John Eustace always felt Blackburn would stay up

Posted Sunday, May 05, 2024 by PA

Blackburn manager John Eustace said he never doubted his team as they retained their Championship status with a 2-0 victory at champions Leicester.

Two second-half goals from the division’s top scorer Sammie Szmodics made sure of a win that kept Blackburn up, and sent Eustace’s former club Birmingham into League One.

He was sacked by Birmingham in October, despite taking them into the top six, when the new owners decided to bring in Wayne Rooney.

“My job was to come in and keep Blackburn up. I didn’t want Birmingham to go down, they are a club close to my heart and I have a lot of friends there,” said Eustace.

“But my focus was on here. It’d been a fantastic start to the season to leave Birmingham in sixth position. Now to keep Blackburn up has been a group effort.

“We’ve never doubted ourselves. I didn’t have a clue about the other scores – I wasn’t aware of anyone apart from us.

“I was very confident we’d be competitive here.”

Szmodics finished with 27 league goals after a display which was perfectly timed with Birmingham leading Norwich at St Andrew’s.

“Sammie’s been amazing, every team needs a goalscorer, he’s been sensational,” said Eustace.

“His work-rate and endeavour – when you work as hard as he does you get results. His enthusiasm has been great. It doesn’t matter where he plays, he’s very clinical.

“It was an unbelievable feeling when that second went in.”

Leicester were presented with the Championship trophy after the game.

Foxes boss Enzo Maresca said the day was all about the players enjoying the occasion and making up for last season’s relegation from the Premier League.

“A year ago these people were sad, some of them were crying, and here we made them happy again,” said the Italian.

“I came to Leicester to see the scenes we saw after the game. It’s a fantastic feeling. I told the players to enjoy the moment, because in our life, players or managers, most of the time you’re not going to win.

“So I told them to make the most of it and enjoy the day with their families.”

Maresca introduced Premier League title and FA Cup winner Marc Albrighton as a second-half substitute.

Albrighton looks set to have played his last game for Leicester with his contract running out this summer.

“I’m very proud of Marc, every day he helps us on and off the pitch, he’s very professional. It’s been an honour to work with him,” said Maresca.

“The bad part of my job is that I cannot be fair with all the players.

“Marc deserves everything but we’ve had Stephy Mavididi and Abdul Fatawu here this season.”