Gary Rowett hopes some of Birmingham City’s players learn from their mistakes when they reflect on their part in the club’s relegation from the Championship.
Blues’ relegation to League One was confirmed on the final day, despite a 1-0 victory over Norwich City at St Andrew’s. Wins elsewhere for Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers cancelled Blues out.
“It’s incredibly disappointing,” Rowett reflected. “I felt that if we kept our side of the bargain today we would get a result elsewhere that went in our favour, and most people would have expected something to have happened. You look at these last day moments, or last day goals, and it didn’t seem like there was anything going on out there. Congratulations to the teams that held their nerve. I’m sure when they heard about our goal it added pressure.
“The atmosphere in the stadium was probably the best I’ve ever heard before a game, it was absolutely electric. As we knew they would, the fans more than played their part.
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"I thought we played well against a very good Norwich side but when you know that’s not enough, of course there’s a feeling of dejection. Sometimes when you put a performance like that in because you have to and you need to, what really good teams do is they do it when they don’t need to. They show that same level of attitude when they don’t need to.”
Rowett was reluctant to open up on the deep-rooted issues he found at Blues’ training ground, but he did suggest that some players didn’t meet his standards.
“On the whole, the majority of the players in there have given everything they have got in terms of their energy in the day-to-day,” said Rowett. “There have definitely been moments where, as a group, they could do more and we will always look back at that.
“It’s been a tough period in some ways. When you’re an interim manager you sometimes haven’t got that same level of authority to do things, you are trying to tread carefully but that was the challenge when we came in.
“The lessons for me are if you want to be a really good team, every day you have to do the right things. If you want to be a top athlete, every day you have to put the right amount of dedication and discipline into that. I think that’s been short a few times, certainly in the eight games I have been here.”
