IT WAS a 'blink and you miss it' chapter in City's season for Brad Jones.

Ten weeks after being heralded as the keeper capture that Phil Parkinson had been patiently tracking all summer, the Australian had packed his bags and left the building.

City had talked up the duel between Jones and Ben Williams for the starting jersey along the lines of how Jon McLaughlin and Matt Duke regularly chopped and changed in 2012-13.

And that, as they made clear, seemed to work out pretty well in the end.

But the competition, as such, lasted only three games; by which time Jones had dropped a clanger at Colchester and Parkinson's patience snapped.

Williams was restored the following weekend and has done everything since to justify his recall.

In the meantime, Jones has gone from a Liverpool goalkeeper to one who couldn't cut the mustard in League One.

He had rejected Championship interest – Charlton were certainly in the running – to take a deal at City.

The one-year contract gave him the opportunity to prove himself as a number one after five years chiefly spent on the Anfield bench.

In the end, it proved a convenient get-out for both parties when they agreed to shake hands and walk away this week.

It's fair to assume that Jones would have been one of the highest earners on the City pay-roll – even if it was a fraction of what he had been raking in from Liverpool.

Jones, according to Parkinson, found it tough to get his head round the fact he was not a starter in the third tier. Everyone agreed there was no point in having a well-paid reserve growing more frustrated on the sidelines.

By calling it quits now, and the player effectively writing off what he could have claimed for the rest of the season, that saves the club from being saddled with the possibility of another Aaron Mclean-style scenario.

Jones is free to explore his options before the January transfer window and is expected to look overseas.

The brief episode was a mistake but, at least by dealing with it early, not as costly for City as it could have been.