Stoke City manager Gary Rowett has insisted that he was “not bothered” by the stick Birmingham City fans gave him on Saturday afternoon, reports the Birmingham Mail.

The former Blues boss was somewhat harshly sacked by the West Midlands side back in 2016, after two years at St. Andrews.

But the Potters manager was subject to abuse from the 3,200 Birmingham fans that made the journey to Staffordshire on Saturday afternoon, where Rowett was sent off for protesting against the referee’s rejection of two penalty claims.

But Rowett was quick to hit back at Blues fans, insisting he was “not bothered” by the barrages of stick in his side's 1-0 defeat.

“What am I going to do, get bothered by 3,000 fans behind a goal? Listen, I think the statistics show that we did a good job there - they were 22nd, they’d just lost 8-0 at home to Bournemouth, but it’s history, it’s done, it’s not my club anymore”, Rowett said.

“I can talk about how well they’ve done recently, I can talk about how much I enjoyed my time there but if people choose to have that reaction I’ve got no problem with it”, he added.

“Listen, I’ll get the same at Derby, it is what it is, I’m not bothered about that - they don’t know who you are, who the real person is, it’s a bit of pantomime isn’t it - they got one over on us”.

The result leaves Stoke sitting 17th in the Championship table after 13 league games.

The Verdict

Fair play to Rowett for playing it down, I think he knows that Blues fans do respect him for the job he did at St. Andrews, and the stick came in the heat of the moment after two contentious decisions.