“THERE’S going to be some trouble, go and get the rest of the lads,” Ryan Passey allegedly said just minutes before he was fatally stabbed in a Stourbridge nightclub.

His childhood friend and fellow footballer Jordan Poole, who had gone with 24-year-old Ryan and their team mate Lee Salt to Chicago’s nightclub on August 5, said he couldn’t remember what had started an altercation with another group of revellers but he was aware of a “vibe for trouble”.

He said the three of them had arrived at the club at around 10.30pm and were “drinking, having a chat and a dance” before they noticed some other friends had arrived at the venue.

Mr Poole told Birmingham Crown Court, where Kobe Murray, aged 19, from Dudley is standing trial for murder, that he was with Ryan and their friend Jon Lynch when he became aware of a group of four to six lads, who he had never seen before.

He said: “You could sense an atmosphere.

“Ryan sent Jon off to get the rest of the lads.

“I don’t remember what was said or what caused any of this, I just remember Ryan throwing a punch. Then he fell to the floor and didn’t get back up.

“I didn’t know what had happened, I just saw Ryan on the floor, unconscious and shaking.”

Stourbridge News: Undated family handout photo issued by West Midlands Police of murder victim Ryan Passey, 24, who was stabbed in the chest at Chicago’s club in Stourbridge.

Jon Lynch told the court Ryan (pictured above) had thrown “one, maybe two” punches in response to a male from the rival group “grabbing and pushing” Mr Poole.

However - Jamie Wyatt, Ryan’s cousin, told the court he hadn’t seen any punches thrown.

He said: “I was told by Jon Lynch that there was a confrontation. I walked over to see if everything was ok and I was a bit surprised.

"I thought there was going to be a fight but I saw Ryan was actually dancing. Jordan was with Ryan and he was doing the same.”

Mr Wyatt said shortly afterwards there was “a bit of pushing” and Ryan had come backwards towards him and fell to the floor.

A statement from Lee Salt, which was read out to the court, said he had been talking to a girl at the time but was aware of “arms flailing about” in a “tussle” that “didn’t last for more than a few seconds”.

Earlier in the day the court heard from accused Kobe Murray's mother Elizabeth.

Tearful Mrs Murray recalled an emotional telephone conversation with her teenaged son, just hours after Ryan Passey was killed at Chicago’s.

She told the jury her son had failed to return home after a night out with friends on August 5 last year, which was “unusual”, and he later called her at around 1.30pm on August 6 from a private number.

“I picked up the phone and nothing was said. Then I heard mom, mom, mom... it seemed to go on forever. Then he said something along the lines of that he was sorry and he had done something silly... something along the lines of that he had messed up. I didn’t know what he was on about. 

“He sounded really upset and was staggering his words, he couldn’t speak.

“He said he didn’t mean to do it and somebody had punched him.

Mrs Murray said her daughter had told her there had been an incident in Stourbridge the night before - where 24-year-old Ryan Passey, from Quarry Bank, was fatally stabbed - which led her to ask her son if he had anything to do with it.

“He said he was sorry and that he’d messed up,” Mrs Murray told the court, before adding that she had dropped her phone in shock, which had cut off the call.

Mrs Murray said she then called her husband, Errol Murray, and asked him to come home, before calling the police, adding: “If Kobe had done something, I wanted him to go and hand himself in.”

Mr Murray told the court that when he got back to the family home in The Broadway, Dudley, his daughter was on the phone to her brother.

“I took the phone from her and I asked him where he was. He wouldn’t tell me at first but after a while he told me but told me not to tell his mom where he was.”

Mr Murray said he went to see his son at a flat in Great Bridge, where he told him he had been punched by Ryan Passey so had retaliated by “lashing out” with a knife that “somebody” had passed to him. 

Mr Murray told the court that as he drove his son to West Bromwich Police Station, he had told him his clothes from the night before had been burned and the knife had been disposed of.

Mr Murray said that his son was not a big drinker and he was not the type to get “drunk and out of hand”.

He said his son had been “gutted” and “in bits” when telling him what had happened and had wished he’d handled the situation differently.

The trial continues.