Scott Fry’s rise from our set-piece department to one of the biggest jobs in Britain has felt inevitable for a while, because the numbers spoke for themselves long before Rangers came calling.
City supporters watched a quiet revolution unfold last season. Corners and free kicks went from a hopeful swing into the area to a genuine weapon, something opposition analysts dreaded all week. It was not luck or coincidence.
It was the product of hours of detail, repetition and structure brought in by Scott Fry, and it is no surprise to see a club the size of Rangers decide that they wanted the same advantage.
Fry has become the first dedicated set-piece specialist in the history of Ibrox, appointed to overhaul a department that has been openly criticised by their own supporters. Their record from dead balls has been poor this season and their manager, Danny Rohl, did not dance around the issue when explaining why he wanted our former coach.
“We have Scott Fry now and it was very important for me to get the best man for this part of the game, a lot of goals come from set pieces. If you are drawing a game then if you have a set play coach it gives you a good opportunity to score.
“You have a lot to do and if you have an expert working on set pieces around the clock he will help us a lot. We looked at the data and found a shortlist.
“Scott did really well in the meeting and I am very happy to get him here.”
It is always interesting watching a coach move from City to a club of that stature. Some supporters north of the border have been surprised, but anyone who watched us last season knows exactly why Fry has landed such a role. We scored 30 goals from set pieces in League One, the most in the division, and it became a huge part of our identity.
Those routines were not gimmicks and they were not off the cuff either. They were patterns, movements and triggers that made even tight games swing our way.
Rangers, by contrast, managed only eight goals from similar situations. For a team that monopolises the ball and wins corner after corner, that return is nowhere near good enough, and Rohl has already made it clear he expects that to change.
As if to underline that, Rangers scored from a set-piece this weekend in their 2-1 win against Livingston.
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