![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skysports-chris-davies-birmingham_7054851.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBirmingham manager Chris Davies and Hull counterpart Sergej Jakirovic were involved in a war of words during a fracas that overshadowed the Tigers’ 3-2 victory at St Andrew’s.<\/p>\n
Blues’ first defeat in the league at home since April last year was inflicted by Joe Gelhardt’s stoppage-time strike, but that was not the main talking point after the game, as the managers continued their verbal warfare in the post-match press conferences.<\/p>\n
Jakirovic claimed Davies swore at him and alleged security staff told him to “go back to Croatia”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Chris Davies clashes with Marko Salatovic<\/p>\n
But Birmingham later issued a statement refuting “in the strongest possible terms” Jakirovic’s claim.<\/p>\n
Davies denied swearing and said he was focused on the game restarting following the melee while claiming Jakirovic refused to shake his hand at the end of the game.<\/p>\n
What happened to spark spat?<\/p>\n
The trouble started when Kyle Joseph appeared to catch Patrick Roberts close to the dug-outs in the 42nd minute.<\/p>\n
Play continued before Birmingham committed a foul seconds later.<\/p>\n
A disturbance then kicked off involving almost every player on the pitch – including the two goalkeepers on the halfway line.<\/p>\n
Security staff tried to pull the feuding players apart and the match was eventually restarted by referee Ruebyn Ricardo who brandished four yellow cards to a variety of players and associated staff.<\/p>\n
Jakirovic later said: “I was in my technical space. They came to us. I asked Chris ‘why do you come into my space?’.<\/p>\n
“And he said to me: ‘f*** you’. And some of the security staff too – they said that I should go back to Croatia. I’m hard-born. I’m not afraid of anyone. I’m doing my job in this country.<\/p>\n
“I would never say something like this. It’s disrespectful. For me, this is a disaster. I’m a big boy. I can take care of myself.”<\/p>\n
What did Birmingham say?<\/p>\n
A later statement from Birmingham read: “Birmingham City are aware of a serious allegation made by Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic towards a member of the security team.<\/p>\n
“Having conducted an internal investigation, the club refute, in the strongest possible terms, Mr Jakirovic’s claims.<\/p>\n
“In addition, we are disappointed the allegation was made in a public press conference. We will be making no further comment at this time.”<\/p>\n
Davies said he had never experienced his handshake being snubbed, insisting: “There was a melee of people as there normally is during those circumstances.<\/p>\n
“From my point of view, I was making sure we were getting our people back and carrying on with the game. There were a lot of their staff coming over and trying to be involved.<\/p>\n
“Emotions are running high. It happens every week. Unfortunately, it has culminated in him not shaking my hand which I’ve never experienced before since I’ve been a coach. It says a lot but it is what it is.”<\/p>\n
Gelhardt seals victory <\/p>\n
![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skysports-joe-gelhardt-efl_7054498.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Joe Gelhardt celebrates after scoring a late winner for Hull at Birmingham<\/p>\n
Hull led 2-1 at the break after a Jack Robinson own goal and Regan Slater’s strike sandwiched Jay Stansfield’s leveller.<\/p>\n
Robinson was then sent off just before the hour for foul and abusive language.<\/p>\n
Birmingham tried desperately to draw level but Joe Gelhardt’s stoppage-time strike sealed the points before Stansfield’s late penalty raised brief hopes of a rousing finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham manager Chris Davies and Hull counterpart Sergej Jakirovic were involved in a war of words during a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-224680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}