It's not that knowing where to start with the Alan McLoughlin saga is tricky, it's knowing when to start. I was going to have my say on Friday but the Pompey statement suggested we hadn't known the full story.

Now, with Macca an ex-employee of PFC, it seems that maybe we did. Or did we? Until we hear from the man himself, and I hope in time we do, it's a job to be 100 per cent clear on who's said what to who, when they said and why they said it.

Anyway, on the basis that I could be waiting forever, this seems as good a time as any to try to analyse Maccagate.

My first reaction to Thursday night's news that the Irishman was on his way was one of surprise - major surprise. I hadn't seen it coming at all - I don't think anyone had. I wasn't expecting a change of manager following the latest defeat, at Tranmere, but nor did I see a coach being axed.

It's unusual, you have to admit. When a team are under-performing, at whatever level of football, it's generally - rightly or wrongly - the manager who goes. Not always, but nearly always. Sometimes a coach or two will go with him, sometimes they'll stay and be the interim person or people in charge, and sometimes - as Macca has with Guy Whittingham and Richie Barker - they'll survive a change at the top unscathed.

I can't profess to know the finer details of Macca's role on the training ground or in the dugout, nor Paul Hardyman's, but he did seem quite hands-on. He was often on the touchline, clipboard in hand, issuing orders and making notes, and the brief post-match dressing-room footage we saw from Aldershot suggested that, as in his days as a goalscoring midfielder with the Blues, he wasn't backward in coming forward or launching the odd attack.

Whatever Macca's role, and howver well he was doing it, either Andy Awford or the board - perhaps both - wanted to shake up the backroom set-up and Macca was the fall guy. Awford has now come out and suggested it was his decision. To quote the manager directly from the club statement: 'I had a difficult conversation with Alan last week in which I told him I wanted to change things around.'

Some suspect that, despite what Awford says, it was the board's decision. Some think Awford was told he had to act to save his own skin. Certainly the board being behind the move was the initial suspicion - one that prompted Paul Walsh to launch an astonishing attack on the 'lunatics' in the boardroom who he reckoned didn't have a clue how to run a club. His railing against 'punters with a few quid' who were now in control of the club was over the top and an insult to those who did more than almost anyone last year to ensure PFC didn't become an ex-football club.

I wonder who Walsh thinks is better-placed to run the club? One of the previous owners who took the club into administration, perhaps, or one who didn't actually exist? The PST lot may be inexperienced, just like Awford is as a manager, but what was, and what is, the alternative? Perhaps Walsh would have liked someone like Keith Harris to come riding into Fratton with his grand promises, or would have preferred to see Balram Chainrai given another chance to prove he really had fallen in love with Pompey?

Anyway, Walsh's words are only a sub-plot to the current main one, and that is that Pompey have parted company with another man held in high esteem by the fans. Had they handled it differently (ie better), it might still have upset plenty but would surely have caused fewer ructions among supporters.

In an ideal world, Awford would have come to his decision, told McLoughlin or agreed on a different role for him, then announced himself that Macca was no longer on the first-team coaching staff. Instead we have had a messy few days that has left a nasty taste in the mouth and has left McLoughlin probably not wanting to come anywhere near Fratton Park again.

I'm not alone in hoping he gets fixed up with another good coaching job soon - he deserves it. Many like me will always remember his winning goal against Forest, his hat-trick against Blackburn and many, many more goals, assists and MoM performances.

What we don't know yet is how Awford plans to work post-Macca. Presumably another coach will be joining him and Hardyman, but who will it be and what type? Much has been said that a coach with experience of this level of football is needed, but is League Two football really that different to the Championship, League One or Conference game? Football's football, as far as I can see.

I've said before this season and I'll say it again now - I have faith in Andy Awford to turn this squad into one who are in with a sniff of promotion. Amid all that's happened in recent days, some seem to have forgotten we're 12th in the table and not a thousand points behind those in the play-off zone. This season has been frustrating so far because of the away form - form that needs improving sharpish - but it has not been a disaster.

In wishing Macca well and wishing Pompey hadn't made such a pig's ear of a backroom reshuffle, we should get behind Awfs and the board and keep faith with their attempts to get PFC moving in the right direction.

I know we can't forever live with the motto 'at least we have a club' but it was only 20 months ago that we were given the chance to start again. It's not been the smoothest ride since, but this is Pompey and they/we don't really do smooth rides. Hold on for dear life and those punters with a few quid, with the help of a new coach in Awford's backroom team, might just start to deliver.

STEVE BONE

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