OWEN Coyle told the Wanderers players about his sacking last Tuesday morning at a special team meeting at Euxton.

Kevin Davies revealed the former Whites boss called his players into the dressing room to announce he and assistants Sandy Stewart and Steve Davis, had been relieved of their duties.

“I think it all came as a shock to a lot of players, even though there had been a lot of speculation,” Davies said. “He called a meeting in the dressing room, which was out of the ordinary, but I certainly had no inkling of what he was going to say.

“They are top blokes and we have all enjoyed working under them for the last three years.

“You have to take some responsibility as players for that happening, but we have to move on.

“It won’t be long before they get back into football and I’ll look forward to seeing them doing what they enjoy.”

Davies said he and several other senior players discussed Coyle’s departure after saying goodbye to the manager who is high on the list of favourites to replace Giovanni Trappatoni in the Ireland job.

“He was as positive as ever, came round and shook everyone’s hand and I think most of the boys were in a position to sit down and have a chat with them too,” he said.

“We didn’t train that day. We had the opportunity to go home but there were eight of us due to play golf.

“We weren’t going to go but I said it would give us an opportunity to chat about things, and if someone had something to get off their chest, that would be a time to do it. We went, had a good chat, and we know it’s time to move on now.”