Birmingham hit 29-year low as fans slam ‘worst managerial decision in football history’

Birmingham City have been relegated to League One.

The Blues will play in the third tier of English football for the first time in 29 years.

A 1-0 victory at home to Norwich on the final day of the Championship season was not enough as Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn won to secure safety.

The damage at St Andrew’s was done earlier in the season during a disastrous 15-game spell under Wayne Rooney.

Birmingham were sixth when Rooney replaced John Eustace in October.

The England legend failed to win 13 of his 15 games in charge and the club dropped 14 places in the league before he was sacked.

After their relegation was confirmed, football fans all said the same thing about the decision to hire Rooney.

“Sacking John Eustace and bringing in Wayne Rooney has to be one of the worst decisions a club has ever made,” one supporter wrote on social media.

Another said: “The decision from Birmingham City to sack John Eustace and replace him with Wayne Rooney is one of the worst in football history.”

Huddersfield joined Birmingham and Rotherham in the confirmed relegation zone with a 2-0 defeat at Ipswich, who were promoted to the Premier League.

Birmingham needed any of Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday or Blackburn to lose in order to stay up – but all three relegation rivals won.

It caps a disastrous year under their new American ownership group, which includes NFL legend Tom Brady.

Rooney’s replacement, Tony Mowbray, was placed on medical leave in February after a month in charge.

Gary Rowett took the reigns on an interim basis in March, but could not get the Blues over the line despite reaching 50 points.

Speaking afterwards, Rowett said: “It’s incredibly disappointing. I felt that if we kept our side of the bargain today we would get a result elsewhere that went in our favour, and most people would have expected something to have happened. You look at these last day moments, or last day goals, and it didn’t seem like there was anything going on out there. Congratulations to the teams that held their nerve. I’m sure when they heard about our goal it added pressure.

“The atmosphere in the stadium was probably the best I’ve ever heard before a game, it was absolutely electric. As we knew they would, the fans more than played their part.

“I thought we played well against a very good Norwich side but when you know that’s not enough, of course there’s a feeling of dejection. Sometimes when you put a performance like that in because you have to and you need to, what really good teams do is they do it when they don’t need to. They show that same level of attitude when they don’t need to.”