Monk mission
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GARRY MONK will be given the task of keeping free-falling Birmingham in the Championship.
And his first obstacle will be to get the better of Tony Pulis and the Middlesbrough team he left just 10 weeks ago.
Monk will be unveiled at St Andrew’s imminently, with tomorrow’s visit of Boro a chance for him to arrest a run of five defeats that cost Steve Cotterill his job on Saturday evening.
Blues have been in freefall since their mind-boggling decision to sack Gary Rowett in December 2016 when they were pushing for the play-offs.
Cotterill’s final press conference after the defeat to Forest hinted he knew his time was up.
“We didn’t strengthen in January and that hasn’t helped us,” he said. “It is very difficult to legislate for individual errors that have been made throughout the season. They don’t want to make those errors.
“And the lads don’t want to miss chances when they come their way, but unfortunately that’s how it has been.
“They knew their manager was under pressure – they are not stupid. And they were fantastically committed for me. But sometimes we just haven’t been good enough and there have been times when they have played scared – and when a team is nervous it looks like they aren’t trying.” Aitor Karanka’s Forest are clearly enjoying the benefits of six deadline-day additions in January. But Karanka has already warned his players they are playing for shirts next season. “The players have the opportunity to show me who wants to stay here, who wants to be part of this project,” said the Spaniard. “The motivation is always to think about going up. For me it is really important to build that mentality.” Young midfielder Matty Cash has put all his early season injury woes behind him with goals in successive games. Karanka said: “I’ve told him that football is about goals and if he wants to earn money with his ability then he needs to score goals. “I know a lot of players who think they are good players and they get complacent. “But Matty wants to learn. He is improving and doing well. He is a very good kid. “He wants to improve everyday, so I’m really pleased for him because he is a good example for everybody at the club.” Joe Lolley opened the scoring early on before Cash’s cracker. Michael Morrison thundered in a late header for the Blues but it was too little too late. “You don’t always have to play well to win,” admitted Lolley, one of Karanka’s January additions. “We weren’t at our best. We showed glimpses of quality. “We are still getting to know each other, and I know that is a bit of a cliche but we are very new to each other. We are trying to find that consistency.”