Huddersfield’s Andre Breitenreiter resigned to relegation after Birmingham draw
Posted Sunday, April 28, 2024 by PA
Andre Breitenreiter is resigned to Huddersfield playing in Sky Bet League One next season after his side drew 1-1 at home to fellow strugglers Birmingham at the John Smith’s Stadium.
The Terriers need to win at Ipswich on the final day along with Plymouth losing at home to Hull, while also needing to claw back a 15-goal deficit on Argyle in order to climb out of the bottom three.
The German admitted: “It’s difficult to win with 15 goals next week and we didn’t really do it today.
“The players played with heart, with passion, with willingness. The standard from today must be the standard in every game.
“Many games we played well, and when we worked hard as a team we collected points.
“We didn’t get relegated today, the second half was a really good performance. Once again we created lots of chances.
“This is football, this happens, but we need quality to score a goal.
“We have had so many draws. You must score the goals and we didn’t score from the big chances we had.
“We had some good games with a clean sheet but also big injuries in our defence.”
Koji Miyoshi gave Birmingham the lead late in the first half when Keshi Anderson crossed low from the left and he kept a cool head to shoot back across goal and into the far corner.
The visitors could have had a bigger advantage at the break but Juninho Bacuna headed a good chance over and Lee Nicholls held a sliced Sorba Thomas clearance before Miyoshi opened the scoring.
Rhys Healey drew the home side level just after the interval as he swept in when Jack Rudoni had got away down the right and crossed for the forward to finish from inside the area.
Huddersfield sensed a chance to win the game but were unable to make their pressure tell.
Gary Rowett admitted his Birmingham side lacked the telling touch in front of goal which would have made the difference.
Blues’ interim manager said: “At the moment we know that draws are not good enough.
“The disappointment for me is we got ourselves in a great position going 1-0 up going into half-time.
“We were quite solid to go 1-0 up and we felt then the game was in our control. We spoke to the players at half-time about how we wanted to keep that defensive shape.
“It was a good cutback from Rudoni and a good finish. It was disappointing to get in that position. It was a disappointment with the way we handed over the lead.
“For 20 minutes they had that momentum and late in the game we had the momentum. Jay (Stansfield) had a good position and just shot wide.
“We made formation and personnel changes to see if we could find a way to score the all-important goal.
“We were competitive but showed a lack of composure in both attack and defence.”
Rowett admitted he was not surprised some Birmingham fans booed their own players at the final whistle.
He added: “The fans follow us in great numbers and at this stage of the season they see other sides winning.
“You need to show a much better mentality away from home.”
- Tag:
Photos
More»
Rodri returns as Man City count down to Spurs
Saturday November 23 2024
Your Say