Birmingham City plan B is ‘banging on the door’ to cause Gary Rowett trouble at Norwich

Lukas Jutkiewicz has been ‘banging on the door’ to Gary Rowett, demanding a start in Saturday’s must-win game against Norwich City.

To avoid relegation to League One, Birmingham City must beat the Canaries at St Andrew’s. Jutkiewicz was patched up for 15 minutes in last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Huddersfield Town, and the 35-year-old striker is eager to start the season’s last encounter.

“He has already been banging on the door,” Rowett stated on Thursday. “That explains everything you need to know about Lukas Jutkiewicz. He’s been a salvation for this team on numerous occasions, and he wants to do everything he can to assist it again.”

Jutkiewicz has been involved in all of the Blues’ final-day relegation battles since 2014, when he scored for Bolton Wanderers before Paul Caddis salvaged the day in the 93rd minute. He played a key role in the Blues’ rescue from relegation under Harry Redknapp and Garry Monk.

Marc Roberts, another Blues player who has been involved in too many relegation battles over the years, made his return to the John Smith’s Stadium last weekend. Now that they are both fit after lengthy injury absences, Roberts and Jutkiewicz provide Blues with physicality or, as Rowett puts it, a Plan B.

The interim manager added: “With the likes of Jukey and Marc Roberts, it’s pretty evident to me that both are very excellent players who give you the opportunity to do something slightly different within the game. Marc has a long throw, while Jukey has aerial presence. There’s so much more to those two guys than that, but it’s evident that you have a very good Plan B.

“However, they would probably only endure around 60 minutes of the game. That is a really easy equation. Do you begin with Plan B and end with Plan A? Do you begin with Plan A and end with Plan B? That is the reality of the issue. I’ll need to make solid decisions based on what I’ve observed in training, as well as what the game requires.

“It gives us options.” We will have three or four different scenarios in the game, which we will try to plan ahead of time. If they had both been fit three or four weeks earlier, they might have lasted 90 minutes, or I might have been able to get them through it. That is where we are. It’s fantastic to have them both available.”