Wolverhampton Wanderers today fired head coach Dave Jones after a 1-0 loss to Gillingham this past weekend left the club 19th in the Championship, one season after relegation from the Premier League. There has been a large anti-Jones sentiment on some fan sites, and a couple of weeks ago the Express & Star reported that Jones needed 3 wins in a 4 match stretch to keep his job. He got home wins against Derby and QPR, but bookended them with losses at Nottingham Forest, and Gillingham (The Gillingham loss somehow occurring while the Gills played nearly 80 minutes of the match a man down.) Stuart Gray will take over the team on a caretaker basis, at least through tomorrow's match at Sunderland, though no timetable has been set on appointing a new manager. Early speculation on a replacement in the media focuses on Mickey Adams, who resigned from Leicester earlier this season, and, interestingly enough, Gary Megson, who resigned/was fired by West Brom last week. Other names being thrown around by the E & S, and on fan sites, are Jean Tigana, Gordon Strachan, and Paul Ince. I've also seen little pockets of support behind Glenn Hoddle and Stuart Baxter. While there was a sizable "sack Jones" movement after the poor start to this season, the fact does remain that he got this club to the Promised Land, if only for one season. Jones took over in early January 2001, when Wolves sacked Colin Lee. Wolves finished that season 12th, but came out flying in the 2001-2 term, at one point opening up an 11-point lead for automatic promotion with just 5 weeks in the season. Unfortunately, Wolves could not hold that lead, and West Brom managed to snatch the promotion slot away, forcing Wolves into the playoffs, and a semifinal loss to Norwich. In 2002-3, however, the final step was taken. A great run after the New Year, 2 defeats in 21 League Matches, took Wolves from 10th-place up to 5th place, and another playoff slot. After defeating Reading in a semifinal, Wolves thumped Sheffield United 3-0 in the playoff final to end a 19-year top-flight drought. Unfortunately, it was one-and-done, as Wolves were relegated after one season, though not without some flashes of brillance (a 4-goal second half to stun Leicester, 4-3, and THE upset, 1-0 over Manchester United at Molineux.) Fan, and player expectation was high coming into this season, but Wolves have been stuck near the bottom, flirting with relegation all season. Overall, in 164 League matches, Jones won 62, drew 49, and lost 53. Personally, I thought that Jones should at least get this season to see if he could bring the team up again, but noone could have thought that the season would start this flat. It's unfortunate, and Jones does deserve a lot of credit for what he did, but it's probably the right decision at this time.