Steve Bruce knows Birmingham City have to play to their maximum every match to survive in the League.
And the Blues manager has challenged his players to prove the woeful show at Middlesbrough was a one-off.
Bruce's encouragement at early season performances was brought crashing down to earth after the 2-0 defeat at the Riverside Stadium. He has had to wait nearly a fortnight to work with the majority of his players again because of international call-ups.
But he is expecting a positive response when City take on another of the early season strugglers in Bolton Wanderers at St Andrews.
stroll it
"We got our backsides kicked against Middlesbrough. There is no other way of putting it. We started poorly and finished poorly," he said. "Possibly only one player played to their potential in Cameron Jerome while the rest simply weren't good enough and we made Middlesbrough look very good on the day.
"It was disappointing as we had seen in the previous games that we can be competitive in this league but on that day we didn't play well collectively, individually or as a team.
"The message it sent out was if you think you can stroll it or take your foot off the pedal, then you can't. If we are to do well we have to have everyone at 100 per cent in every game. If we fall short of that in a couple of areas, then we are going to have a struggle."
Bruce wants 100 per cent
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