{"id":350204,"date":"2026-01-03T16:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/350204\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T16:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T16:20:09","slug":"calls-for-prem-club-sackings-after-latest-inevitable-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/350204\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for PREM club sackings after latest ‘inevitable’ defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pressure on Gloucester<\/a> head coach George Skivington intensified on Friday night as supporters vented their anger online following a 25-19 defeat away to Newcastle<\/a> Red Bulls<\/a> in their Gallagher PREM basement battle.<\/p>\n

The result was Newcastle\u2019s first league win of the season after nine outings, a fact that only sharpened the vitriol among the Cherry and Whites\u2019 fanbase. Gloucester showed late fight at Kingston Park, but were largely second best for over an hour against a side rooted to the foot of the table.<\/p>\n

Gloucester have now won just one PREM game in nine attempts this season.<\/p>\n

Online reaction quickly turned from frustration to outright calls for change. RugbyPass transfer guru Neil Fissler was blunt in his assessment, posting: \u201cYou have to wonder how much longer George Skivington gets. Gloucester were awful for 65 minutes and only when Newcastle tired they get anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters echoed that sentiment, with one prominent Gloucester fan account writing: \u201cDecisions need or be made and quickly. The current coaching set-up, in particular George Skivington and Dominic Waldouck<\/a> need to be removed. If not, serious questions need to be asked of Alex Brown<\/a> and others. This has gone on too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all reactions focus solely on the result itself.<\/p>\n

Another supporter argued the writing had been on the wall long before Friday night: \u201cThis loss away at Newcastle, on a cold winter\u2019s Friday night shouldn\u2019t be the reason Skivington and his team at Gloucester may leave. Many other teams have lost there in the past. Tonight was inevitable. The reasons are further back than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others were less forgiving, suggesting a culture of lowered expectations had taken hold at Kingsholm. One post read: \u201cThere\u2019s been a frankly embarrassing level of acceptance by many of complete ineptitude from Skivington and his team (and more senior figures) for a number of years now. People saying it\u2019s the best thing for the club to knuckle down and ensure the club survives. Absolute drivel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another supporter added: \u201cSkivington seems like a great bloke, however, he\u2019s been in the job for five years and we\u2019re in the worst position we\u2019ve been in during the professional era, surely his position is untenable now, and if it\u2019s not what does that say about the club\u2019s ambition or lack [there] of\u201d.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, there is growing expectation that Gloucester may look to install a director of rugby above Skivington rather than make an immediate change, but Friday night\u2019s defeat only amplified the sense that the status quo is running out of road.<\/p>\n

CEO Alex Brown had sought to reassure supporters in an open letter issued earlier in the week, before Friday night\u2019s defeat, admitting recent performances had \u201cfell short of the standards we expect of ourselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

The former Glaws lock described injuries as \u201chugely disruptive\u201d and said results left fans wanting clarity on direction, insisting \u201cthere is a great deal of work going on behind the scenes\u201d. Currently, the Cherry & Whites are without the services of Seb Blake, Will Butler<\/a>, Josiah Edwards Giraud, Caolan Englefield<\/a>, Jack Innard<\/a>, Will Joseph<\/a>, Max Llewellyn<\/a>, Ben Loader<\/a>, Jack Mann<\/a>, Ben Redshaw<\/a>, Rob Russell<\/a>, Jack Singleton<\/a>, Harry Taylor<\/a>, Will Trenholm and Lions<\/a> star Tomos Williams.<\/p>\n

Brown pointed to incoming signings Jac Morgan<\/a>, Dewi Lake<\/a> and Dan Robson<\/a>, accepted the squad had been \u201clighter on experience\u201d, and said the injury situation was \u201clargely unrelated\u2026 very bad luck\u201d. He highlighted academy output as \u201cfundamental\u201d and stressed there was \u201cno lack of commitment\u201d during a difficult period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain united in our ambition to see Gloucester succeed, and we will keep pushing to ensure better days lie ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pressure on Gloucester head coach George Skivington intensified on Friday night as supporters vented their anger online following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-350204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}