THE precarious nature of life as a football manager has been on show with two departures in three days – but Karl Robinson says he has not feared the sack this season.

Poor runs spelled the end for Chris Powell and Stuart McCall, as Southend United and Scunthorpe United respectively hit the panic button in a bid to avoid relegation.

The speed in the latter case is particularly startling – the Iron were held up as an example for strugglers to follow before they visited United earlier this month.

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It means nine clubs have sacked their managers in Sky Bet League One this season, with Scunthorpe and Bradford doing it twice.

Robinson said: “Rochdale, Bradford and Wimbledon have made changes and not come out of it (the bottom four).

“I saw a statistic the other day that after seven games the drop-off rate is quite significant.

“You do get a resurgence immediately, but long-term you end up finishing lower, because they’re not the manager’s players.

“We don’t know what’s been said and we don’t know what the attitude was like at the club – results aren’t the only reason to get rid of somebody.

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“There’s got to be a feeling around the place that the end is near.

“I remember when I left MK that was certainly the point, it wasn’t right, there wasn’t a good feeling around the place.

“Then you know it’s the right decision to make, but when there’s still an appetite and a unity then it’s the wrong decision to make.

“One thing you can say is Stuart McCall and Chris Powell are two of the best football men in the league.

“They’re two absolute gentlemen.”

Only one club in the division’s bottom seven – Walsall – still have the same manager as they had on the opening day of the campaign.

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Having overseen a side who had spent the majority of the season in the relegation zone before the resurgence this month, Robinson has come under pressure at times.

But with U’s owner Sumrith ‘Tiger’ Thanakarnjanasuth remaining supportive, the head coach insists it has never been a concern.

“No, because there were very clear reasons,” he said.

“If you take the first ten games where we didn’t have a training ground out of it we’d be on the coattails of the top six.

“We had very clear reasons and a lot of injuries that no other team had at that particular time.

“If it was a short-term fix, I’m not the person for that anyway.

“Tiger’s support has been nothing but A1. That’s something we’ll forever be indebted for.

“You say all that and some chairmen would have still made a decision. At the end of the day, they’re the boss

“But I think if you spoke to any of the players there was always a belief that we knew what we were doing.

“I don’t think it was ever something that really worried me, but there will be a decision that has to be made one day and you have to respect the wishes of the board.”