ALBION STRIKER HAS A LIKING FOR CONTROVERSY
BIRMINGHAM City boss Gary Rowett was delighted with the application of his players on a balmy night at the Banks’s Stadium, but called for more ruthlessness in front of goal.
Michael Morrison’s uncharacteristic mistake allowed Amadou Bakayoko to score from the spot for Walsall in Tuesday night’s friendly before Paul Caddis replied with a late free-kick.
Blues controlled the game for large periods and there was plenty to please the manager.
“If you look at that it was real good exercise for us against a really good Walsall side,” Rowett said.
“The only real chance they had came from a silly mistake. We’ll get those mistakes out before the season starts.
“Once again, we got into really good positions and once or twice around the box people need to be more ruthless and selfish.
“That was lacking, but the application was fantastic and some of the play was very good, we just need to make a little bit more of some of those positions.”
Rowett was content to turn up the heat on his players.
The 1-1 draw at the Banks’s, which Rowett attended while another Blues first team lost 1-0 at Shrewsbury, was played out in stifling heat – so much so that the game had to be stopped for water breaks in either half.
Despite the sticky weather, Rowett made only one change, enforced by Reece Brown’s cramp, to give his players as much action as possible to better prepare them for the long haul.
“It was a little bit warm, that’s for sure,” Rowett added. “I was quite pleased when we came here because it felt a tiny bit cooler.
“It was still really hot conditions. For us, the purpose of this splitsquad game, which really stretches you in terms of a squad, was to get as many players 90 minutes.
“You go to 1-1 with 10 minutes to go, if that’s a league game you chuck on two or three players and try to get the win.
“But it’s not about that, it’s about making sure people have to dig in for those last eight minutes.
“They’ll feel better for it in the long term.”