KARANKA FINALLY FINDS THE KEY
Goal drought over and music blares out as City boss gets a tune out of City at last
AITOR KARANKA hopes he has fixed all the mistakes Birmingham have made so far this season.
The Spanish coach witnessed some impressive individual performances as City grabbed their first win in eight games and broke their near-eight hour goal drought.
Karanka spent last week holding talks with players, including match-winner Scott Hogan (right), in the search for answers to their poor form.
And while Middlesbrough were still recovering from their huge coronavirus disruption, City showed signs of potential.
Mikel San Jose was excellent at the back, substitute Marc Roberts won every header and returning Boro old boy George Friend was superb at left wing-back. Karanka spoke of wanting to “change the atmosphere” in his squad.
And as he chatted the music of the Lighthouse Family, Fatman Scoop and Gwen Stefani drifted out of his players’ dressing room.
Karanka said: “I am very pleased. It’s a nice feeling because the biggest challenge here has been changing the atmosphere.
“I thought I’d fixed it five months ago but it’s been the same situation. It will be really important. We can’t relax.
“We knew all the mistakes we have made. For that reason you can fix them.
“We have players here to turn it around and to play and support each other. “It is just one game, just a start.” But it was the end of “two weeks of hell” for Boro manager Neil Warnock, with his side slipping out of the top six following their post-Covid dip in form.
“There have been times when I’ve stood on the touchline and couldn’t see us scoring a goal, and today was one of those days,” Warnock admitted. “The front four were poor in the first half – it wasn’t as if it was one of them, it was all of them.
“We’ve just got to put it to bed and have a couple of days training next week.
“If it’s still like this, we’ll come to the stadium to train.
“We’re a bit more prepared now, but it has been a weird, strange fortnight.
“Let’s hope that’s over and we can kick ourselves back in now.”
Warnock revealed that Marcus Browne’s season is over with cruciate ligament damage, on top of the dislocated knee cap he suffered at Brentford.
BORO: Bettinelli 5, Dijksteel 5,
Fry 6, McNair 5, Bola 6, Saville 6, Morsy 6 (Howson 46, 5), Johnson 5 (Watmore 64, 5), Wing 5 (Spence 46, 5), Tavernier 5 (Coulson 76), Akpom 5 (Assombalonga 46, 5)
BIRMINGHAM: Etheridge 6, Colin 7, San Jose 7, Dean 7, Friend 7, Sunjic 6, Kieftenbeld 7, Sanchez 6, Toral 6 (Roberts 62,
7), Bela 6 (Clayton 90), Hogan 7 (Jutkiewicz 76, 5)
MAIKEL KIEFTENBELD (BIRM)