Mark Venus discusses Birmingham City changes and Ipswich ‘disappointment’

Birmingham City’s poor defense at Portman Road led to a 3-1 loss to Ipswich Town, leaving Mark Venus angry.

Interim Blues manager Venus, who replaced Tony Mowbray, led the team to a defeat in their debut game. Ipswich replacements Jeremy Sarmiento and Omari Hutchinson each scored late in the game.

“I think the goals were really disappointing,” Venus went on to say. “We have been through this in the dressing room, you can’t come to top teams and give goals away.”

Conor Chaplin’s opening goal for Ipswich raised suspicions of offside, but Venus had no complaints. He said: “I don’t think it was offside to be honest, it didn’t look offside when I watched it on the replay.”

Blues’ own substitutes did not have the same effect. Venus brought on Ivan Sunjic, Juninho Bacuna, and Siriki Dembele after the hour mark to replace Andre Dozzell, Paik Seung-ho, and Tyler Roberts.

Venus explained the alterations, saying, “It was about taking tired legs off.” We put in a lot of effort to contain Ipswich. I wanted to bring on some footballers who could pose a threat, and we did for a few moments, but there weren’t enough of them. I felt we needed to be refreshed and re-energized. “It did not carry.”