Gary Rowett's condemning message to Birmingham City players after QPR crumble

Gary Rowett has condemned his Birmingham City players for a lack of character at vital moments during the painful late 2-1 defeat to Queens Park Rangers on Good Friday.

Blues took the lead through a Juninho Bacuna cracker but conceded to Steve Cook just three minutes later. Defender Jimmy Dunne then netted a stunner in second-half stoppage time to win it at the death for QPR, with Birmingham entirely unrewarded for their positive attacking work.

Although the Rangers were probably the better team in the first period, Blues stepped up their game after the break. Defensive errors and a lack of concentration were costly yet again, however, as the hosts completed their comeback. Rowett, albeit proud of some aspects, wants a rapid improvement in mentality.

“We’ll take it on the chin, show some character and bounce back," the interim manager told London World in the Loftus Road press lounge. “We’ve got to get those levels up very quickly. I knew this would be a challenging job, I didn’t expect to come in and wave a magic wand and in the first game everything be ok.

"We’re one game down, we’ll take the positives and then make sure we improve on Monday. In front of our own crowd, we know we can use that, pin teams in and cause problems. That’s really important, that we’re ready to go straight again.

“Pressure is an opportunity and it’s something you want as a professional footballer, but you’ve got to handle that pressure and step up. It’s something we expect on Monday. We know St Andrew’s will be absolutely packed, the fans will get behind us and we’ve got to use that disappointment today to perform that little bit better. 

“There’s that opportunity to show that little more character in certain areas to take a point. The team’s conceded poor goals recently and we need to get out of that habit because it’s undone a lot of good work. We’ve got the talent but talent’s only good enough if you put together all the other attributes to win a game in the Championship," Rowett continued.

The upcoming fixture the Blues step-in boss referred to is the hosting of Preston North End on Easter Monday. With kick-off just under 72 hours after the loss at QPR ended, Birmingham will have very little time to recover or plan a change in tactic. And with the Lancashire outfit plotting a late charge for the play-off positions, it certainly won't be easy for Blues to claim anything let alone a win.

That change of character will need to be instantaneous.