Roger Johnson slams 'very disrespectful' Arsenal after Birmingham City shock | OneFootball

Blues achieved one of the competition's major shocks against the Gunners 15 years ago

15 years ago, Birmingham City enjoyed what is currently the club's crowning moment throughout 150 years of history.

Despite previously winning the EFL Cup back in 1963 in a two-legged affair against Second City rivals, Aston Villa, a first visit to the new Wembley Stadium in February 2011 saw Blues face off against Arsenal, who had gone six years without winning a trophy under the management of Arsène Wenger beforehand.

It was no real surprise that Alex McLeish's side entered the competition's showpiece event as clear underdogs against a side vying for Premier League supremacy against the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea at the time, whilst boasting some of English, if not, European football's top talents amongst their ranks.

It was also the first time Birmingham had featured in a major final for 10 years, having previously lost out on penalties to Liverpool in the same competition at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium as a Championship side.

Blues overcame Rochdale, MK Dons and Brentford - all in the EFL's basement divisions, before defeating Aston Villa in a hotly-contested quarter-final at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park. They then completed a dramatic turnaround in the semi-finals against West Ham United, winning 4-3 on aggregate after overcoming a 2-1 first leg defeat with a 3-1 success in B9 to set up the Wembley date with the North London giants, who had defeated second tier outfit, Ipswich Town, 3-1, after also losing the first leg at Portman Road.

What unfolded throughout the following 90 minutes will be forever remembered by Bluenoses, with February 27th dubbed 'Obafemi Martins day' as a result of the Nigerian's last-gasp winner after Robin van Persie had initially cancelled out Nikola Zigic's opener for Blues in the first half.

The current season marks exactly 15 years since the club's finest hour, and whilst current American owners, Knighthead Capital Management, will hope similar days are a regular occurrence in the future, that hasn't stopped the likes of ex-Blues defender, Roger Johnson, from reminiscing about a career highlight.

However, it's also fair to say that the 42-year-old is still perplexed by the mentality which was displayed by the Arsenal squad throughout the occasion.

Roger Johnson slams Arsenal 'behaviour' on anniversary of Birmingham City's dramatic EFL Cup triumph

Johnson made 88 appearances for Birmingham after joining from Cardiff City for a reported £5m in June 2009, during which he scored three times.

The aforementioned encounter wasn't the defender's first taste of a cup final, though, having previously been on the wrong side of a 1-0 scoreline for the Bluebirds against Portsmouth in the 2008 FA Cup final.

Two-and-a-half years later, the Ashford native found himself on the winning side, and he recalled how the Arsenal players gave the Blues ranks all the motivation they needed to go out and cause an upset at Wembley.

Speaking on Blues' in-house 'Blue Rising' show, Johnson said: "I think the way they behaved, they put themselves under even more pressure.

"I thought they were very disrespectful to us as a club, a squad and a team," he claimed.

When asked why, the former defender added: "Just how they were behaving on the day. I think they asked the FA if (Cesc) Fabregas could lift the trophy even though he wasn't playing.

"We caught wind of that. Not turning up in suits, in tracksuits. We didn't like that, and it galvanised us massively.

"We had some horrible lads in there who don't like being disrespected. It just made us even more angry."

Birmingham City were unable to back up EFL Cup triumph in the Premier League

Whilst McLeish and his players were able to use the aforementioned anger as motivation to succeed in the cup final, they, unfortunately, couldn't back up those exploits in the Premier League.

Blues won just two of their remaining 12 league encounters and were relegated on the final day of the season through a 4-2 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

This saw the likes of Johnson depart to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a reported £7m, whilst McLeish's controversial exit to Villa Park saw Chris Hughton take the reins at St. Andrew's.

The subsequent 2011/12 season was a remarkable one in B9, and is still the highest the club have finished since being relegated, although they lost in the Championship play-off semi-finals to Blackpool, after contending with the UEFA Europa League play-off round and group stage, where they were knocked out despite accumulating 10 points from a possible 18 against Club Brugge, SC Braga and NK Maribor.