O'Connor snubbed Baggies

O'Connor regards Mowbray as "a father figure" from their time together at Hibernian before he decided to move to Lokomotiv Moscow 18 months ago.

When it became clear O'Connor's spell in Russia was coming to an end, Mowbray made it clear he wanted to bring the 24-year-old player to The Hawthorns.

But Albion's Championship play-off final defeat at the hands of Derby effectively ended those hopes and instead O'Connor moved to St Andrews in a £2.65 million deal.

The Scotland international would like to be reunited with Mowbray at some point in the future, but for now he insists he is fully focused on making an impact with Birmingham.

O'Connor said: "Tony Mowbray was like a father figure towards me at Hibernian. We got on brilliantly together. He was after me in January and this summer.

"I would have thought about joining West Brom just because I worked with Tony but the chance to play in the Premiership was there for me with Birmingham.

"You may only get one such chance in your life and I wanted to take it. My agent spoke to Tony and he understood the situation. Maybe it would have been different if Albion had got promoted.

"Tony is a great person as well as a great coach and he wanted me to be part of his squad. I'd love to work with Tony again sometime in the future.

"But now I'm at Birmingham and am going to give everything for them to try to ensure we stay in the Premiership and go onto establish ourselves there.

"I want to make a name for myself here if possible and score a lot of goals in what is the best league in the world."