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Birmingham will not ‘let fans down’ again – Wagner

Birmingham City co-owner Tom Wagner has promised Blues fans that they will not get ‘let down’ again following the disappointment of Sunday’s Vertu Trophy final defeat by Peterborough United.

Wagner flew over from the United States to sit in the royal box at Wembley alongside minority shareholder Tom Brady, whose two previous experience of visiting the venue was in masterminding wins with the New England Patriots in 2009 and 2012 in the NFL.

But, having beaten Peterborough to win promotion at London Road on Tuesday night, then wrapped up the League One title without kicking a ball on Saturday, Wagner and Brady found out that being sat in the posh seats is no guarantee of success at Wembley as Blues were well beaten 2-0 by Darren Ferguson and Barry Fry’s Posh on Sunday.

Reflecting on the disappointment, Wagner told BBC Radio WM: “For the Blues fans to understand, we recognise that it’s not ok to let you down.

“We’ve got a group of young men who gave their very best and it wasn’t good enough on this particular day but we’ve got to try to get better and keep pushing forward. And I can promise you we will.

“The thing we have to remember, the thing we have to strive for in the future is winning the matches that are must-win matches.

“That’s something for us to work on and I think it’s ok to have things to work on.”

Wagner added that securing an immediate return to the Championship was the number-one priority this season.

“The most important objective at the beginning of the season was to get promoted,” he said.

“The second most important was to win the league, so we achieved our first two objectives.

‘Just a reflex save’ from Jutkiewicz – Steer

Blues did not carry any real attacking threat in the final until the arrival of veteran striker Lukas Jutkiewicz off the bench.

The 36-year-old was denied a goal by an unbelievable point-blank save by Posh keeper Jed Steer, who turned over his powerful right-foot volley.

“To make a save like that was just reflex stuff,” said Steer, who had also been Posh’s hero in the semi-final penalties win at Wrexham.

“I just threw my hand in the air.

“But it’s always nice to make a save like that and to keep a clean sheet was fantastic.

“We knew we were heavy underdogs and they beat us on Tuesday but we learned things from that.

“They had 46,000 fans here I believe but it sounded like we had more. And that’s just because they didn’t have much to cheer about. Our fans made a tremendous noise.”

Steer also admitted that, being an Aston Villa old boy did make victory taste all the sweeter.

“I have to say, yes, of course,” he said.

“I was at Villa for 10 years. We knew we the dominant force in Birmingham and still are.”

Blues can still achieve ‘something special’

Birmingham captain Christoph Klarer said it was “incredible” to see so the more than 40,000 Blues fans at Wembley and was “very disappointing” the players could not “give them what they deserved”.

Klarer added that, with the third tier title now secure, Blues must now concentrate on setting a new League One points record.

They are currently on 95 points from 40 games, having lost just three times all season, and need only three more wins to beat the current record, set by Wolves, who ran up 103 points in 2013-14.

“We’ve still won the league,” Klarer told BBC Radio WM.

“Now we want to go on and achieve something special.”

Tom Wagner and Christoph Klarer were talking to BBC Radio WM’s Richard Wilford