Fleetwood boss critical of sack race

The Saddlers find themselves in the rare position of being between managers when they travel to Highbury this weekend - John Ward in temporary charge at the Bescot.

But Pressley believes more clubs should look at the time given to Dean Smith - who crafted a team capable of challenging for the League One title before departing for Championship Brentford.

Smith, along with Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, who left Burton for QPR last week, is one of the few League One managers to have flown the nest under their own terms this season.

And Pressley is full of admiration for him and his former chairman as he prepares for a second showdown with the Saddlers in as many months.

"He did an outstanding job," said Pressley, whose Fleetwood team were dumped out of the FA Cup in the first round by Smith's side.

"It's an example of what a number of clubs have done.

"MK Dons progressed through League One by showing faith in their manager - even in difficult periods they remained constant and allowed him to build the club.

"Eventually they got promotion.

"Walsall are a club like that.

"They had stability at the top for three or four years.

"Every year they have been able to improve, they've had good stability in their squad and they are reaping the rewards of that.

"They're an example to clubs that sometimes you have to allow managers to go through difficult periods because the reality is they are the right people for the job."

Pressley was quick to put down other chairman who haven't been so forgiving - criticising clubs such as Swansea for what he called 'knee jerk reactions'.

"It's incredible," said the Fleetwood boss.

"I was reading on Gary (Monk) that he took Swansea to their highest finish last year, August 30 they beat Manchester United and went into the top four.

"11 games later he loses his job.

"Unfortunately that's the reality of football.

"I don't think it's right, there's far too many knee jerk reactions.

"But I'm not going to change anything - we have to accept as managers that's the nature of the industry."