It was nice to repay lads after pen woe, says Lukas
LUKAS Jutkiewicz believes the match-winning performance he turned in at Derby was one he owed his Birmingham City teammates.
The stalwart striker scored twice as Blues came from behind to win 2-1 at Pride Park and in doing so guarantee themselves Championship football for another season.
That came just three days after they were denied by the fact Jutkiewicz gave away an injury-time penalty in what turned out to be a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest.
Blues were leading 1-0 that night when Jutkiewicz was adjudged to have fouled Scott McKenna, giving Lewis Grabban the chance to delay their safety celebrations for another few days.
Blues have since received an apology from referee chiefs and sealed the Championship deal against the Rams. But Jutkiewicz admitted the situation was on his mind going into Saturday’s game.
“It was nice to repay the boys after everything that happened on Wednesday night,” the 32-year-old admitted.
“Whilst I didn’t think it was a penalty I still carried a little bit of responsibility to that and wanted to turn it around.
“I think he (head coach Lee Bowyer) just felt it was undeserving, especially with the way we played.
“We had deserved the win, I don’t think it was a pen, his momentum took him into me, their bench didn’t think it was a penalty, none of their team were appealing for it. It was one of those collisions that happen all the time in football.
“To give that in the 97th minute, to be sure that was a penalty, was quite incredible so it was a tough one to take.
“But that’s football and fortunately in this league you have an opportunity to redeem yourself, if that’s what needed to be done, in a few days’ time.”
Jutkiewicz certainly did that, heading home from a long throw-in just after the hour and then stooping to nod in Ivan Sanchez’s 84th-minute cross.
His first was a rare goal from a Marc Roberts torpedo – a tactic which has looked much more dangerous since Bowyer took over.
“It’s definitely more effective, it’s not something that has happened by accident because we do work on it,” Jutkiewicz continued.
“Like anything, if you are going to do something you might as well work on it on the training ground and he has left no stone unturned with making sure we know exactly what we are doing with set-pieces, with the shape, the press we are putting on teams and the long throw is a good weapon.
“Even if you don’t score from it, it applies a lot of pressure. It might be you then get another set-piece and score from that one.
“It just keeps teams in their half. I’ve been on the receiving end of it and it’s difficult to defend, it makes you uncomfortable.”
Bowyer once again praised Jutkiewicz, who has now scored five goals in eight games under the new boss, and hailed the warhorse’s all-round contribution.
“We have got a good group of players, you have to look at their strengths and weaknesses, you have to work on their weaknesses and keep trying to do things they want to thrive on,’’ he said.
“Lukas’ is put balls in the box. It’s
not complicated, if you put balls in the right areas then he is a problem, he is very, very good at it. That’s what we have tried to do.
“If you have got someone like Jutkiewicz and you don’t want to cross the ball – no point playing him.
“He has been excellent.
“He has scored five since I have been here in eight games and that’s some going.’’