UK Edition
'Perhaps I am the wrong guy for football': Notts County owner Alan Hardy faces up to club's relegation from Football League
It is the quiz question that is no more. Who are the world’s oldest Football League club?
For the first time in their 157-year history the team who can claim to have inspired Juventus to adopt their famous black and white stripes will be plying their trade in non-league next season.
Sitting in an empty away dugout at a blustery County Ground with the taunts of his own supporters still ringing in his ears, Alan Hardy, the much-maligned Notts County owner, had already begun his inquest into what he describes as ‘the worst six months of my life.’
How the agony of missing out on their dream of promotion to League One via a play-off semi-final defeat had turned into the nightmare of relegation in the space of less than a year.
How investing his personal fortune to save County from possible extinction and bank-rolling three failed managers in one sorry season had seen the interior design company Hardy spent 31 years building up placed into administration.
How he is being forced to sell the club to a South African consortium to prevent the taxman winding them up.
All these questions were racing through Hardy’s mind as he tried to console his crying children after relegation was confirmed by defeat at Swindon following goals from Kaiyne Woolery and a Theo Robinson brace to cancel out Kane Hemmings’ penalty.
“There has been talk that the owners want me to stay on as chairman. That was a possibility at 3 o’clock. I am not sure it was at 5 o’clock,” admitted a visibly shaken Hardy. “Perhaps I am the wrong guy for football. It is just a nightmare.”
A nightmare manager Neil Ardley does not expect County to wake from any time soon.
“Anyone who thinks that we will just bounce straight back can think again. There are some tough times ahead for this club,” warned Ardley. Whether he or Hardy will be there to see them is open to debate.