Birmingham fans pitch invade at St Andrews and clash with stewards

Birmingham City fans clashed with stewards after their relegation to League One was sealed despite a 1-0 win against Norwich.

Paik Seung-ho netted in a second-half goal to give the club a glimmer of hope in their bid to escape the drop on the final day of the season.

However, going into Saturday’s clash Birmingham had to rely on Plymouth dropping points against play-off chasing Hull but a 1-0 win for the Pilgrims at Home Park sealed the club’s fate.

Discontent among the fanbase has been growing throughout the campaign and supporters made their feelings clear at the full-time whistle as boos rang out across St Andrews.

Some fans then made their way onto the pitch leading to ugly scenes as stewards intervened to restore order.

The disastrous end to campaign marks the club’s relegation to the third tier of English football for the first time since the 1994-95 season.

With John Eustace at the helm, the Blues enjoyed a bright start to the season with just three defeats from their first 11 games seeing them as high as fifth in the table.

The positive start appeared to mark the dawn of a new era after American investor Tom Wagner completed a protracted deal in July to assume a significant stake in the club.

The feel good factor continued with NFL legend Tom Brady joining the new regime and becoming a minority investor of the club.

However, cracks began to show after Eustace was controversially dismissed in the October international break to be replaced by former Derby boss Wayne Rooney.

After just two wins from 15 Championship games, in January Rooney became the second manager to be dismissed with Steve Spooner, Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus all having short spells in the hot seat in the ensuing weeks.

Gary Rowett rejoined the club as interim boss in March, and while he managed to oversee a slight uptick in fortunes, particularly as the season drew to a close, the damage had already been done and Birmingham were unable to beat the drop.

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