Wayne Rooney admitted “it’s great to be back in English football” despite suffering a 1-0 defeat in his first match as Birmingham’s new boss at Middlesbrough.
The former Manchester United and England striker was left frustrated against ex-team-mate Michael Carrick’s Boro when Morgan Rogers flicked in an 89th-minute winner at the Riverside.
Rooney, who turns 38 on Tuesday, took over from John Eustace during the international break.
It was a day of emotion and reflection for both Rooney and Carrick as they heard the news of Sir Bobby Charlton’s death at half-time, with both sets of fans then chanting the World Cup winner’s name before the restart.
Both Rooney and Carrick had spent time with Charlton during their Old Trafford careers.
Middlesbrough had controlled the first half and wasted numerous opportunities, the best of which was when striker Josh Coburn was played in and fired wide, having earlier headed over the bar too.
But when Rogers, only 13 minutes after emerging as a substitute, arrived at the front post to turn in Matt Crooks’ low return pass, there was no way back for Birmingham – meaning defeat for Rooney in his first game.
Rooney, whose side have slipped to seventh after a fourth straight defeat on the road, said: “I have been quite calm. You always have a feeling before the game as player or manager, which is normal, but I was quite calm. I know what I want.
“I know where we need to get to. I knew this was a possibility today, but it will take time to get where we want to go.
“We might have to go through days like this and it is important we stay calm to ensure we hit the goals we really want to.
“You never enjoy when you lose, but it is great to be back in English football, great to be at Birmingham. Thankfully we have another game Wednesday.
He added: “There were parts of the game we wanted to take the ball more, but ultimately you don’t always get what you want in football. It is decision-making and game management.
“Even after Middlesbrough scored there were different moments in the game were our game management has to be better. That is what frustrated me in the last eight minutes.
“But we are a team trying to adapt to a different way and that will take time. During that period we do have to pick up points.”
Given Rooney and Carrick’s Old Trafford connections, it was ironic that it was Rogers, a former Manchester City player, who scored the winner.
The 21-year-old has scored twice in the league cup since his summer arrival from the Etihad, but this was his first goal in the Championship – and one that secured a fifth straight win for Middlesbrough.
Carrick, whose side moved a point behind seventh-placed Birmingham, said: “It was a big goal for all of us – a big goal to win a game.
“I’m really pleased for Morgan, he came on to make an impact. Goals like that can give you a massive boost and I am sure he will have an impact for the rest of the season.
“We did enough to win the game because we had enough chances, and those chances we could have scored from, they were good ones.
“I couldn’t fault the boys. It is tough when you go into a game like this because we didn’t really know
what we were going into, there wasn’t much we had to go on (after Rooney’s arrival).
“But I’m really pleased about the impact from the boys off the bench. They have all come off and made an impact in different ways.
“You never know if a goal is going to come, but you have to keep doing the right things and freshen up to try to create a spark. In the end the boys found a way to score.”
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