'Shut a few people up' - Lee Bowyer hits back after Birmingham City draw

Lee Bowyer expressed his pride in his Birmingham City’s performance against Millwall and praised his players after laying into them on Easter Monday.

The head coach was frustrated by the late penalty which handed the Lions a 2-2 draw, from a game in which Blues led twice, but he pointed out how different the display had been to the one when they were beaten at Blackpool five days earlier.

Bowyer applauded his men for showing much more resolve against a physical Millwall team. “The reaction from last week, to have the performance that we did, to be able to turn that around as a group, that was pleasing for me,” he said.

“That will shut a few people up saying the players don’t play for me, people talk rubbish. You just see that performance there and you tell me the players ain’t running around for me. It’s happened maybe three four times all season. We ain’t good enough to carry anyone no matter who you are playing. Last week we had six, seven eight that weren’t at the races.

“Last week I was criticising them because it wasn’t good enough – this week I will praise them, this is the person I am. I will say it how it is, they were outstanding from start to finish every single one of them.

“I think they have done me proud most games this season, they walk off the pitch and given everything most times, we lack a little bit of quality at times but 95 per cent of the time they have always given effort. That’s what hurt me last week.”