Tony Mowbray: Birmingham City boss says side must 'keep believing' after late goals
- Published
Tony Mowbray has started with a draw and a win from his first two games in charge of Birmingham City
New Birmingham City boss Tony Mowbray says his side must keep their renewed sense of belief growing after starting his reign with two key late goals.
Following on from Saturday's 95th-minute Jordan James equaliser against Swansea, Koji Miyoshi hit a 93rd-minute winner against Hull in the FA Cup.
"It's great to score late goals," Blues manager Mowbray told BBC Radio WM.
"Especially to win a cup game and to finish off like we did on Saturday too. Let's keep going and keep believing."
By an ironic twist of fate, Mowbray's predecessor Wayne Rooney also had Hull at home in his second game in charge back in October.
But, having lost to a late goal at Middlesbrough the previous Saturday, Blues lost that one too, 2-0, to embark on the sorry run of just two wins in 15 games that caused them to slide from sixth in the Championship when John Eustace was sacked to 20th when the board made their second big decision of the season by sacking Rooney on 2 January.
In the one game under caretaker boss Steve Spooner, following Rooney's departure, Blues conceded an 87th-minute leveller at Hull to set up Tuesday's third-round replay at St Andrew's.
But now it is Blues who are coming up with the late goals - and Mowbray says it helps having players coming off the bench who can change games.
"It's hard in three or four days to put down a total blueprint on how you want to play," he said. "But we brought on good players with quality. All the subs came on and made a difference.
On-loan Birmingham City top scorer Jay Stansfield has scored eight goals for Blues this season
"Jay Stansfield wants to score a goal. You can see in training. He's hungry to score. But Siriki Dembele nearly bent one in off the far post, Ivan Sunjic made some amazing tackles and regains for the team and, of course Koji Miyoshi comes on and gets the late goal. But he is a quality footballer wherever he goes on the pitch."
Having booked an FA Cup fourth-round trip to Leicester on Saturday week, that means two successive away trips for Blues, as they face Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium this weekend.
But Mowbray just hopes he can keep the pot boiling as his side chase a first win in seven league matches against a Stoke side unbeaten in five league games under the Potters' own new boss Steven Schumacher.
"He has done very well," said Mowbray. "He hasn't lost a [league] game yet.
"We know it's a tough fixture but we can now go there with belief and confidence.
"This club hasn't won enough away games this season. We have to now go to Stoke on Saturday with positivity."
On the downside for Blues, having now gone past the mid-point of the January transfer window without making any signings, he will be without three players: reserve keeper Neil Etheridge, veteran striker Lukas Jutkiewicz and on-loan Cremonese defender Emanuel Aiwu.
"Jukey will be out for two or three weeks with a calf strain and Etheridge is also injured," added Mowbray. "He's not ready for another week or two.
"As for Aiwu, he has an infection. He got sent home by the doctor, to keep him away from the rest of the group. He sent me an amazing text the following day apologising for being ill. I told him not to worry about that and that he'll get plenty of opportunities going forward."
Tony Mowbray was talking to BBC Radio WM's Richard Wilford