ROBERTS: IT HAS COT TO GET BETTER

BIRMINGHAM marked the 50th game since Gary Rowett’s shock sacking with a rare win – but still face a massive fight to stay up.

They are at Reading today bottom of the Championship with only nine wins since Rowett’s dismissal in December 2016. It’s been carnage at Blues with three managers and a caretaker trying to put the club back together again.

The 1-0 win over Leeds was current boss Steve Cotterill’s third in his 13 games.

Birmingham survived on the final day of last season and it’s likely to be as tense this time.

Marc Roberts missed that drama, signed by Redknapp in July when optimism of a new beginning was high.

But the bad boardroom decisions are still biting hard and defender Roberts said: “Nine wins in 50 games is not good enough for anyone.

“It hurts us just as much as the fans. We don’t just go home to our rosy lives and forget about it.

“We’ve got to stick together. We will get out of this, I truly believe that.

“Back-to-back wins with a victory at Reading and the table will look different.”

Reading boss Jaap Stam has defended his side’s recent results against those towards the bottom of the Championship, having failed to win any of their last five matches, despite facing struggling sides such as Burton Albion and Barnsley.

That poor run has left last season’s play-off finalists looking nervously over their shoulders towards the bottom three, with Stam himself coming under increasing scrutiny.

“People think that if you play against teams at the bottom of the league it’s going to be easy but that’s never the case because we are there as well,” said Dutchman Stam.

“These teams have quality as well. Everybody needs to realise that. It’s going to be hard and we need to be realistic.”