Wayne Rooney’s Birmingham City were defeated by Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough in his first game as manager. Morgan Rogers, a young Midlander who came off the bench 13 minutes earlier, scored his first goal for the club in the 89th minute.
It was no more than the hosts earned as they won their fifth game in a row to move up to 13th in the Championship standings, just one point behind Blues, who dropped out of the play-off places to seventh.
Rooney’s first game as Blues manager was against an in-form Boro side captained by his former Manchester United and England teammate Carrick.
On an afternoon when the two sides were separated by ten positions (16th vs. sixth), Rooney made two changes for his debut game as manager.
Scott Hogan replaced Juninho Bacuna, who had returned late from international duty with Curacao, and Gary Gardner made his first start in the centre of midfield since February, coming off the bench to score the match-winning third goal in John Eustace’s previous game, a 3-1 derby win over West Bromwich Albion 15 days earlier.
Although Boro goalkeeper Seny Dieng saved an early shot from Krystian Bielik, the hosts consistently got past the Blues’ defence.
Isaiah Jones was penalized for offside after putting the ball in the net, and rookie striker Josh Coburn pulled his attempt wide.
Blues goalkeeper John Ruddy had to make two crucial second-half saves against Hayden Hackney and Matt Crooks.
But Crooks was then involved in the move that resulted in Boro’s late breakthrough.
After Rogers set Crooks free out wide, when the low return pass came back in, the Halesowen-born former West Bromwich Albion youth team product arrived to prod the ball inside Ruddy’s near post for his first goal since his summer arrival from Manchester City.
Isaiah Jones was penalized for offside after putting the ball in the net, and rookie striker Josh Coburn pulled his attempt wide.
Blues goalkeeper John Ruddy had to make two crucial second-half saves against Hayden Hackney and Matt Crooks.
But Crooks was then involved in the move that resulted in Boro’s late breakthrough.
After Rogers set Crooks free out wide, when the low return pass came back in, the Halesowen-born former West Bromwich Albion youth team product arrived to prod the ball inside Ruddy’s near post for his first goal since his summer arrival from Manchester City.
“It’s a great feeling winning football matches. And the clean sheet is important to us too. That’s three in a row now. “I know Wayne Rooney and his staff really well and I knew they’d be tough opposition and be well organised. “But it was another massive contribution from the bench. Huge goal for us and Morgan Rogers. That will help him enormously. You need moments like that to feed off and I’m sure he’ll have an even bigger impact moving forward.”
