It was not the run of nine successive defeats which ended John Sheridan's time at Notts County. Instead, according to chairman Alan Hardy, it was the former Ireland international's abuse of referee Eddie Ilderton during Notts County's loss to Wycombe Wanderers three weeks prior to his sacking.
On December 10th, Notts County lost 2-0 at home to Wycombe. It was a game where Sheridan felt a number of crucial decisions - including a sending off and a disallowed goal - went wrongly against his side.
Sheridan was sent to the stands after he told Ilderton, ' You’re fucking shit, my kids aren’t going to get any fucking Christmas presents because of fucking you' and a minute later called fourth official Matthew Donohue, 'A fucking cunt. A cunt.'
10 days after the game, Sheridan was given a five-game ban by the FA, but it was not until last week that quotes from both the referee and fourth official, contained in the report from the disciplinary hearing, surfaced in the media.
Notts County today released a statement from Alan Hardy clarifying why Sheridan was sacked on January 2nd. That decision came after a 4-0 defeat to Cambridge United.
I wish to make it clear that this sort of behaviour by any employee of this club will not be tolerated.
It was our decision to terminate the contract based on what I read in the referee's report regarding the incident. This is a family-friendly club which aims to be a pillar of the local community.
Comments of the type made by Mr Sheridan were utterly appalling and wholly unacceptable, completely undermining the community spirit and focus we are striving to develop here.
In light of the recent disclosure of the referee's report, I thought it appropriate to communicate the exact reasons behind the course of action we took.
Considering how 'appalling' Hardy believes Sheridan's behaviour was, it's certainly strange that he waited until three weeks following the Wycombe game and two weeks after the disciplinary hearing to sack him as manager.
Though Sheridan was serving a five-game ban at the time, he was still in charge of team affairs for those games. The Notts County website reports him 'making changes' for games. He also conducted interviews as manager.
