Cotterill: Blues didn’t have the belief
Birmingham City manager Steve Cotterill was extremely disappointed by yesterday’s 2-0 Championship derby defeat at Aston Villa.
Albert Adomah and Conor Hourihane did the damage to leave Blues as the only side in the box to not pick up at least a point over the weekend.
Cotterill admitted: “We didn’t have the quality, experience and belief.
“I am not talking about an average Villa team. They are packed with quality and Premiership experience whereas I thought there were a few of my boys who didn’t have the belief to play in the game.
“We have played very well of late, but, in the first 25 minutes, we were not on our front foot.
“If Sam Gallagher’s shot had gone in just before half time (it hit the post instead) it might have given us more belief. “Our inexperience was exposed and after going two goals down it was an uphill task as the game looked a little too big for some of our young boys. “They did not perform and it was disappointing. It will be good experience, but it is painful at the moment.” Steve Bruce’s Villa moved above Derby into second place with the win and assistant boss Colin Calderwood was full of praise for the all-round team performance. “The confidence of our winning run kept the players going when we were unable to score when on top in the first half,” he said.
“But after we scored we really took control of the game.
“We found our rhythm better than Birmingham and we were able to to create some good openings. The passing of Jack Grealish was excellent and played a leading role.”