Wednesday part company with Brian Laws

As predicted by The Sack Race last week, the pressure has begun to take its toll on managers in The Championship with Sheffield Wednesday manager Brian Laws becoming the latest casualty after yet another defeat at the weekend, going down 3-0 at Leicester, making it four straight defeats and five games without a goal for The Owls.

Laws had been in charge at Hillsborough since November 2006 and had won just 52 of the 154 games that he was in charge, losing 60 and drawing 42. However, despite Laws' limited success, Wednesday Chairman, Lee Stafford, said the manager had done well with the lack of resources, he stated "Brian Laws has done a very good job at Sheffield Wednesday in the light of the low level of resources at his disposal in the first two years of his time with the club." Before adding "A very positive legacy has been left by Brian in terms of the quality of the playing squad we now have at Sheffield Wednesday. We will now focus our attentions on getting the right manager to help the team push up the league in the short term and make us competitive for a return to the Premier League in the long term."

Wednesday's Youth Academy boss, Sean McAuley, has taken temporary charge of the first team and could be in charge of the home game against Swansea on Saturday, however, the early front runner in the race to replace Laws on a full time basis is current Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington who has already thrown his name in to the hat and is prepared to walk away from International management to return to domestic management at the club where he spent over 11 years as a player and made 334 appearances. Worthington is sure to be a popular choice with Owls fans with his connections to the club but also has experience getting teams promoted from The Championship after guiding Norwich City to promotion in 2004. The 11/4 currently available with Skybet about him getting the job looks like cracking value and is sure to be a popular bet in the coming days.

Next Sheffield Wednesday Manager Odds
Nigel Worthington 11/4
Sean McAuley 7/2
Steve Cotterill 8/1
George Burley 8/1
Paul Hart 10/1
Darren Ferguson 12/1
Paul Jewell 12/1
Gary McAllister 16/1
Peter Taylor 16/1
John Sheridan 20/1

Odds courtesy of Skybet and correct as of Monday 14/12/09