New low for Bruce

Steve Bruce admitted he felt at his lowest ebb in nearly four years as Birmingham manager as two-goal Mark Viduka inspired Middlesbrough to a 3-0 triumph at St Andrews.

Bruce branded his team’s performance as “a horror show” and they were booed off the pitch after slumping to a second home defeat in the space of four days.

But he defended his decision not to rush key players Mikael Forssell and Muzzy Izzet back into action after lengthy injury lay-offs and the pair did not appear until the second half.

By then Viduka had struck twice in only his second start since suffering back and hamstring problems during the corresponding fixture on St Stephen's Day.

Bruce said: “I can’t remember in the four years I have been here seeing a performance like that. It was a horror show. I will take the responsibility. I picked the team. I might have picked the wrong team and played people out of position.

“I didn’t want to rush back the people like Mikael and Muzzy for obvious reasons after so long out. That is tough. But, no matter what team you play, you can still perform better than that.

“Ultimately I am the manager and I take the responsibility for that. There was some very poor stuff out there.

“I didn’t think there was any lack of commitment. I just thought we ran out of ideas and we had too many players who were either injured or running on empty to cause any real concern to them.”

Bruce added: “It’s three games. I know for a fact we will be far better than that against West Brom on Saturday and we will be ready for that challenge.

“You don’t like to lose 3-0 at home and it’s the worst I have felt in four years but the season is three games old and we can’t get judged on three games and I know we will be a lot better than that.”

Viduka turned home a pass from James Morrison for the opener but his second goal was a solo affair and he beat Blues goalkeeper Maik Taylor with a scorching shot from a narrow angle.

Boro manager Steve McClaren said: “Mark Viduka is a special player. When he is fit, there is no-one in the Premier League who is better at what he does and they were great finishes.

“He does that in training all the time. He has got quality. The first goal was not easy and the second goal was something special.

“It was a surprise when it actually happened because we thought it was an impossible angle. When we signed Mark, we looked at his injury record and it was very good. For the first six months he was with us, he was excellent. We were scoring goals and playing very well and then we lost him and struggled.

“He has worked very hard over the summer. He still needs to work on his fitness. He still has not had 90 minutes yet but for 60-70 minutes he was superb.”

McClaren added: “I was delighted with the performance and it was a carry-on from the Spurs game on Saturday when a good performance didn’t get what we deserved.

“This time we got what we deserved and the defining moments were ours at each end – a clean sheet and three goals. I couldn’t believe we got beat 2-0 at Spurs.

“We said to the players ‘you have got to deliver, you have got to perform and have that concentration to win the game’ and we had it from the beginning. We never looked in trouble and with the strikers we have got we are always capable of scoring.”