In the first boardroom of the series, Lord Sugar emphasises the simplicity of the task before asking the teams about their chosen team names and seeing how the Project Managers faired.

Lord Sugar is interested to hear that none of the boys were willing to put themselves forward for the Project Manager role on Phoenix and is impressed with Nick for stepping forward. He is less impressed with the boys’ designs stating, “you can have the greatest margin in the world but in the end if the punter doesn’t want to buy your product its meaningless isn’t it?”

Lord Sugar next moves his attention to the girls, and is bewildered at Jenna’s explanation of the origin of the team name Sterling, “I actually dreamt it the night before, my friend gave it to me in a dream.” The girls’ designs go down well however Gabrielle’s management style is questioned by Jane who explains that she had taken charge of the finances after nobody else did, “it just needed to be done.”

Then it’s times for the all important numbers:

Sterling had total sales of £690.60 with a total spend of £475.80 so a total profit of £214.80

Phoenix had total sales of £1015.60 with a total spend of £399.40 so a total profit of £616.20

Phoenix are treated to an art inspired reception with canapés and cocktails at the house whilst the girls are left to battle it out in the first showdown of the series.

Back in the boardroom Jane is quick to blame Project Manager Gabrielle’s preoccupation with design for their failings: “from my point of view the guys were very focused on their margins, focused on how many products they were going to sell at the end of the day.” Karren Brady retorts, “that’s called strategy”, to which Jane replies, “I know that and I’m saying we didn’t do that.”

Lord Sugar next highlights the sales figures, pointing out that the team who were sent to London Zoo sold a lot less product. After the girls outline the long walk that Bilyana led them on to find local shops, costing them precious sales time, Nick Hewer informs Lord Sugar of their behaviour to the retailer, “the shopkeeper was so affronted by their sales approach that she wouldn’t buy anything, she couldn’t stand being cornered by a pack of baying hyenas.”

Attention is also drawn to Katie, with questions asked about her involvement in the task and Nick Hewer commenting, “I thought you were missing really.”

Gabrielle decides to bring Bilyana and Katie in for the final boardroom exchange and back in the boardroom she explains her reasons, “Katie because maybe you did pull your weight but I myself did not see that and I’m just going on what everyone else has told me, and Bilyana for making everyone waste a lot of time.”

Lord Sugar notices there is a general despondency towards Bilyana and asks her what the reason could be. She says that she feels that it was because she wasn’t as loud as the other girls and explains how she approached the task by analysing the risks, to which he responds, “Bilyana you’re sitting there talking like a city strategist, this is a two bob outing. This is not a takeover of Goldman Sachs, this is simple stuff!”

Bilyana tries to shift the blame to Gabrielle, criticising her management skills, but an emotional Gabrielle fights back, “You can’t use the excuse, “I’ve got a small voice, nobody listens to me, I have a small voice but everybody respected me, everybody that was under my eye at least listened to me but with you all I hear is excuses, excuses, excuses, what’s your excuse for everything that you did?”

Lord Sugar then addresses Katie and her quietness, which she defends, “I absolutely swear I was not hiding, there’s no way I would do that.”

After asking the three girls why he shouldn’t fire them, and interrupting Bilyana, “I don’t want to bring out the violin and listen to your sob story,” Lord Sugar has heard enough and starts to deliver his final verdict:

“Gabrielle – you did work hard and you showed a lot of passion but there’s been lots of talk from the other people about the lack of direction and this task was deliberately designed to be simple, it’s not rocket science. Katie – people have been in this boardroom many times telling me “I don’t want to override that one” and sometimes those people’s actions cost them dearly. Bilyana – you have clearly got the capability of doing something but you have not given anybody any credit for doing anything.’

Bilyana interrupts: “If you give me the opportunity I will prove to you that I will be a solid project manager.”

Lord Sugar dismisses her plea: “I’m not listening to anybody anymore now, I’ve had enough of listening to you. I’m telling you what the situation is whether you like it or not. It is a difficult decision to make in this first task so the person leaving today may feel that they haven’t had enough time to show themselves but that’s tough, that’s what this process is about. I did say in my introduction that I didn’t want anybody to hide and on that basis…

Bilyana then interjects again, much to Lord Sugar’s annoyance, and his mind is made up, “You don’t do yourself any favours, Bilyana – You’re Fired.”

As she is driven away in a black taxi, Bilyana reflects: “I feel the decision wasn’t fair and I don’t think that my performance cost us the task. But my business plan is excellent so I’ll just move on straight away.”

Did you agree with tonight’s result? Was Bilyana to blame? Leave your comments below….