Worthington ready for his ‘fire-fighting’ job at York

The former Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United full-back was officially unveiled as the Minstermen’s seventh manager in under 10 years yesterday, with the York board moving swiftly after dismissing Gary Mills following Saturday’s 2-0 League Two derby loss to visiting Bradford City.

It is Worthington’s third full-time club appointment following spells in charge of Blackpool and Norwich, which preceded a four-and-a-half year stint managing Northern Ireland, from which the 51-year-old stepped down in October 2011.

After a short break after relinquishing the reins at Windsor Park, Norfolk-based Worthington has stayed involved in football through media work. A number of clubs failed to tempt him back into frontline management until York’s board got in touch following their decision to axe Mills, whose backroom staff of Des Lyttle, Darron Gee and Paul Musselwhite have also departed.

The club’s hierarchy decided to act after York’s winless streak was extended to 11 games with the weekend reverse to the Bantams, which dropped the Minstermen to 18th place, just four points above the drop zone.

Worthington is well aware his overwhelming priority is securing the club’s Football League status.

He said: “Over the last 11 or 12 months I have had a few offers, but they did not feel right for me. They were higher up (the leagues).

“But when I spoke to the chairman (Jason McGill) at great length on Sunday, I thought there was a lot of common ground on how we think. How the board want to run the club is very, very appealing.

“The immediate target is to maintain League Two status over the next 10 games; that is the first hurdle. The plan is to get fifty points as soon as possible. When we can do that, we can look forward.”

Worthington, believed to have signed a rolling contract, will be assisted by Fred Barber, who has left his role as goalkeeping coach at Bury to join up with the Ulsterman, with whom he worked at Blackpool and for Northern Ireland.

Academy manager Stephen Torpey has been promoted to work with the first-team squad alongside Barber and Worthington, whose footballing CV spoke for itself according to chairman McGill, who wasted no time in getting in contact with Worthington’s representatives on Saturday night.

Worthington got Norwich promoted to the top flight and claimed some high-profile victories at Northern Ireland.

His successful fire-fighting mission during a brief spell as caretaker-manager at Leicester at the end of the 2006-07 campaign when he ensured the Foxes staved off the drop was also something that impressed the York board.

McGill, who confirmed funds will be set aside for Worthington to utilise ahead of the emergency loan deadline on March 28, said: “If you feel you are in a precarious position, your thought process is to have someone in mind. Therefore, you do your homework in the background.

“When you have to make the decision, that is when things move at a pace, like what happened on Saturday night and Sunday.

“I was able to get Nigel’s number through a contact that I had and we hit it off straightaway.

“It had to be a quick appointment because we felt we needed somebody who would have an immediate impact.

“We looked at Nigel’s history in taking Norwich into the Premier League over a period of time. Also there was the impact he had at Leicester where his immediate brief was to keep them in the Championship with five games to go and he did that.”

Worthington, who took training yesterday morning, admits he plans to tweak York’s playing style, with his predecessor Mills having steadfastly stuck with a 4-3-3 system and a patient, probing style of football – with mixed results – during 2012-13.

He added: “I like to play high-tempo football, which may be a little different from what the players are used to.

“We will try and add to the good football that has been played here. I like my teams to pass the ball, but at the end of the day, I like to play good football in the right areas of the pitch to try and give us the (best) chance of winning games.

“We have just got to be a little bit more ruthless.”

Michael Ingham and Patrick McLaughlin, both involved in the Northern Ireland set-up, are well known to Worthington, as are Matty Blair and Chris Doig.

Worthington insists he has no quibble with first-choice goalkeeper Ingham, who fell out of favour with Worthington during his time in charge of Northern Ireland and voiced his displeasure at being overlooked on several occasions.