Ferguson fired and joins Laws in search of new jobs in New Year
Published:Both Burnley and Preston North End will enter the New Year manager-less after Brian Laws and Darren Ferguson were sacked on Wednesday following a poor first half of the campaign.
Burnley currently sit ninth in the Championship but have been touted as potential promotion candidates all season in the betting market with their price hovering around 16/1 to win the Championship.
But having taken maximum points in just eight of their 22 league games this season, Laws was shown the exit by the Burnley board and Eddie Howe is currently the hot favourite to replace him.
Burnley host Sheffield United in their first match of 2011 on Saturday and are currently 8/11 to win, but the Blades will be looking forward to taking on a club who are manager-less and are a decent price at 4/1 to win.
Just two hours after Laws received his marching orders Ferguson was shown the door by the Preston board, unsurprising considering the Lilywhites are rooted to the foot of the Championship having won just five games this season.
Ferguson had been under pressure for some time and the 3-1 defeat to relegation rivals Middlesbrough was the final straw, leaving Phil Brown, Gary Megson and David Unsworth all in the running for the managerial position.
Preston need an incredible 2011 if they are to stay in the Championship and they open the New Year with a home tie to Derby – a must win if the North End fans are to take any optimism into the New Year.
Preston are 7/5 to beat Derby but the Rams are reeling from Wednesday’s derby defeat to Nottingham Forest and are a decent price at 6/4 to put that behind them and take all three points at Deepdale on Saturday.
A £10 stake on Burnley and Preston winning without managers would return £41.40. New customers can sign up here for a free £10 bet.
