Wolverhampton Wanderers chief executive Jez Moxey has admitted that the board sacked Mick McCarthy in an attempt to keep the club in the Premier League.
McCarthy was relieved of his duties with the club in the relegation zone, having collected 21 points from 25 matches.
"It is with a heavy heart that we made this decision this morning," Moxey told Sky Sports News. "The thought process is when you look back over the last 22 matches, where we've only picked up 14 points, we honestly looked ourselves in the mirror and thought that unless we made a change there was a sense of inevitably about our plight.
"We couldn't just not act. The time had come where we had to make a change."
Moxey also revealed that the club hope to have a new manager in charge in time for the club's next match against Newcastle United.