Birmingham City boss Wayne Rooney has admitted that substitutions were the difference today after the Blues let a two-goal lead slip against Ipswich Town at home.
Rooney’s side raced into a 2-0 lead at St Andrew’s this afternoon. Fulham loanee Jay Stansfield opened the scoring for the hosts in the 13th minute with his fifth of the season before a Cameron Burgess own goal gave Birmingham a two-goal cushion against Kieran McKenna’s men.
However, a late brace from Marcus Harness clawed the visitors back to level-pegging as the game eventually finished 2-2. Rooney picked up his first point as head coach of the Midlands club but it may feel like three points dropped.
Sitting inside the playoffs when former head coach John Eustace was sacked, Birmingham City are now inside the bottom half of the Championship table in 14th place and will face Sunderland at the Stadium of Light next Saturday.
Speaking after the game, Rooney felt as though his substitutions had a negative effect on proceedings in contrast to the opposition’s [quotes via Irish News]:
“Their subs made the difference and I felt ours didn’t.
“Some of the lads who came on didn’t do enough. The lads worked extremely hard to put us in the position we were in, and when you’re coming off the bench you need to be better than a few of them were,” he continued.
“When you make changes and bring players into the game, you have to pick that (intensity) up, especially as Ipswich were starting to get a bit of control, so we needed them to give us that energy to continue what we were doing.
“I just felt there were a couple of players who didn’t do that for us. That’s something for us to improve on.”
Krystian Bielik, Siriki Dembele, Emmanuel Longelo, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Marc Roberts were all brought on by the former Derby County head coach. Still, none stepped onto the field before the 73rd minute.
Writer’s View
Substitutions were certainly the difference in this game. Harness came on in the 72nd minute for Ipswich Town and scored a brace to share the spoils. Having been two goals in front when the first three entered the fray for Birmingham City, Rooney would have expected the subs to see out the game.
The Manchester United legend picked up his first point with the Blues but it will still feel like a negative result given how the match played out. Another loss next week would put serious pressure on Rooney’s shoulders.
Deputy Head of Writing
