Boss Davies says A-list attention brought best out of Birmingham
- Published
Birmingham City boss Chris Davies says he was pleased how his side did not get distracted by the hype of the 鈥楬ollywood derby鈥 against Wrexham.
He said the profile brought out the best of the promotion favourites as they inflicted a first defeat of the season on Phil Parkinson鈥檚 men.
Monday鈥檚 clash at St Andrew鈥檚 was a test of the two early pace-setters in League One, but gained huge extra attention because of the A-list nature of the club鈥檚 respective ownerships.
It is something Wrexham have become used to since being taken over by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2021.
But Davies praised his players for following the Dragons鈥 example in getting on with the job as he praised Parkinson鈥檚 "honest, hard-working" team after Blues鈥 comfortable 3-1 win.
Asked about the extra focus with McElhenney, Birmingham minority owner Tom Brady and ex-England captain David Beckham all in attendance, Davies, a former Wales youth international and Swansea City coach, said: 鈥淚 really don鈥檛 pay any attention to that stuff.
"I had no idea what was going on and who was going to be here because that鈥檚 not my domain. What's important is what we do on the pitch, in training and how we approach the games.
鈥淚鈥檓 pleased for the club that we鈥檝e had the right kind of attention that we deserve. But all that stuff for me is no interest.
鈥淏ut it pleased me it didn鈥檛 distract the players. It was something I did address with them but that鈥檚 not our domain, our domain is the pitch and what we do. It鈥檚 about focussing on the performance and the external stuff is irrelevant to us.
"It鈥檚 true, they will follow things on social media and they鈥檒l know the attention and hype around the game, but I didn鈥檛 see any change at all from a concentration point of view or any pressure or anything like.
鈥淚f anything it made us better because it was all-round our best performance of the season.鈥
Birmingham are now behind Wrexham on just goal difference following the win as they maintained their unbeaten start to the season.
But Davies 鈥 a former No 2 to Brendan Rodgers at Celtic and Leicester City 鈥 played down the early-season significance adding: 鈥淲e will not get carried away because, as we鈥檝e seen already, this is a really difficult league and anyone who thinks it鈥檚 easy, they don鈥檛 understand the challenge ahead of us.
鈥淲rexham have had a very good start to the campaign, they鈥檝e obviously built momentum from promotion, they know how to win and you could see here they have very honest players who will work hard, and are a club that鈥檚 invested a lot of money and have big ambitions, but we will focus on ourselves.
鈥淢y job is to make sure the players enjoy this and feel the confidence they should from it, but understand they still have a challenge.鈥