A method of operating a request FIFO of a system on a chip (SoC) in which a requests in a first position that has been granted and which subsequently receives a retry from the intended target is automatically re-ordered with respect to the other requests below it in the request FIFO. Each issued requests is tagged to either enable or disable a re-order feature. When a request that is tagged as re-order enabled is granted, the FIFO logic monitors the response provided for the request. If the response is a retry, the request is removed from the first position of the request FIFO and the next sequential request is moved into the first position. The removed requests may be re-ordered within the request FIFO or sent back to the initiator. In the former implementation, controller logic reorders the first request within the request FIFO. In the latter implementation, the controller logic of the bus controller messages the initiator when a request has been retried and subsequently removed from the first position of the request FIFO. The initiator then determines whether or not to re-issue the request.