Give Rowett the time to find right Blues formula

FEW defeats rankle like those sustained in a derby match. Poor performances are harder to take when they come in games that mean most to supporters.

And make no mistake, the second half of Blues’ 3-1 beating by Wolves on Saturday was as difficult to stomach as anything served up during Gary Rowett’s tenure.

For some reason a side that had come within four minutes of going joint-top of the league on Tuesday night looked to have had its confidence shot to pieces.

So eyes turned to the manager, the man who brought those players to the club and who is responsible for nurturing that self-belief.

Let’s say this. Many of those players let him down on Saturday. They let themselves down and, more importantly, they let down the people who forked out up to £35 in the hope they could build on a solid, if far from spectacular, start to the season.

But Rowett won’t exempt himself from criticism. If we work on the basis that what happened in the first 45 minutes was acceptable, even though there were signs of jitters at the back, Blues were leading 1-0 at half-time and looked all right going forward.

We then have to focus on what happened in the second period.

Blues conceded the sloppiest of early goals with up to four players making errors in the build-up to Joe Mason’s equaliser.

Clearly Rowett didn’t tell Clayton Donaldson to misplace his lay-off, David Cotterill to sell himself cheaply, David Davis to over-pursue or Michael Morrison to delay his reaction.

Nor did he tell his defenders to switch off for Danny Batth’s strike. Rowett certainly didn’t tell Jack Storer to get himself needlessly sent off and he will have been as irate as anyone seeing the way a couple of his players responded to the adversity.

However, hindsight tells us he made an error in the immediate aftermath by persisting with a substitution that had been drawn up when the game was at 1-1.

In fact the way things panned out at Wigan meant his substitutions in that game could also be second- guessed. So it’s pointless pretending the manager is blameless for the way the last two games have worked out.

Which leads us to a point where some are suggesting Rowett is the wrong man to try to restore the confidence that seemed to evaporate on Saturday.

Those critics have their stats and their agendas – just as those who believe he’ll get it right have theirs – and as with most polarised debates there is no knockout fact to settle the argument.

So for me, without a FAR more convincing set of circumstances I just don’t see the sense in sacking a manager four games into a league season – and after just one Championship defeat.

Particularly not after he’s spent well north of £2 million and has had little more than a week to embed that talent into his team.

Yes, Blues are lacking fluency and attacking flair and it’s clear Rowett is finding it hard to remould his team’s offensive threat, especially without the Premier League ability of Jon Toral and Demarai Gray.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t and doesn’t mean he won’t. Just as players are forgiven mistakes and given time to develop, managers also need the space to learn.

A two-yearly cycle of constant managerial change does not provide stability and is rarely, if ever, the route to success.