Bruce praises courageous Birmingham

Nov 12 2007 By Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

MANAGER Steve Bruce praised Blues for their "courage" in fighting back against Villa.

But he was not happy with the manner of the goals Blues conceded as the Second City derby returned with a vengeance after a 20-month gap.

"We had to recover from the own goal and Villa were then in the ascendancy," said Bruce. "We didn't stop the cross as well as we should have and Ridgewell did not anticipate it as well as he should have - and it ended up in the back of the net.

"That rocked us for 20 to 25 minutes. It takes a bit of courage to come back and we showed bundles of it, and effort and commitment.

"We couldn't wait to get to half-time and try something different, which we did, and that worked better for us and we looked a threat up front. We introduced Forssell and that gave us more impetus up the pitch.

"It was a much better second half from us. We put them under a lot of pressure and had one or two chances, so did they.

"It was a typical derby, no-holds barred and everyone was fully revved up for it."