BARRY Fry always knew it was only a matter of time before Trevor Francis replaced him as Blues manager.

Fry got the boot in May 1996 after Blues finished 15th in the First Division, sliding from third place on Boxing Day.

He turned up at a football writers’ function in Birmingham after Blues beat Villa to win the Birmingham Senior Cup not knowing that the board, who were present, had decided to wield the axe.

It was left to Jack Wiseman to eventually tell Fry of his fate.

David Gold has always regretted sacking Fry, and the cack-handed way his departure was handled.

“Alan Jones, the secretary, told me we hadn’t won the Senior Cup for 17 years,” Fry recalled. “I delivered it to the owners, we talked about plans for the next season into the early hours – and then I got the sack!

“The job was always Trevor Francis’s if he wanted it.

“The thing was, I’d signed the blue contract forms to bring in Marcus Stewart and Martin O’Connor and why I was allowed to do that, I don’t know.

“I don’t think Trevor had heard of either of them!

“Marcus ended up proving his worth and Trevor signed Martin from me at Peterborough United in the end, didn’t he?