Bench duty not for Jerome May 12 2008
Birmingham striker Cameron Jerome will consider his future despite his two-goal finale to the season which failed to save Blues from relegation.
Jerome came off the bench to help Alex McLeish's side to a 4-1 home victory over Blackburn although wins for Fulham and Reading doomed them to the dreaded drop.
But the England Under-21 international had not even been named among the substitutes until James McFadden suffered a reaction to his knee injury during the warm-up.
Jerome had actually left the ground to pick up his family from the railway station.
He played the majority of the first half of City's campaign in the starting line-up, often as a lone striker, but has had few opportunities in 2008.
The 21-year-old said: "I haven't been in the team since January and, when I was in the team, we weren't in the bottom three.
"Football is all about opinions and the manager hasn't played me, for whatever reason, since the beginning of February.
"There is nothing I can do if I don't play. I have to look at my situation, sit down with my people and my family, and discuss it. Football is a funny game and anything can happen.
"But I've not been happy to be on the bench for the second half of the season so we will have to see how it goes. We will assess it in the summer.
"I would be prepared to play for Blues in the Championship. I have two years left on my contract and I was relatively happy here until I wasn't playing."
As for his departure from the ground before kick-off, Jerome said: "I wasn't in the 16 and I was peed off so I went to fetch my family from the station.
"I was on the way back when I had a call to say James McFadden was injured."
However, defender David Murphy has joined McFadden and Stephen Kelly in pledging his future to the midlands club.
Murphy joined Blues from Hibernian for £1.5million in January and is bitterly disappointed at their failure to hang onto their top-flight status.
But he is keen to try to help McLeish make amends by being promoted from the Championship at the first attempt.
Murphy said: "I've been part of the team that got us into this mess and I want to stay and play a part in getting us out of it.
"I would hope that the other players would be thinking along the same lines. We've got to deal with it.
"I've no regrets about leaving Hibernian to come to Birmingham and always wanted to show that I could play in the Premier League. I think I've done that.
"Now we have to aim to get back up as quickly as possible."