IT’S ALL MY FAULT ADMITS CARSLEY
Sinking feeling as Tigers hit six
CARETAKER boss Lee Carsley says he takes full responsibility for Birmingham City’s drubbing at Hull City.
The horror defeat leaves the struggling Blues with just one away point all season all season and the gap to safety widening.
Hull raced into a three-goal lead inside the first half-hour, before they added another three in the final 18 minutes against tiring opponents.
Carsley, who will work alongside newly-appointed boss Steve Cotterill when he takes the reins on Monday, described the thumping as unacceptable and embarrassing.
“I need to take responsibility for this. I gambled that we could get more out of the players from Wednesday,” he said. “It looked too much for some of the lads.
“I told the lads that this is not acceptable for our club or our fans.
“This is a big blow and an embarrassing defeat. When you are not at the races against a team with this quality, you will always be struggling.
“The international break has come at a good time and hopefully we can get some lads back fit and get some competition.
“We have to try to be tougher to play against. If you concede six like this then there is a problem.”
Tigers boss Leonid Slutsky was delighted after watching his side’s game plan unfold to perfection.
“We were very close to this quality in a lot of matches, but not for the whole match,” he said.
“All this week we spoke about stabilising the quality of the game. We played very solid and we kept the high level during the whole match. It is difficult to speak about one or two players – today our game plan as a team worked out.
“I watched Birmingham’s last match and we understood how they play. Their formation and philosophy was good for us.
“I am very happy, we have our plan for every match. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.
“I am disappointed we did not keep a clean sheet.”
Hull got off to a dream start when Fraizer Campbell slotted home on seven minutes after David Davis gave the ball away. And it got even better for City when Campbell won a penalty after he was hacked down by Emilio Nsue. David Meyler made no mistake from the spot as he smashed an unstoppable effort into the bottom corner on 11 minutes.
Campbell continued to cause big problems for the Blues defence as he headed against the bar three minutes later.
Jarrod Bowen made it three after he scored his seventh goal of the season from outside the box on 26 minutes.
Isaac Vassell missed a great chance to pull a goal back when he headed wide from seven yards out on 64 minutes.
Grosicki extended Hull’s lead with a beautiful first-time finish on 72 minutes after Birmingham failed to clear.
It got even worse for the Blues when Markus Henriksen bagged his first league goal following a superb flowing move on 76 minutes.
Seb Larsson added another on 87 minutes after he got in behind the defence and beat Kuszczak.
Sam Gallagher headed home a consolation goal two minutes into stoppage time after Vassell’s shot had been saved.