Birmingham City will feel hard done by after the side drew Middlesbrough 1-1 this week. In the dying minutes of the game, Lukas Jutkiewicz would have thought he scored the winner, only for referee Andy Woolmer to call the game back because of an injury suffered by Marcus Tavernier. The 86th-minute goal can be seen in a highlight posted by the club on Twitter.
After the match, manager Pep Clotet was left frustrated by the call. When the club posted his post-match interview with Blues TV on Twitter, fans shared sympathy for the manager. One fan even claims that he doesn’t blame Clotet for the result for the first time in a few matches, while others reckoned that the performance was one of their more promising ones. They think they deserved the win.
https://twitter.com/MeloBcfc22/status/1219908675629932544
Fair play to Pep telling it how it is, deserved more tonight
— Elliot Watkins (@ellwatkins) January 22, 2020
First game in a while i do not blame Pep. Great performance, subs were bang on for once with the timing. We were robbed yet again. I read a while back the FA are looking into referees at our games. When is something more coming out about that?
— Mike Prince (@Princey2k11) January 22, 2020
Played well and deserved the win. Joke the ref carried on then stopped as we scored because Boro cheats ran on the pitch and their player played dead. He got tactics and game plan right tonight we didn’t get the luck or the brown envelope official
— Gilharry (@Gilharry2) January 22, 2020
Was the referee right to stop the game when he did?
Yes
No
Other fans, however, still think Clotet’s time at the club needs to come to an end, despite not holding him responsible for the result against Middlesborough.
I don’t blame Pep for last night, but I do for 12 of the last 15. He still has to go.
— KJ Collier (@Kaje1875) January 22, 2020
As much as i want pep to go I have to say he’s is 100% correct what he said
— Oliver Hatton #TTAOUT (@HattonOliver) January 22, 2020
What do we think?
Birmingham City have claimed that they are sitting down with the refereeing body to discuss the incident and to make sure these mistakes don’t continue to happen. Regardless of what happens from the meeting, however, the result will almost indefinitely stay the same. Hopefully, for Birmingham City fans, the team uses this as fuel going into their next match.