Chairman impressed with recent work put in by Steve Lovell and his staff.
Chairman Paul Scally said he couldn’t ignore the “tremendous job” Steve Lovell had done as he decided who to choose as the club’s new manager.
Lovell was unveiled to the media on Thursday and the Chairman admitted that although Steve wasn’t on his radar at first, the positive performances he witnessed meant he had no choice but to reconsider.
Speaking exclusively to the club’s official website he said: “I think he’s done a tremendous job in the last five or six weeks under some fairly difficult conditions, namely that I’ve not really been around in the last three weeks to give him the support he probably would have normally got because of this court case we have been fighting.
“What’s been good about Steve, apart from the fact that he’s playing some lovely football and clearly the players have bought into the way he wants to play and have great respect for him, he’s taken a lot of pressure off me because I haven’t had to worry about the management scenario.
“I’ve been hugely impressed with the way Steve has gone about his work. There’s nothing he doesn’t know about the club and sometimes the obvious answer is under your nose and you don’t see it and that’s the case with Steve.
“He hasn’t been demanding, difficult or persuasive. He has just gone about his job and whatever he’s done has probably surprised a lot of us on the terraces.
“He wasn’t really on my radar, I was fairly clear who I was to go for but Steve has done such a remarkable job it would have been foolish not to recognise that and only a fool could not have seen what he has done with the team and how he’s turned things round.
“I’m actually looking forward now to the games ahead with some confidence and belief that we’re going to win more games than we don’t win which is not a feeling that any of us have had, as fans, for the last 12 months.”
The Chairman, who will be in the stands at Walsall on Saturday, revealed that if the club have a successful end to the season then Lovell has every chance of staying on as manager.
He added: “I think the two away results at Rotherham and Peterborough were pretty impressive. The performances against Wigan, Northampton and even the second half against Bury were very good.
“If it’s not broken then don’t fix it is very applicable in this case. If Steve does well this season it will be only fair to allow him to continue and give him a longer contract.
"Let’s just get behind him now and give him the tools to do it which is the support from the terraces.”