Cambridge head of football says Shaun Derry departure ‘best for both parties’

Posted Saturday, February 10, 2018 by PA

Cambridge head of football Graham Daniels revealed that the club and Shaun Derry had decided to part company during the week after the head coach left immediately with Cambridge United following their 0-0 draw with Lincoln on Friday night.

The 40-year-old Derry had been with the U’s since November 2015 and departs with the club 14th in League Two. Prior to Friday they had gone five matches without a win.

The news came the same day that new majority shareholder Paul Barry announced that CEO Jez George had stepped down.

In the game itself Cambridge had ended the evening strongly, with Lincoln goalkeeper Ryan Allsop called on to make good saves from David Amoo and Barry Corr, having survived first-half chances from Matt Green and Matt Rhead.

Their head of football Graham Daniels addressed the media following the game, commenting “this is unusual in football: Shaun and the club have spent this week discussing the best way forward for his career and ours from next season as a consequence of new ownership.

“I’m really proud that we’re not a sacking club – and one doesn’t want to do that. You want to treat your head coach with significant respect. We sat down in the last few days and said ‘what’s best for you going ahead, what’s best for us?’

“What’s best for both parties is that this is the stage to make a parting of ways together and amicably. It’s just the right time for him and us to draw a new curve. It’s as simple as that and totally agreed between both parties.

“Joe Dunne, alongside Mark Bonner, will take temporary charge with immediate effect. With Joe and Mark we do have the possibility of a partnership that could work.”

Danny Cowley was delighted with his Lincoln side for the way they performed three days after their EFL Trophy semi-final victory.

“I was so proud of them,” he commented afterwards.

“So proud of the effort, to play Tuesday night and expend the amount of energy that we did. We had about six of them running 12km on Tuesday, in a semi-final to get to Wembley.

“You expend not only physical energy but emotional energy and then the League make us play on a Friday night, which is disgraceful as far as I’m concerned.

“The players were just brilliant. We fight hard and we fight together and if we do that then we’ll be there.

“(Cambridge) are a really motivated team. They’ve got an excellent home record, I think 10 out of their 12 wins have been at home so to come here and keep a clean sheet was good.

“We haven’t had a clean sheet in a while which we were all motivated to get. The performance and the effort that the players put in deserves much more than a point.”