Steve Spooner maintains that he expects the 1-1 draw at Hull City in the FA Cup third round tie this Saturday to be his only match in interim charge as Birmingham City close in on Wayne Rooney’s replacement. Tony Mowbray is the overriding favourite who is expected to succeed Rooney, whose sacking was confirmed on Tuesday after just two wins in 15 games.
Spooner, for the first time since Project Restart in 2020, took charge of the Blues first team at the MKM Stadium and led them to within a couple of minutes of a hard earned victory, until Matt Jacob capitalised on a Neil Etheridge slip up late on to cancel out Lukas Jutkiewicz’s opener.
The attentions of all associated with Blues now turn to next week when it’s likely that they’ll have their new man in place, well before the visit of Swansea City – who incidentally have a new manager of their own in Luke Williams – next Saturday and with still plenty of time remaining in the January transfer window, should recruitment be considered necessary.
“That’s what I’ve been told,” Spooner replied, when asked if this was indeed to be his sole game in temporary charge. “If that’s to be, it’s been enjoyable. It’s been tough this week but it’s been enjoyable. If the new manager is in Monday, then that’s great. If not, then we’ll pick up with the players again where we’ve left off and carry on.
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“The new manager will make his own assessment. It’s hard for me to come out and say ‘this is what I think’, because I’ve not had the whole dressing room until Thursday because they had the fixture on Monday at Leeds and then there was the cool down group, a training group, the players were off Wednesday. Thursday and Friday have been the only times I’ve had them, so it’d be hard for me to come up with a succinct assessment of the squad.
“The next one has got to be the right one, we keep coming out and saying it, and I sincerely hope we do get it right, but it’s hard – plenty of other clubs don’t get it right either. There are plenty of things that go into the equation of making it right and I’m not in that position to make an assessment of that but I want to as a Blues fan see the right person in and get this club going again.
“This is a squad which has some quality in it. As with any team, if you lose a few games, there’s self-doubt. There has been self-doubt, we’ve tried to pick the players up. I just hope they take confidence going into the next game, after this performance, for the new manager. We spoke before the game – fans will always look past mistakes, but what fans can’t look past is not trying.
“I’m not saying they haven’t been trying, but you run a bit further, tackle harder. That’s what we wanted from the players today. I think we got that.”
Although denied late on, this was a far more unified performance from Blues; having grabbed the early lead through Jutkiewicz, who powered his header past Ryan Allsop, they defended willfully to a man throughout and came within a whisker of a long overdue away victory.
“Resolute,” Spooner added, reflecting on the performance. “Determined. Organised. All the words which describe character – I thought the players showed immense character. We set the team up the way we thought would help us against Hull. There were things we might’ve tweaked or done better but, on the whole, they carried out the gameplan excellently. As much possession as they had, I couldn’t see them scoring. That’s a testament to the defending and the desire of the players.”
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Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
