Birmingham Boss Gary Rowett Satisfied With A Point From Blackburn Draw

04 November 2015 10:33

Birmingham manager Gary Rowett demanded a tough performance against Blackburn and was satisfied with a goalless draw at St. Andrew's.

Rowett called for a change of attitude following recent indifferent performances and his players responded by keeping their first home clean sheet of the season.

Rowett said: "The players did what I asked of them on the night.

"It is a first clean sheet at home this season, which is unbelievable. I told them not to give away the first goal, keep our shape and keep our patience.

"I asked them to be tougher defensively. I thought we were a little soft on Wolves and Hull in the previous two games.

"I certainly didn't want to lose three games on the spin. That was the reality of the game because runs like that are very damaging to confidence.

"We kept a clean sheet and didn't give Jordan Rhodes one chance on goal.

"I was not disappointed. Yes, I could have thrown in a lot of attacking options and gone for it in the last 10 minutes. We are not quite ready to do that style.

"We need to build to that in the future.

"Defensively we have actually done a good job on their best players. That was the most important part of the evening and then we grew in confidence.

"We've got to be a team that is hard working and hard to play against. That is what pleased me on the night."

Birmingham's current goalscoring problems were highlighted against Rovers and they have now failed to score in their last three games during which time they have picked up just one point.

This is hardly the form they displayed a few weeks ago when they moved into joint second place and is a concern for Rowett.

The game was hardly a classic but Blackburn emerged with a lot of credit in keeping out a Birmingham side keen to make amends for some recent indifferent form.

In the end, honours were shared and this was due to two fine second-half saves by Tomasz Kuszczak and his opposite number Jason Steele.

Kuszczak made a brilliant close-range save to keep out a header from Blackburn skipper Grant Hanley, while Steele made an equally vital save shortly afterwards when he flung himself to his right to save a David Cotterill rocket.

Blackburn boss Gary Bowyer was also pleased with another positive performance.

He said: "If you look at the key moments of the game against a team which has done magnificently well to get into the play-off zone, we played really well.

"They paid us a massive amount of respect with the way they set up getting bodies behind the ball. It was something new for my lads to deal with.

"I thought we had the key moments of the game. Tom Lawrence in the first half for instance when he did well to get into a goalscoring position. He has been wonderful since joining us.

"To come to a team who are in the play-offs and perform the way we did was positive. We have now gone six clean sheets in the last 11 games and picked up four points out of six in the last two games on the road.

"We had to be disciplined, patient and not get frustrated in not taking three points."

Source: PA-WIRE