Rangers stars speak out on manager

Stafford Rangers' players today faced up to life without Chris Brindley believing their departed boss didn't stand a chance of keeping everyone happy at Marston Road.

Brindley quit the club yesterday, after 22 months of keeping the club afloat and in the Blue Square North on a shoestring budget.

In a parting shot, the 41-year-old laid bare exactly what he was working with when it came to players - a wage bill of under £2,000 a week.

For his last game in charge, a 4-0 defeat at Hinckley last Saturday, the manager named a 16-man squad.

How do fit 16 players into less than £2,000 in the second-tier of non-league football? Ask Brindley.

Still, captain Craig McAughtrie, midfielder Darren Wrack and winger Levi Reid have plenty to thank their former boss for, having been brought out of the footballing wilderness under his supervision.

McAughtrie - a player at Rangers in the heady days of 2002 to 2007 - was rotting in the reserves at league rivals Eastwood before rejoining the club on loan last season, returning permanently to take the armband in the summer.

But the skipper had sensed all was not right with the manager of late.

He said: "You got the impression that Chris wasn't happy in his job and felt like he had been fighting a losing battle, long before I ever came back to the club, with the resources he has had and the expectation from the fans.

"It was pretty obvious that the gaffer felt he didn't have the right amount of backing, but I am gutted to see him go because he's a top bloke.

"It's going to be difficult to pick the players up after this."

Wrack has only been at the club for a month since joining as a free agent, unable to play full-time football until January under the terms of his release from Kettering.

A decade at Walsall and a grounding at Derby County stood for nothing when he found himself on the footballing scrapheap, with Brindley offering a way back into the game as a personal friend.

The two went way back to when Wrack first joined the Saddlers in the late 1990's and lived near Hednesford Town's football ground Keys Park, often popping in for a pint at the Cross Keys pub across the road, where Brindley is still the landlord.

The current unrest at the Banks's Stadium, where manager Chris Hutchings also finds himself under pressure, may have surprised Wrack somewhat.

But nothing has prepared him for the backlash that has formed further down the footballing spectrum at Rangers.

The 34-year-old said: "I have known 'Brinners' for a long time and it's a shock, but it's a difficult job. To a certain degree, there's only so much impact you can have on it.

"If the money was there, there would be different players at the club, I have no doubt about that. He's had his hands tied to a certain extent and I have every sympathy for him.

"I was speaking to someone about Walsall this week and you can understand their fans unrest, but from Stafford's point of view you have got to be realistic.

"It's a sign of the times, it's the day and age that we live in."

Reid was another who has enjoyed the high life at Rangers, even scoring the winning penalty that took the club into non-league's top division from the Blue Square North in 2006.

Life at Marston Road today is very different, but it's Brindley that gave him the chance to come back to his hometown club when he had nowhere else to go last year.

The 26-year-old had dropped out of the full-time in 2008 when his child became ill, but returned and repaid the manager's faith in him by cementing himself in the team.

However, it's never been easy and Reid believes it has only been getting harder for his former boss.

He said: "It's gutting for the players, I can't speak for everyone else but I have always tried my best for Chris.

"It's part and parcel of football today and it doesn't matter where you are - if you have got fans calling for the manager's head, there's trouble.

"If I am honest, it has got worse lately, it comes with the job but they have got to realise he has done well to get a side out with the money we have got."