CURTIS Davies revealed that Blues’ players were hurting badly about the Albion defeat and their Premier League position more than they were glorying in Carling Cup success.
Blues took their bow at a civic reception yesterday to mark the victory over Arsenal at Wembley, which brought the club their first major trophy since 1948 and the city’s first piece of silverware in 15 years.
But the players had a relatively subdued air following the 3-1 home defeat by Albion, which contributed to them falling into the relegation zone.
Davies, who made his Blues debut for the injured Martin Jiranek, said: “If you are not hurting from losing, then you shouldn’t be playing football.
“This isn’t a Sunday league game where we can go to the pub afterwards, have a pint and forget about it and think: ‘right, there’s another game next week’.
“This is our livelihood. This is our job. If we aren’t doing our jobs then there will be someone to replace you.
“The lads have come in last week and knew how big this game was. You should have seen how pumped up they were before it.
“It’s just that things didn’t work out, out there. People weren’t really thinking about the reception. That’s for the fans. It’s not for us, we had the cup win last week. I think it’s a bit unfair to judge us like that. West Brom beat us, but not because of what else was going on.”
Asked if the cup triumph had taken its toll, Davies said: “I don’t know, I wasn’t involved. I didn’t play.
“I didn’t win a trophy. I was just there as a fan. You’d have to ask one of the other lads.
“But we were pumped and ready for the game.
“They weren’t thinking about: ‘yeah, we’ve blown it all out on the Wembley pitch’.
“The lads wanted to play the Albion game as much as anything. It’s just a shame the way it went.”
The centre-half admitted Blues’ resistance to Albion left a lot to be desired in the second half, when all the goals came.
“The first was a ricochet, I should have done better for the second and the third was just comical really.
“In this league if you give people opportunities, then they are going to score goals.
“West Brom are down there with us but they are a good team. I know what they are like, they can punish you.
