 He became caretaker manager of the first team after the sacking of Billy Davies in March 2014.During his temporary reign he handed debuts to Ben Osborn, Dimitar Evtimov and Stephen McLaughlin, as well as a league debut to Dorus de Vries, before returning to his role as Academy manager whilst Stuart Pearce took over as first team manager.He was handed a second spell as caretaker manager of the club after the departure of Philippe Montanier in January 2017.