Gary Rowett sends message to stunned Birmingham City stars as ...

Gary Rowett called upon Birmingham City's shell-shocked squad to stay and repair the damage of relegation.

The atmosphere at St Andrew’s went from electric to flat inside a few minutes as news seeped through that the results were going against the Second City club in their battle to stay up.

Home nerves had been settled by Seung-Ho Paik’s headed finish just before the hour - but with their drop zone rivals all securing the victories necessary for survival - the axe fell.

This was the fifth time in 11 years that the club needed a result on the last day but this time the dice was stacked against them and the club’s interim boss called upon the players to make good the situation next season.

He said: “I’m sure over the next few weeks the club will have to do a lot of things to be ready for next season. You can’t wait too long and they’re going to have to make big decisions on players’ futures and how they want the squad to look.

“There are some in there where it would be great if they had the responsibility to say: ‘I’m going to stay to get this club back in the Championship.’

“I think it’s easy for people to look at the exit door and the easy way out. Maybe that’s something the players need to look at.”

Incredibly, Rowett was the sixth manager to sit in the hot seat this season, following on from John Eustace, Wayne Rooney, Steve Spooner, Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus. And he said that revolving door had played a part in the club’s demise.

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He added: “I can only judge on eight games but when you see teams being successful there’s an element of continuity and consistency. You never want six different voices throughout the season but that’s what we’ve had. I wanted mine to be the one to make the difference. I haven’t made as much as I would like to have done.”

Despite the defeat, Norwich scraped into the play-offs and will now face Leeds United in the scrap to reach the Premier League. Canaries’ boss David Wagner said: “It’s fantastic, we’ve done a job over 46 games - something which we had as a target since the beginning of the season.

“To confirm it is top class. It’s an unbelievable achievement because everyone knows where we came from last season.

“As for Leeds, it’s no problem to say we are the underdogs and they are the favourites - it will be electric. A belter.”

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