Tony Mowbray's influence from afar has been 'key' in allowing Gary Rowett and his staff to implement their ideas as they seek to secure their Championship status for another season. Rowett is back at Blues on an interim basis while Mowbray continues to recover having undergone successful surgery.
Blues have eight games remaining of their season, outside of the relegation zone only on goal difference, and they take on Queens Park Rangers on Good Friday in what could prove to be a crucial meeting in the context of the battle to survive the threat of the drop. Rowett, most recently at Millwall, brought back with him ex-Blues captain Paul Robinson and Dave Carolan to work with the squad and force an upturn in results.
Robinson, who famously only signed a one-month deal under Lee Clark in 2012 before eventually going on to spend six seasons at St Andrew's, worked under Rowett as a player but also under Mowbray at West Bromwich Albion, where in 2008 the Baggies won the Championship title. He has revealed that Mowbray, while not present, remains an important voice while he simultaneously allows Rowett and co to carry out the job.
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"Tony has been a really important key to all this, he's allowing the gaffer to go and work with his methods and to implement things in how we see the last eight games," Robinson said. "That's all it is in our minds - eight games. Hopefully when Tony is better, and he comes back next season, we're a Championship side and he's building from there."
Robinson, with Rowett and Carolan, will continue to demand high levels from the existing squad, which has taken on a dramatically different look since he departed in 2018. Indeed only a couple of players remain from his own playing spell, that pair being Lukas Jutkiewicz and Marc Roberts. It is a different surrounding, with Blues having moved to Henley, but Robinson has enjoyed being back.
"[It has been] really good from my point of view," he added. "It is great to be back at a club that is very close to my heart, playing here and coaching, moving on to new surroundings and then coming back. I have loved every minute of it. The lads have been brilliant and done everything we have asked of them so far, taken everything on board and worked extremely hard.
"We want the players to understand that when they're on the grass it's work time. You've got to focus and concentrate on what we're asking of you and then you can have fun and enjoy yourselves. That's what we want. As soon as you cross the white line, that's when the concentration levels have to be good.
"I've always been that type, I was like that as a player and as the captain of this club, what I demanded of my teammates but also when I wasn't playing, encouraging them and trying to be positive around the place. I'm no different as a coach, demanding the levels from the players are high."
