The former Birmingham City boss was frustrated that his Derby County team was not able to beat Blues despite having Joe Ward sent off
Derby County boss John Eustace(Image: Kieran McManus/Shutterstock)
John Eustace has disputed Chris Davies’ claim that Birmingham City should have beaten his Derby County side, after a feisty game ended in a 1-1 draw.
Blues started well but slipped behind to a Patrick Agyemang goal as the Rams counter-attacked. Derby then had a Joe Ward sent off as Blues responded with a second-half equaliser through Jack Robinson.
Blues would go on to have Christoph Klarer sent off in injury time – with Eustace feeling the Austrian should have been dismissed 25 minutes earlier after a body-check on Agyemang.
“From where I was I think it was a deliberate block and should have been another yellow,” the Derby head coach claimed.
Eustace, who has facing his former club, went on to claim the visitors should have left St Andrew’s with a victory – with Davies claiming the opposite.
“I thought the first ten minutes we just got our shape very, very slightly wrong, which caused us a problem. We adjusted to that and then I felt we had a real good grip of the game,” Eustace said.
“We scored a fantastic goal. We knew we’d have a bit of pressure to defend apart from when they hit the post at the start. I don’t think they really caused us any other issues.
“Even when we went down to ten men, I felt very comfortable, and I’m really disappointed that we didn’t get the three points
“We knew Birmingham would have lots and lots of possession, they would want to build on the sides and be patient with their build up.
“I felt that 5-3-1 was really effective, I didn’t feel they were going to score, I knew they would have lots of ball but we would have free kicks, we would be able to hurt them on the transition.
“I felt really comfortable, I am not going to lie, the way we conceded was really, really disappointing.”
Counterpart Davies said: “From our point of view, I think we sit here a little bit frustrated that we haven’t got the three points out of today. I think we did enough to win the match in the end but it wasn’t to be.
“We got the goal with about 25 minutes to go and it was a case of just getting a second. There was a lot there and we just needed that goal to go in but it didn’t.”
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