Bosses react as battle for survival intensifies
THE Championship relegation battle took a few more twists and turns at the weekend with Birmingham City coming out on top after taking a big three points at St Andrew’s to leapfrog rivals Coventry City.
Mark Robins’ Sky Blues slipped up in their task-too-far trip to promotion-chasing Bournemouth, who outclassed them at the Vitality Stadium, while there were plenty of hard luck stories elsewhere.
Rotherham United were among those teams who felt desperately unlucky not to have taken maximum points at Huddersfield, where even the Terriers boss admitted his side were fortunate to get away with the draw.
Derby County kept their scoreline down to just 1-0 against free-scoring Norwich, with Rams boss Wayne Rooney encouraged by his side’s performance, while Wycombe Wanderers felt they were hardest done to at Adams Park where they were in front and flying until a they had a man sent off, resulting in a Luton comeback, and leaving the Chairboys needing to win all five of their remaining games.
Here’s what the relegation rival managers said after the weekend’s results:
BIRMINGHAM CITY
Lee Bowyer has seen Blues take ten points from his first five games in charge, lifting them up to 18th place and nine points off third-from-bottom Rotherham with five matches remaining.
“That’s another good three points,” he said after the 2-0 home win over Stoke City, courtesy of two goals from former Sky Blues striker Lukas Jutkiewicz.
“It’s a good Stoke side.
!The important thing is that we won again at home and it’s three clean sheets on the spin. It was a very professional performance and on the break a couple of times if we’d taken a little bit more care with the ball, we could have scored another goal or two.”
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN
Carlos Corberan admitted his team were second-best to relegation-fighting Rotherham in Saturday’s goalless draw at the John Smith’s Stadium.
“I think of course it wasn’t the result we wanted before we played the game,” said the manager, whose side went into the game on the back of a 7-0 thumping at Norwich.
“We wanted to turn the page from Norwich with a very good result and a very good performance and we didn’t get any of these two things.
“After watching the game and especially the second half we can say the point was positive in terms of that we didn’t deserve it.”
DERBY COUNTY
Wayne Rooney felt Derby County deserved something from their clash against Championship leaders Norwich City at Pride Park. The Rams lost 1-0 to the Canaries with the only goal of the contest coming in the first half from Kieran Dowell’s free kick.
“I thought we performed very well, especially in the second half. It is not the result we wanted, but we can take some encouragement from the performance,” Rooney said.
ROTHERHAM
The Millers went within a whisker of a late victory at Huddersfield when Ben Wiles passed up the chance for glory. “Eighty-seventh minute, that is dreamworks,” said Paul Warne of Wiles’ moment.
“As a manager you just think score that, get it out of play and hang on.
“Initially I thought Crooksy was going to get in on it. Wilesy’s performance today was outstanding so there’s no criticism of him but a goal would have been fully deserved for his performance but it wasn’t to be. “A point on the road with the way results have gone was good but three points would have been a really special day.”
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
The Owls roared back from a Lyndon Dyke opener with a quickfire Josh Windass equaliser on the half hour but were passive in the second half as goals from Stefan Johansen, Dykes again and the impressive Chris Willock completed a 4-1 win for QPR.
Assistant manager Jamie Smith, overseeing his third and final game with Wednesday boss Darren Moore still away from action after his positive coronavirus test, said he was bitterly disappointed with the nature of the goals conceded.
“From our point of view it wasn’t great and we could have defended them better, but credit to QPR who were very, very clinical,” he said.
WYCOMBE WANDERERS
Gareth Ainsworth criticised referee Oliver Langford’s decision making as 10-man Wycombe’s Championship survival hopes were severely dented with a 3-1 defeat to Luton.
Wanderers’ bid for three-successive wins looked in good shape when Anis Mehmeti’s penalty put them ahead at half-time.
But the game flipped on its head when Josh Knight was sent off for a second-half lunge.
“We’re fighting for our lives. With 11, we played so well,” said the manager. “I’m sure we’ll get it overturned on appeal because there’s no way it’s a red card.
“Josh Knight has slipped. If the referee takes that into consideration he gives a yellow; he made the decision so quickly.”