Former Blues defender David Stride has been sacked as manager of non-league Bashley after less than two months in charge.
Stride, who made 35 appearances for the club between 1978-1980, was appointed as manager on 17 June - but lost the only two pre-season friendlies he was in charge for.
And the 57-year-old was left fuming after his farcical 40 day stint in charge, as he felt the club had already lined up a replacement weeks earlier.
"It's absolute codswallop. The club already had someone in mind to replace me, but waited two weeks before telling me," Stride told BBC Sport.
"I've got no hard feelings, but sadly the club weren't man enough to tell me earlier
"I was given the guarantee I'd be left alone for a season to take sole charge of football matters, but I'm gone after just two games," Stride added.
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The sudden U-turn from Bashley seems like to have resulted from new chairman Tim Allen, who took up his role after the appointment of Stride.
But the club have insisted that it was the two poor results which convinced them that Stride wasn't the right man for the job.
"We made a tough decision to change things around now rather than the possibility of having more upheaval during the season," chairman Allan said.
