KEITH Hill became the sixth Bolton Wanderers manager since the war to fail to complete a full calendar year in charge.

The Boltonian lasted 286 days and took charge of 33 games, which puts him in fifth spot in the club’s shortest-ever reigns.

Jimmy McIlroy’s 18-day stint will almost certainly never be beaten, the Northern Ireland international taking charge in August 1970 but discovering that the club would have to accept offers for any of his first team squad to pay the bills.

His permanent successor Jimmy Meadows fared little better after switching from Blackpool in January 1971 and lasting just 11 weeks, during which time he had to sell players like Terry Wharton and Paul Fletcher. He won just one of 16 games and also had the likes of Roy Greaves, John Ritson and John Hulme hand in transfer requests.

Sammy Lee’s 160 days in charge at Bolton came directly after Sam Allardyce had led the club to success in the Premier League.

His reign was characterised by a huge turnover in players and staff, and eventually by a dressing room dispute with senior players such as Gary Speed and Kevin Nolan.

Roy McFarland is the only other manager to last fewer than 200 days in the hotseat, his tenure coming to an end at the very start of 1996 after he had initially been placed in joint charge with Colin Todd in Wanderers’ first-ever stint in the Premier League.

Hill was appointed on August 31, 2019 and won six of his 33 games. The winning percentage of 18.18 puts him just below McFarland as the least-successful post-war manager, although there were some mitigating circumstances to be taken into consideration, given the club had just a handful of senior players on his arrival and had only recently emerged from administration.

 

Post-war Wanderers managers with the lowest win percentage

(10 games or more)

Jimmy Meadows 6.25 %

Roy McFarland – 17.86 %

Keith Hill – 18.18 &

Sammy Lee – 21.43 %

Neil Lennon – 22.5 %

Charlie Wright – 25.0 % 

 

Post-war Wanderers managers with reigns of 12 months or less

Jimmy McIlroy (pictured) 18 days

Jimmy Meadows 107 days

Sammy Lee 160 days

Roy McFarland 196 days

Keith Hill 286 days

Charlie Wright 302 days

George Mulhall 365 days