Birmingham Reaction

Last updated : 02 January 2006 By Paul Farrington

Paul Jewell

"It might be the case but Birmingham have played as many games as us and they were far better than us. They'll never have an easier 2-0 victory this season.

"I was very disappointed with my team today. It might be a good thing for us to have an FA Cup game on Saturday and then on Tuesday, we've got a Carling Cup semi-final. If we play like we today or how we did against Blackburn, we'll lose both.

"We were lack-lustre, lethargic, flat - call it what you want we were just not very good. We didn't win any headers, we didn't win any tackles, we didn't do anything very well today. Two nil flattered us.

"It's been a fantastic season but what I won't accept is people slapping themselves on the back because that's how you slide down the league. I won't accept that and I expect much better.

"It's up to me to lift the players and get them back to something like their best.

Eric Black - Birmingham Assistant Manager

"When the pressure was on the players responded wonderfully and they were fabulous under difficult conditions. It was a vital game for us with other results going the way they have, so we needed to start winning games.

"There are some games you have to get points from and this was one of them. Against Manchester City we put in probably as poor a performance as we've witnessed.

"But maybe that was a turning point and you hope things can go forward from that. Every game we play now we have to try and take something from it, and more importantly three points.

"The manager has always said that if we can get a fully fit squad and people challenging for places then there's no reason why we can't get out of it. Today was a massive result for us.

"Now we've got Charlton and Portsmouth coming up and if we get that kind of performance we'll be very pleased."

Do you have an opinion on this story?
Let us know on the messageboard - click
here.