Pritch: We are fighting the drop – and for our careers
THE Blues squad held a frank discussion in the dressing room after they slipped closer to the relegation zone with their late defeat to Millwall.
Blues needed to right the wrongs of the last fortnight, where they had taken one point from a possible 12 before Tuesday night’s visit of Middlesbrough.
Alex Pritchard revealed the honest, post-Millwall match debrief and said: “We have to realise the situation we are in. We have got ten games and everyone is fighting for their career – boys who are in contract, boys who are out of contract – and we just spoke about it in the dressing room.
“You don’t want to be associated with a relegation. We realise what’s in store and we have to compete and give it our all until the end of the season.”
Blues felt they should have had a penalty against Millwall before Japhet Tanganga headed home from George Saville’s 90th-minute corner. Jay Stansfield was hauled down inside the box as he looked to latch onto Pritchard’s clever corner.
Pritchard said: “I know it’s difficult but the boys are playing for their careers, the fans and the club as a whole. We conceded a goal to a handball against Hull and then it’s a stonewall penalty against Millwall. I watched it all the way. The linesman had to see it.
“We set that corner up perfectly. I played the ball, I can see Jay the whole time the ball has travelled. It’s a stonewall penalty. The problem is there’s people’s lives on the line and unfortunately things have to change very quickly.”
Three players unlikely to feature in the run-in are Keshi Anderson, Oliver Burke and Scott Hogan. The trio have become spare parts since Tony Mowbray signed Andre Dozzell, Paik Seung-ho and Pritchard in January.
A bloated first-team squad means senior players are now training instead of playing on a Saturday. Interim boss Mark Venus has had to break the news to players in the absence of Mowbray and insists it’s the ‘‘worst part of the job’’.
“We have tried to alternate the people who have been left out, to a point,’’ he said. “They have all accepted it, no-one has sulked on the training ground.’’
Striker Hogan, 31, is entering the final few months of the bumper fouryear contract former Blues chief executive Xuandong Ren handed him when he joined permanently from Villa in 2020.
Ren pushed the boat out to sign Hogan on the strength of a loan spell which saw him net seven goals in 17 games to help Blues preserve their Championship status in 2020. The striker has finished as the club’s top goalscorer in each of the last two seasons.
While others around him have struggled to be available for every game, Hogan hasn’t had any issues with injury. His form has been the problem and the reason why this will
surely be his last season at St Andrew’s.
He hasn’t scored since August and boasts a record of two goals in 22 appearances. Having been used regularly by John Eustace, Hogan found life tough under Wayne Rooney and was excluded from Blues’ squad at the end of his tenure. Mowbray has given him a couple of starts but has been left him out of squads, too.
The wages freed up by his inevitable exit will allow Mowbray to sign one, possibly two, replacements who aren’t in the twilight of their careers.
With nine players out of contract, Hogan won’t be the only departure, but he will be among the most noteworthy.