Anyone in the Valley Parade press room a couple of weeks ago would have seen a proper old-school exchange between managers.

Ronnie Moore threw in jibes about the “lino” needing a visit to Specsavers after Tom Adeyemi’s controversial late City winner against Rotherham.

Peter Jackson meanwhile laughed it off and told his rival to “read the score in the paper”.

It was knock-about stuff between two experienced football people who go way back.

Moore, though naturally gutted, did not appear to be a manager on the edge.

A fortnight on and the announcement came out that the Millers and Moore had parted company.

At the same time, Port Vale are seeking a new gaffer after removing the unpopular Jim Gannon.

He had been in charge for only 15 games since replacing fans’ favourite Micky Adams.

Yet Gannon’s departure came as much less of a shock.

The Vale supporters never took to him and he alienated Adams’ squad so quickly that a deputation of senior players sought out the chairman for a private moan within his first month.

Then there was the “bus-gate” drama, when both Gannon and his assistant Geoff Horsfield spectacularly fell out on the way to Aldershot.

Gannon’s superior manner – he was convinced the team were not good enough to play the 4-4-2 formation that had served them so well previously – seemed to get up everyone’s nose.

His programme notes for City’s visit last month read like a thesis from a university professor.

“I have always found empowerment with education to be a real potent mix for developing players,” he wrote. For his dressing-room audience, those words might as well have been in Latin.

It’s no wonder if there were mixed messages out on the pitch.

Gannon’s ill-fated stay reached its nadir at Accrington Stanley last Saturday. Vale lost 3-0, he slipped out the back door flanked by security and one of his loan signings had to be restrained from wading into the away support.

The defeat also dropped Vale beneath the play-off places for the first time this season. They were sat in the third automatic promotion slot when Adams left for his boyhood heroes Sheffield United.

Rotherham, too, have enjoyed life in the top reaches of League Two. Moore’s side had been firmly embedded in the top seven since the opening day.

But a run of just two points from the last five games did for the former Millmoor favourite.

Moore could point to Stuart McCall’s oft-repeated line about fine margins with the Adeyemi call at Valley Parade. There was no similar hiding place after the 5-0 gubbing by local rivals Chesterfield.

Moore has always been good value for post-match quotes but his pop at the players along the lines of “if I had a gun, I’d shoot them all” seemed ill-advised on live TV.

Chairman Tony Stewart, who has pumped big bucks into getting Rotherham up, was understood to be less than impressed.

By all accounts, Stewart’s patience had been running thin since that Valley Parade defeat. Embarrassment in front of a national audience was the final straw.

So the only bullet went Moore’s way to end a second stint in charge that could not repeat the double promotion success of his first.

Stewart expected a better return than 36 wins and 30 losses – even if one of those defeats was in last season’s play-off final.

But this week’s double whammy illustrates how the finger on the trigger can get just as twitchy at the top of the table as the bottom.

We are now entering that period that Sir Alex Ferguson famously coined “squeaky bum time”. With ten games left, there is all to gain – and lose.

The stakes are high, whether it’s Jackson trying to earn permanent residency at Valley Parade or the division’s long-time pacesetters hanging on to the back of the play-off field.

There are never too many safe seats in management, that most precarious of occupations. From now on in, the risks will grow even higher.