GLEE-FUL FINISH IS FAMILIAR FEELING
...while Rovers’ Coyle is booed
BIRMINGHAM may be slow-burners but Gary Rowett can always bank on his side to finish games with a bang after the Blues edged out Blackburn.
Stephen Gleeson’s secondhalf strike proved the difference as Birmingham extended their unbeaten run to seven games and moved back into the top six.
And Rowett loves it when his best-laid plans comes together – which he insists is more often than not at the moment.
“It’s been a hallmark of some of our performances this year that we tend to start slowly, but get stronger as the game goes on,” he said.
“That’s testament to our experience, game management, fitness, whatever you want to call it. But we finish games really, really well.”
The hosts had nevertheless edged a drab first half, nearly taking the lead after a quarter of an hour when David Cotterill left Derrick Williams trailing in his wake before teeing up Gleeson, who fired over the bar from the edge of the box.
Che Adams went close with a low effort nine minutes before the break after exchanging passes with David Davis, but there was generally little action to speak of before half-time.
Gleeson arrived in the box for a second time four minutes after the restart, again firing just over after being found by another accurate low ball, this time from Jacques Maghoma.
Marvin Emnes can consider himself a shade unfortunate not to have given the visitors the lead shortly after, his 25-yard drive having looked goalbound until Adam Legzdins leapt across his goal to push the ball around the post.
Such contributions from keepers can be as valuable as a goal in tight games, and so it proved as Birmingham finally made one of their testing low deliveries count 11 minutes later.
Jonathan Spector found an incisive pass to release Cotterill down the right, and the winger again pulled the ball back with inch-perfect precision into the path of Gleeson, who once more arrived in the box totally unmarked.
And it proved to be a case of third time lucky for the Irish midfielder, as he side-footed emphatically into the top corner from 15 yards.
Blues’ quality in wide areas nearly saw them put the result beyond doubt seven minutes from time when Cotterill met a Maghoma cross with a fierce strike.
The ball slammed against the foot of the upright and into the path of Lukas Jutkiewicz, who saw his follow-up blocked by Jason Steele.
“It was a difficult game,” Rowett admitted. “You can play against teams that are down near the bottom of the league, but as we saw last season at St Andrew’s at times, that sort of team and easily turn you over as well as the big teams, so we had to be mindful of that.”
Blackburn’s 555 travelling supporters made their displeasure with Owen Coyle clear throughout the second half..
But Coyle said: “I certainly felt in the first half we caused them one or two problems, more than we did in the second half.
“The margins were very fine. We could easily have come away with a point, or all three had we got the first goal.
“From our point of view it was avoidable. We didn’t have enough bodies to just track the runners into the box. If we had, there would have been no goal.”