Angry Lee lets rip after wasteful Blues defeated
LEE Bowyer accused his Birmingham City side of giving Reading three points with their wasteful finishing on Tuesday night.
Blues lost 2-1 in Paul Ince’s first game in charge of the Royals - despite having more possession, more shots and working the home goalkeeper far more frequently than the hosts.
However, after going in 0-0 at the break, an exasperated Bowyer watched as his side conceded twice in six second half minutes before forcing an own goal and then missing more chances to equalise.
“Saying the same things again, not ruthless enough in the final third. I don’t know how many times we got around their goal in the first half, at least six,” Bowyer said.
“Just make the right pass, that kept happening all night long, we just didn’t take care.
“One, I don’t know how many times he got beyond their last defender, squaring it, cutting it back, how many balls went across the face of their goal with no-one gambling for a tap in.
“We were just poor in the final third tonight, I don’t know why, it was frustrating though.
“Then we were on the front foot in the second half, we had them pinned in.
“Cross after cross, you are just waiting for the net to ripple, then we stopped doing that.
“We came away from that because it was too easy and we wanted to start complicating the game.
“Then we get caught in the middle of the park twice and then bang-bang, goal and a penalty. Then you are chasing the game.
“But they didn’t earn it, we just gave it to them again – same as Stoke.
“You can’t just keep gifting teams two goals and it’s not because of the back four we have got.
“It’s got nothing to do with that, it’s what we are doing in possession to allow teams to get chances to do that.
“Joao had one chance – goal, it was a good finish, don’t get me wrong but it was too easy.”
Joao’s clinical finish was a stark contrast to what Blues managed – constantly finding the Reading ‘keeper Karl Hein rather than the back of the net.
That did not escape Bowyer’s attention. “Onel, when he comes inside he has just got to pass it in the corner, it’s open.
“You blast it and it goes straight down the middle where the goalkeeper is standing.
“That’s why I say ‘Pass it in the corner’. I am not just guessing, I scored 99 goals, I know how to score, I know where it should go.
“But tonight the goal we scored was lucky, even before we scored I said to
Sparky ‘We could be all night we ain’t going to score tonight’. It’s just one of those nights I guess.
“But it’s frustrating, it’s not like they earned it, we gave it to them.
“We are leaving with nothing and we should have been leaving with three points.
“The players tried to the end, kept going, we got a goal back, should have got another one back, they are good lads, I will never question their attitude and fighting spirit – never.
“But I have to keep pushing them to improve them to improve that last bit.”