Wayne Rooney admitted he lost his voice ranting at his Birmingham players at half-time – but it seemed to work as they beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at St Andrew’s for his first win since taking charge.
Rooney collected his first win as Birmingham manager at the sixth time of asking against the Sky Bet Championship’s bottom club.
Substitute Jordan James’s grabbed the 82nd-minute winner after Juninho Bacuna’s equaliser cancelled out George Byers’s opener.
Victory was Rooney’s first win in English football since April last year when his Derby side won 2-0 at Blackpool, while new Wednesday boss Danny Rohl has now lost five of his first six games.
Byers tapped home on 44 minutes after Josh Windass’s superb curling free-kick hit the post, but Bacuna equalised within four minutes with a half-volley from 22 yards after Wednesday failed to clear Koji Miyoshi’s corner.
James was Blues’ matchwinner just four minutes after replacing Bacuna, rounding goalkeeper Cameron Dawson to tap home after his first shot had been blocked from Jay Stansfield’s cross.
City risked a fans backlash if they had gone in trailing after a lacklustre first-half performance before Bacuna’ equaliser, but Rooney says he was equally frustrated.
“We can’t get caught up with the fans’ reaction – everyone has opinions and we don’t want to go in 1-0 down but when you’re on the pitch you’ve got to keep your focus and concentration,” said Rooney.
“Forget the fans – my reaction at half-time wasn’t good to the players – that’s why my voice has gone!
“We didn’t play with the energy I wanted us to play with in the first half and I made the players aware of that but in the second half we were a lot better.
“I wasn’t very pleased with the first half. I thought Sheffield Wednesday pressed really well without the ball but we have to show more composure on the ball because we were too happy to go back to John Ruddy and allow him to make decisions.
“I’ve seen an improvement week by week so if that first half was four weeks ago, I could have understood it, but it was unrecognisable to what we’ve been doing during the international break.”
Defeat left Wednesday 10 points from the safety line and former Germany assistant coach Rohl insisted his side deserved more.
“There are reasons why we’re at the bottom of the table, but when I see the improvement of my team and how hard they’re working, they deserved to go in at half-time with a lead of maybe two or three nil,” said Rohl.
“I could push the (rewind) button from five of the last six games. We deserved more. There has just been the one game against Rotherham where we took the points but today we showed nearly what we can do in this league.
“I don’t think we played like a team at the bottom, but we played like a team in the middle of the table.
“It’s hard, but I have a clear idea of what I want to do. It wasn’t enough to take something and it was disappointing when you get this team playing at such a high level and don’t get something.”
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Campbell gives Sheffield United victory in Steel City derby, Rodriguez strikes late for Burnley
Sheffield United joined leaders Sunderland at the top of the Championship table after a hard-fought 1-0 win against local rivals Sheffield Wednesday.
After a goalless first half, Tyrese Campbell latched onto a pass from Callum O'Hare and slotted past Wednesday goalkeeper James Beadle for the winner five minutes into the second period.
This was the Blades' sixth consecutive clean sheet at Bramall Lane and their fourth straight win home or away, and sees them go level with Sunderland on 31 points from 15 matches.
Meanwhile, Burnley are four points behind the top two after they snatched a last-gasp 1-0 victory against visitors Swansea City.
Jay Rodriguez's stoppage-time penalty secured the points for the Clarets at Turf Moor, ending their four-match winless run and climbing to fourth in the table.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
