5 reasons why County missed out on the League Two play-offs

An eighth or ninth-place finish represents good progress for the Exiles but it has been a disappointing end to a campaign that promised so much more.

Under previous manager Justin Edinburgh, County were third in the table after beating Portsmouth 1-0 at Rodney Parade on January 10.

With current boss Jimmy Dack set to depart after this weekend’s clash with Oxford United, Argus football writer Andrew Penman looks at why the play-off dream faded.

1. Justin Edinburgh’s departure

Things started to go wrong for County during and after the protracted saga of Edinburgh’s move to Gillingham.

While the rumour mill went into overdrive, Edinburgh’s men were thumped 4-0 at Cambridge, 3-0 at Northampton and lost 1-0 at home to Shrewsbury in his final match in charge.

Dack’s first match in charge was a 2-0 defeat at Wimbledon and, although he steadied the ship and picked up some eye-catching wins on the road, much of the damage had already been done.

2. Howard Greenhaf’s comments

As became clear when Aaron O’Connor let rip last week, the players were unsettled by director Howard Greenhaf’s comments directly after Edinburgh’s departure.

On February 8, while discussing a reduction in the playing budget for next season, Greenhaf said: “The good thing for us as a football club next season is that all of the players are out of contract, there's only a few left.

“So whoever is there will have a clean slate. Justin was aware of that and was really looking forward to starting again with another new squad.”

Greenhaf later explained what he had meant to the Argus, stating last month: “What I’m saying is we have a group that are nearly all out of contract so they need to be busting a gut or running through brick walls to try and earn a deal for next year, here or somewhere else.”

But the original remark obviously concerned several players and, coupled with a lack of communication between the board and the dressing room, lowered the morale and contributed to a downturn in results.

3. Off-the-field-distractions

The cases of Rene Howe and Chris Zebroski would have tested the most experienced of bosses, let alone someone in his first role as a number one.

Dack and the County hierarchy appear to have handled the delicate issues well but they can’t have helped the promotion push.

Howe’s focus was rightly on his seriously ill wife and Zebroski will have known that he was probably facing prison from before Christmas.

4. Lack of goals

The problems of Howe and Zebroski robbed County of two of their major attacking options during the run-in and only added to the sense that this was a team and a squad that, frankly, just didn’t look like scoring enough goals to go up.

Aaron O’Connor has netted a creditable 12 times but he must take some of the blame for a very badly-timed suspension in December.

Shaun Jeffers seems to lack confidence in front of goal and Miles Storey is a promising talent but hasn’t produced enough goals, while Joe Parker hasn’t had the chance to show what he can do.

The failure to sign a striker on loan last month now looks even more costly than it did at the time.

5. Injuries worries

All sides have injuries but County have had to do without Andrew Hughes and Robbie Willmott – two of their most important players – for most of the campaign.

The loss of key defenders Ismail Yakubu and Darren Jones and midfielder Max Porter for the crucial defeat to Dagenham & Redbridge proved to be the final nail in the coffin.

Playing the likes of Yan Klukowski out of position and ignoring the talents of David Tutonda until it was too late didn’t help either.