NEW Swansea City manager Micky Adams hands Alan Curtis the reigns tomorrow when they travel to high-flying Exeter in search of a moral boosting victory (3).
Adams, who took over in the Vetch Field hot seat yesterday less than 48 hours after the sacking of Jan Molby and Billy Ayre, has resisted the temptation to dive straight in with both feet.
"Alan took training this week and I don't think I should interfere too much at this stage," confirmed 35 year-old Adams.
I don't think that there is a lot I could possibly do in a day that would have a big influence on tomorrow's performance. But I'll be having a few words in peoples ears.
"I am sure, because of the way some of my players felt when I left Fulham a fortnight ago, there will be some in the dressing room who will be a bit upset that Jan has gone. But there may be others who see this as a chance to resurrect their careers at Swansea City."
While Adams takes a back seat at St James's Park, Curtis is likely to be flanked by new assistant manager and first team coach Alan Cork.
Cork, one of the founder members of Wimbledon's Crazy Gang, joined up with Adams yesterday afternoon.
"I'll follow Micky anywhere," declared Cork. "When Micky phoned me I didn't hesitate, it was not a difficult decision."
Curtis looks set to give Ryan Casey his first start of the season after an impressive second-half performance at Peterborough last week.
The 18-year-old also turned in an excellent performance on his debut for the Republic of Ireland Under-18s against Northern Ireland. Casey scored one of the goals in the 4-0 win.
Steve Watkin and skipper Keith Walker have both recovered from injury, while Kwame Ampadu sits out his last game through suspension as Swansea look for their first away point of the season.
Exeter City: Bayes, Gale, Fry, Blake, Baddley, Richardson, Rowbotham, Birch, Flack, Gardner, Williams, Cyrus. Braithwate.
Swansea City: Freestone, Price, Agnew, Edwards, Walker, Chapple, Coates, Appleby, Casey, Bird, Watkin, Jenkins, Harris, O'Gorman, Jones.
SWANSEA City will today confirm the appointment of former Fulham boss Micky Adams and assistant Alan Cork - less than 48-hours after the sacking of Jan Molby.
Swansea's new owners met Adams in Mumbles yesterday and, although there are still minor details to finalise, the appointment is set to go ahead later today.
"I'm excited about the chance to work again, and get back into the game," said Adams. "It doesn't bother me that Swansea are fifth from bottom of the Third Division. I have been in that position, and worse, at Fulham."
Adams, 35, found himself in an uncannily similar position to Molby when he was shown the door at Fulham to make way for Kevin Keegan and Ray Wilkins. He was "bitterly disappointed"' and the fans were also furious - as they have been over the Molby affair.
"He must be one of the few managers to get the sack when they have the 100 per cent support of the fans," he added.
Hannah Monks, the chairperson of the Fulham Supporters Club, even went as far as claiming: "He was the nicest, most approachable manager we've had here." In the 18 months Adams was in charge at Craven Cottage before Mohamed A1 Fayed's publicity machine rolled into town, Adams took Fulham from the bottom of the Third Division to the middle of the Second Division.
Adams, who made 435 Football League appearances over a 15-year career at Gillingham, Coventry, Leeds, Southampton, Stoke and Fulham, is also expected to confirm former Wimbledon striker Alan Cork as his assistant.
The Adams family team is likely to be completed by his mentor Ian Branfoot, who was sacked as director of football at Fulham at the same time. Branfoot is expected to have a part-time advisory role at the club - overseeing the scouting system.
It's going to be a difficult task for Adams following in the footsteps of Molby. He will have to win over a fan base who still feel a great deal of loyalty to the `Great Dane', and who are also angry at the way he had been treated by club's new owners.
"We were l8th in the league and were spending more time squabbling internally than focussing on what matters," said Silver Shield supremo and Swansea vice-chairman Neil McClure. "We were not finding it possible to work happily as a team.
"We have honoured Jan Molby's contract as manager which was to continue until the end of the season.
"He remains contracted to us as a player until then. His assistant (Billy Ayre) was part of the package."
But Molby was quick to offer his successor a free piece of advice. "I get the feeling they want a man they can manipulate, who will do as he is told."
LIFE went on at Vetch Field this morning as former Welsh international Alan Curtis stepped up from youth team duty to take charge of the senior squad.
It was an emotional day for the players as Jan Molby and Billy Ayre turned up at training to say their final farewells.
"It was quite emotional," admitted Curtis. "Both Jan and Billy thanked the players for all their efforts and said they were proud and privileged to have worked with them.
"I think the younger players found it the more difficult to take because the older pros are used to managers coming and going.
"But this club has been through it all before. When I was playing I thought John Toshack was indestructible, but if it can happen to him it can happen to anyone.
"I've told them their main task now is to forget what has happened, and go out to impress the new people coming in."
One of Molby's parting shots to his successor, though, was to urge him to look after his young hopefuls. "If he does things right then the club is sitting on a fortune with the youngtalent," he said.
Molby is still hoping the club will go one step further and release him from his playing contract.
"I was at the top for 14 years and it was a big step down coming to Swansea.
"I found it quite difficult, and it has put me off being a manager for a while," he added. "But I'd like to carry on playing and I've already had a couple of phone-calls."
JAN MOLBY warned that repeats of Swansea City's "abysmal" performance against Barry Town could get him and his players the sack and put the club in danger of relegation from the Football League.
The Swans player-manager pulled no punches after a humiliating 2-1 defeat by the League of Wales champions in the FAW Invitation Cup at the Vetch Field on Tuesday night. He made public what he told the new owners at a recent board meeting when he spoke for 90 minutes - that he and the fans want immediate success as well as the long term progress tied up with a proposed move to a new stadium at Morfa.
The Swans are overloaded with promising but raw youngsters, a point driven home by a Barry team packed with Football League experience. "We were beaten by a better team with better players. People would laugh if I offered excuses after that abysmal performance. There aren't any," said Molby. "All I can do is apologise to the fans. I know it hurt them as much as it hurt me and Billy (assistant manager Billy Ayre.) I just hope it hurt the players as well. "Our next three matches are against the fourth, second and first placed teams: I don't expect to lose to Peterborough, Exeter and Notts County. "If we did you would expect people to be under pressure to keep their jobs.
"I believe there are a lot of things going wrong here. Because players are getting a lot of media attention by being with one of only three Football League clubs in Wales, they think they are half-way there. They still have a long way to go. "If they don't grasp what it's all about after what happened against Barry they have a big surprise coming. If they don't realise something extraordinary is needed to pull things round, they will disappear out of the game."
At the board meeting chaired by Steve Hamer, Molby stressed the need for new signings to strengthen the squad and avoid the danger of present players becoming complacent through lack of competition.
"I think you get to a stage where if you don't change the players, they will eventually change you. We don't want to reach that stage," he said.
The squad is much weaker than four months ago when the Swans played Northampton in the play-off final at Wembley. Steve Torpey, David Thomas, Carl Heggs and David Penney were sold for fees totalling almost £600,000, and key defender Steve Jones could miss the whole season with a broken leg.
So far , Silver Shield Ltd, who bought out Doug Sharpe, have signed Steve Watkin from Wrexham for £100,000 and Tony Bird and Dave O'Gorman from Barry for £60,000. Molby reckons up to six more players are required.
"Even Barry had a lot more experience than we did but we aren't allowed to sign geriatrics, (the word used by vice-chairman Neil McClure to describe players in the mid or late thirties that the manager was interested in signing). "You can get experience by spending a lot of money for the right 26year-old, by paying less for a player in his thirties or by signing someone on a free transfer.
"The people in charge of the club tell me it's not the way forward, that everything is long term. But whatever plans they have for 1999 don't interest me. All that matters to me is Saturday's game at Peterborough and gaining success this season."
Against Barry, Swansea were without the injured Kwame Ampadu and Richard Appleby plus the ineligible Watkin, while Molby has been sidelined by a foot injury. The 34-year-old former Liverpool and Denmark star is battling to be fit to face Peterborough. But he warned, "People mustn't think everything is going to be okay if I start playing again. "One man, Ronaldo or whoever, could not turn things round. It's going to take a lot more than that. "I think we have known for a long time that the squad isn't strong enough. We were papering over the cracks by beating Scunthorpe and Brighton. Scunthorpe are a decent team but Brighton will finish in the bottom four again. So could we unless something is done."
SWANSEA City look as if they will be forced to play their Third Division clash at Exeter on Saturday without Welsh Under-21 internationals Jonathan Coates and Lee Jenkins.
Manager Jan Molby was waiting to see if either Kristian O'Leary or Damian Lacey would be drafted into the Under-21 squad for Friday's international in Belgium, giving him the option of postponing the Exeter game.
"At the moment that doesn't look like happening," explained Molby.
"We've got to take a good look at our numbers, but I think we'll be down to the bare bones."
Molby already has Steve Jones, Mark Clode and Rob King on the long-term injury list, while Kwame Ampadu sits out his final game through suspension.
Molby will also have to assess the fitness of skipper Keith Walker and striker Steve Watkin.
"Time is the only healer, but I'm optimistic they'll make it," added Molby.
The good news for Swansea is that the club's player-manager had no reaction to the foot injury which kept him sidelined until last Saturday's defeat at Peterborough.
It will take me a good three to fourweeks to get myself fully match-fit,"added Molby.
"I thought it went quite well when we started to play in the second half.
"Although they were one of thebetter teams I've seen in this division, they struggled to get the ball off us at times."
Former Wales and Swansea City manager Terry Yorath is expected to make a return to the British game today as Huddersfield's new first-team coach.
Yorath, who has just returned from a coaching stint in Lebanon, is due to team up with new manager Peter Jackson after the struggling First Division club sacked Brian Horton and his coaching staff yesterday.
SWANSEA City chairman Steve Hamer confirmed today that the time has come to "reassess the club's playing policy."
Hamer made the statement after Swansea lost their fifth consecutive away game at Peterborough, dropping the club down into 20th place in the Third Division.
As Swansea sit four places off the bottom of the Football League with the worst away record of all 92 clubs, Hamer, two months into his reign as chairman, said: "I think it is now time to re-assess the playing policy of the team with Jan Molby."
After watching his side lose 3-1 against the new Third Division leaders, Hamer said: "The players certainly don't seem to have responded to the takeover. Now I think it's time to ask the question why. Something needs to be done because we must improve matters."While that could see changes to the playing staff, Hamer was quick to point out, however, that the position of manager Jan Molby was something the board has never discussed."
"We are nowhere near taking any panic measures,'' added Hamer. "I am still 100 per cent convinced we will get things right.
"We are good enough and certainly as good as any side in this division. "I would never say we would sacrifice promotion this season for the long-term benefit of the club because I feel we can turn things around within the space of two months.
"Our aim is to climb back into the top half by Christmas and build from there. We did it last season, and I don't see why we can't do it again."
Hamer also confirmed that he will discuss bringing in new players with Molby this week after refusing to rush through the transfer of Bristol City defender Scott Patterson for Saturday's game at Peterborough.
"We are not prepared to rush anything," added Hamer. "We have already spent as much as any club in the Third Division this season with the acquisition of Tony Bird, Dave O'Gorman and Steve Watkin.
"We'll bring players in, but Jan has got to work with us to do it."
Despite an encouraging second-half performance against Peterborough on Saturday which could have earned them their first away point of the season, Molby was quick to point out that his side still came away sporting a 3-1 defeat.
"No, I don't think they have regained their pride," said Molby. "Nobody should have walked away from Peterborough thinking that, because at the end of the day we still lost. Thirty-five minutes out of . 90 is not enough."
Molby, like the rest of his side, struggled badly in the first half at London Road before finding his second wind in avastly-improved display after the interval.
"What you'll get off the fans is an honest opinion," added Molby who accused Barry Fry's side of conning referee Barry Knight.
"The Peterborough fans in the second half were rightly worried. Our fans gave the players a standing ovation at the end because they thought we did well.
"It's a makeshift team. For half of them it's their first season in the Football League and they've obviously got to learn the hard way.
"Hopefully, we can try and get one or two of the injured, like Walker and Watkin, back. If not, then I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that we can bring in one or two new faces."
SWANSEA City manager Jan Molby reaffirmed his allout attacking policy today in a bid to end their abysmal away form at Peterborough's London Road tomorrow (3).
Having failed to pick up an away point this season, Molby is determined to put Tuesday night's embarrassing defeat against Barry Town behind him and bring Barry Fry's high-flying Peterborough down to earth with a bump.
But Molby knows it will be difficult with Peterborough sporting the best goalscoring record in the Third Division via Jimmy Ouinn (6) and the league's leading marksman Martin Carruthers (8).
"They are the most prolific partnership in the Football League at the moment," explained Molby, "but I'm confident we can go and get a result. To do that we've got to really attack them. We can't afford to sit back and try to defend. We've got to play in their half as often as possible."
Molby has included himself in the 17-man squad for the first time, increasing the possibility of the midfield maestro making his first appearance of the season.
Richie Appleby has also recovered from injury, but there is still a serious doubt over new signing Steve Watkin who sustained a leg injury on his debut against Leyton Orient last Saturday.
"He'll be travelling with us," explained Molby who has recalled Paul Agnew for Joao Moreira. "Steve is determined to play which says a lot for his character and commitment. He'll have a fitness test tomorrow morning, but sometimes you've got to use a bit of common sense for the long term benefit of the team."
While Molby is likely to make one or two changes, Peterborough boss Barry Fry names the same 14 which drew 1-1 with Macclesfield last week.
Not that the flamboyant Fry is taking anything for granted with his side occupying fourth spot following one defeat in nine. "I won't be fooled by Swansea's position," explained Fry. "They were in exactly the same position last season, yet proved good enough for the promotion play-offs."
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