AND so the Mick McCarthy era ended with a bang - not a metaphorical one relating to a big result but the manager’s fist on his desk as he announced his immediate departure while stomping out of his post-match press conference following Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over Barnsley.

It was a suitably melodramatic way to end what had become a bit of a soap opera.

Had McCarthy been followed out of the media room by EastEnders-style drums it would have been wholly appropriate.

It always seemed a strange decision to keep him in charge despite having announced that he would move on when his contract is up at the end of the season and the 59-year-old was clearly very uncomfortable with the situation.

While it was the booing from a section of the crowd after he substituted impressive but tiring debutant Barry Cotter on which he was focusing his ire as he walked out - the departure following Tuesday’s game had been pre-planned whatever happened during the match - it was events at Brentford at the weekend which were ultimately the straw which broke the camel’s back.

Despite McCarthy’s exit at the end of the season having already been confirmed, the vitriol and abuse aimed towards him both during and after the Bees game hit more vicious levels.

Why did he need to put up with that for another four weeks?

It was a sad way for his five and a half years at the club to end, a management tenure very much of two halves.

When he took charge on November 1, 2012 the Blues were bottom of the Championship and looked odds-on to drop into League One.

Having kept Town up that season, there was year-on-year progress in the following couple of seasons in which the Blues finished ninth and then sixth in 2014/15 before losing in the play-off semi-finals to Norwich City.

Hitting the top six with a budget more in line with the bottom six was a significant achievement but would mark the high point in McCarthy’s time at Town.

The next season would see the start of the second half of his spell and the deterioration in his relationship with supporters which ultimately led to his departure.

While the Blues finished seventh, frustrations with his style of play were growing, with results achieved by strangling the life out of games rather than via the attractive football traditionally associated with the club.

That discontent would grow over the following two seasons with McCarthy sniping back at supporters’ criticisms in his press conferences and many believing a manager they saw as arrogant and boorish was going out of his way to stir the situation further rather than rising above it in the manner they would expect from a Town boss.

The Blues’ poor results in cup ties added to fans’ vexations - McCarthy never won in the FA Cup and was victorious only three times in the League Cup - while fielding very much weakened sides and January 2017’s embarrassing live-on-national-TV defeat to then-National League Lincoln increased already growing calls for his exit.

With hindsight, the end of last season, after the Blues had finished 16th, their lowest position for 58 years, was probably the time for a change.

But McCarthy belligerently stayed on and five wins on the trot at the start of this season temporarily quietened things down.

However, it was inevitable that a drop in form would see the fractiousness and calls for his departure return and the schism between McCarthy and supporters grew ever wider, as his ‘celebration’ at Norwich illustrated.

Portman Road crowds have dropped to their lowest levels for almost two decades and ultimately it would have been commercial suicide for the club to have offered him new terms.

McCarthy realised it was time to move on anyway and there’s little doubt he’ll get another Championship job with better resources and a greater chance of returning to the Premier League soon enough.

Owner Marcus Evans has said he’ll sensibly take time before naming a successor, probably not until the summer.

In the meantime, stalwart academy coach Bryan Klug will take charge.

Whoever eventually gets the nod - and it looks wide open at the moment - won’t have an easy job.

The Blues are now very much one of the division’s have-nots and they will have to unify a currently divided club.

The end of the McCarthy soap opera is a welcome first step but it is merely the first of a long and difficult process of renewal and rebuilding.