our first championship for 50 years (albeit a div lower), I think it gives MA a fair bit of leeway. This season, so far we've competed in every game bar the one v Wolves. We have also (arguably) played some teams expected to be contenders for promotion in Wolves, Brentford & Brizzle C (not to mention Crawley, and then Swindon who were play-offs last season). On the other hand, Carlisle have had 0-4, 0-4, 1-5 & 2-5 defeats. Scored 2 conceded 15. At home they've 0 points, 1 goal, 3 defeats (2x spankings). I reckon if we'd played them in our first few games we'd now be sitting fairly comfortably in mid-table with 3 more points, a bit like Colchester or Vale. There may be just 1 point between us, but on the face of it I reckon there is a million miles between our respective seasons so far. Personally, unless we are cut adrift by Xmas, I reckon MA is safe for the season, and I think we'll eventually climb to mid-table obscurity. Especially on the back of a couple of decent loan signings. <edit> although I've just read MA said "Nobody is coming in. We’ll keep working with the players we’ve got."
Greg Abbott must have been cursing today as Carlisle pulled off their first win of the season under the temporary stewardship of Graham Kavanagh* "Why couldn't you have done that last week? then I would still have a job!" Greg must have hissed (* Incidentally, I always felt if Graham Kavanagh had not turned us down in favour of Cardiff when Stoke had to sell him circa 2002/3 and Simon Osborn had not decided to return to the midlands, then we might have stayed in the Championship a bit longer. )
