Stuart Maynard was in his van when he received the call that would forever change his life.
Over the previous three years Maynard had been balancing being manager of Wealdstone in the National League with his other role, as a senior engineer at BT.
Rave reviews poured in for the 44-year-old as he repeatedly overachieved with the Stones – who at the time were one of only two part-time clubs left in the top tier of non-League football – and there were murmurings of interest in his services from EFL teams for some time.
When the call came, it was Wealdstone chairman Rory Fitzgerald, informing him that high-flying League Two side Notts County had made an approach.
‘It happened so quickly,’ Maynard tells Mail Sport. ‘Within the space of 24 hours we were up at Notts County meeting the owners and the director of football and signing.
‘From the minute I gave up playing I always wanted to get into management and make it a full-time job. So I could never turn the opportunity down, especially after chatting to the owners.’
Stuart Maynard has led Notts County up to second in League Two, seven points off the top
The 44-year-old was a non-League player and assistant coach until getting his chance in 2021
Maynard was an apprentice at Watford, and after a brief trial at Dutch side Groningen spent his entire 12-year playing career in non-League. He was No 2 to now-Barnet boss Dean Brennan at four clubs across nine years until his big chance came at Wealdstone in February 2021.
During that time, Maynard racked up 19 years of experience fixing WiFi boxes for BT, but he was now taking on an altogether different challenge.
Given the perilous nature of football management, were they ever any doubts?
‘It was a difficult decision with my wife and daughter,’ says Maynard, who was spared having to serve a notice period by BT. ‘My daughter is going through her GCSEs but it was a decision we always knew was going to be made and my wife knew I’ve always wanted to go full-time.
‘You’re walking away from a pension – and BT is almost known as a job for life – but I always backed myself if an opportunity came to go and give it a go.’
Just over a year on and Maynard’s belief in his ability has paid off, with County – who are owned by Christoffer and Alexander Reedtz, the Danish brothers behind statistical football analysis company Football Radar – second in League Two, hunting down leaders Walsall who had threatened to run away with the division. They sit seven points behind with a game in hand.
Last Saturday’s victory over Morecambe was their fifth in six games and the mood around the world’s oldest football club is buoyant, although it wasn’t always this way.
When Maynard arrived last January Notts were sixth, but their quest for a second successive promotion had stalled following nine defeats in 15 matches. And it proved to be a turbulent introduction to full-time football for Maynard as the Magpies’ push for League One continued to fall apart.
Maynard reshuffled County’s defence and has turned them into an extremely solid outfit
A run of five wins and 11 losses from their remaining 19 matches saw them meander to 14th place and the new manager already faced pressure, with ‘Maynard Out’ banners in the crowd.
‘It was difficult coming in when we took the job,’ he adds. ‘They had been on a bad run but were still in a really good league position.
‘From the outside looking at the league position, even the fans to a degree, you’re thinking we should be up there and stay up there. But defensively we just weren’t good enough to cope and we knew we had to get to the summer and reshuffle.’
Maynard knew something had to change and despite losing the talismanic Macaulay Langstaff, labelled the ‘non-League Haaland’ after scoring 71 goals in 96 games for the club, he underwent an aggressive recruitment drive in the off-season.
Fourteen players were brought in, including a new goalkeeper in Alex Bass from Sunderland. This has helped Maynard turn what was League Two’s leakiest defence into the second-tightest this time around, with Bass’ 12 clean sheets instrumental to the transformation.
Instead of relying on Langstaff, who has scored just once in the Championship with Millwall since joining last summer, the goals have been more shared around this season, led by Gambian international Alassana Jatta (17 goals) and the evergreen David McGoldrick (13), still firing them in at 37.
The latter’s goal to put County 2-0 up at Gillingham earlier this month is well worth a watch – latching on to a loose ball, beating a man and then dinking the ball high over the onrushing goalkeeper from the edge of the area.
The passion and attention to detail of Maynard, who takes a forward-thinking approach with a key focus on data, is evident throughout our conversation.
Gambia striker Alassana Jatta has scored 17 goals this season to fire County’s promotion push
David McGoldrick continues to find the net regularly at the age of 37, hitting 13 so far this term
The County boss cites Graham Taylor – who was Watford manager when Maynard was breaking through as a player – and Kenny Jackett as his coaching inspirations, while he’s keen to take all he can from the best managers in the game.
The free-flowing style Maynard implemented at Wealdstone has been replicated in the Midlands, but there is also a focus on being unpredictable and continually evolving.
And, most of all, he is relishing the opportunity to do what he loves with more time and backing.
‘When I was at Wealdstone, if we got in at three in the morning after a game I was up at six to go to work,’ he explains. ‘I had to plan the year around booking annual leave on different days for matches and training so it was very tricky, but BT were as supportive as they could be.
‘We used to help lads individually but it was very difficult with the limited time we had, as it was all based on trying to improve as a collective.’
Under Maynard, Wealdstone competed with and often outperformed larger clubs, while playing attractive, possession-based football on a limited budget.
In his first full season, he helped them to 16th in the National League in 2022, the club’s highest finish for 36 years. But it didn’t stop there and the season after they were briefly top before settling in midtable.
‘I believed in the style,’ he says. ‘We wouldn’t have been able to cope if we went toe-to-toe with some of these clubs who were signing better players with better physical attributes and athleticism, as well as full-time training.
Macaulay Langstaff’s move to Millwall was a huge blow but County’s players share the goals
County are pushing to go back up to the third tier for the first time in 10 years
‘Sometimes we made individual errors where the lads probably weren’t as good as those they were up against, but the group bridged the gap very well.’
While Maynard seems destined to keep on progressing in the game, for now his focus turns to Thursday night’s clash at promotion rivals Port Vale, with Darren Moore’s side just four points behind his team.
It begins a crunch run of eight games over the next month which Notts hope will set them on their way to promotion, and a return to the third tier after a decade away.
‘In pre-season we set a points total that we’ve kept in-house,’ he says. ‘We believe if we get to that we’ll have success this season, which is trying to get promoted.
‘The division as a whole has become a lot tougher and I think that’s why it’s so tight right now. Walsall have probably been the most consistent and that’s why they’re clear and then there’s a pack of us behind that are all fighting in and around it.
‘It’ll all go all the way to the wire this season.’
Who’d be a manager?
When Derby announced they had sacked boss Paul Warne last Friday following eight successive defeats, his dismissal again brought into stark focus how perilous the industry of football management is.
Warne’s dismissal means the Rams will be the 32nd club in the 92 to change their boss since the season began, while just 40 coaches have been in their role for more than 12 months.
Paul Warne’s exit made Derby already the 32nd club in the top four divisions to sack their manager this season
And don’t expect the churn to slow down anytime soon, with Warne’s replacement likely to be announced imminently when John Eustace swaps a play-off push with Blackburn for a relegation battle with the Rams.
In all, just 21 of the 92 managers have been in their job for more than two years, although Harrogate Town’s Simon Weaver is a shining light of longevity at the top of the tree with a monumental 15 years and 264 days in charge.
Crawley’s torrid luck finally turns
It’s not been much fun to support Crawley this season, with the League One side 22nd in the table following last season’s promotion.
They’ve also seen manager Scott Lindsay depart to MK Dons, while several key players have been prized away.
Junior Quitirna celebrates making it 2-1 on Tuesday night as Crawley finally found a way to win
But, Rob Elliott’s side have been on the receiving end of some remarkable bad luck, with Saturday’s 4-3 defeat at Bolton coming via a 99th-minute own goal as Crawley threw away a 3-1 lead.
That loss came amid several other astonishing results, including a 4-4 draw with fellow strugglers Exeter having been 4-1 up, while they conceded four late goals to lose 5-3 against relegation rivals Shrewsbury in October.
And it doesn’t stop there. They’ve lost 4-3 to Peterborough in the league, 4-3 to Lincoln in the FA Cup second round and – thanks to a 96th-minute goal – 4-3 to AFC Wimbledon in the EFL Trophy.
So, it was only fitting they ignited their survival push with an impressive 3-1 win against Stevenage on Tuesday night after goals in the 87th and 94th minute.
