Queens Park Rangers have sacked Neil Critchley after only managing to win one game – which was against Preston North End.
Critchley is a familiar face for PNE fans having spent two years in charge of our bitter rivals Blackpool.
Many North End fans had a great laugh over the summer as Critchley quit Blackpool to become Steven Gerrard’s assistant manager at Aston Villa.
That didn’t exactly last long as Gerrard was sacked in October, with Critchley following him out of Villa Park.
Critchley replaced Michael Beale at Villa and then ended up doing the same again, replacing Beale as QPR boss in December.
Critchley’s first game just had to be against PNE; fate wouldn’t have it any other way.
Yet whilst Critchley’s last trip to Deepdale ended in a 1-0 PNE defeat, he had some revenge as QPR beat Ryan Lowe’s side 1-0.
Jimmy Dunne’s winner handed QPR all three points in Critchley’s debut game and it looked like a bright future was on the horizon for Critchley and the R’s.
However, that win was not only Critchley’s first at QPR but also his last.
Critchley drew five and lost six of his next 11 games and has now been sacked after just over two months in charge.
Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Middlesbrough proved to be the end for Critchley and QPR are already looking for a replacement.
It’s not exactly a huge compliment to PNE that they were the only team Critchley managed to beat QPR.
North End were flat in that game and failed to build on the 4-1 win over Blackburn Rovers just a week earlier.
That result arguably started a tricky spell for PNE; North End have taken just eight points from a possible 30 since beating Blackburn, with defeat to QPR starting a slide.
The result didn’t do much good for Critchley either and QPR will now hope to find a successor in the coming days and weeks with PNE looking for revenge on April 7th.