Alex McLeish delighted with Birmingham City performance
A THRILLED Alex McLeish predicted that his players would gain even more confidence from last night’s fine away victory at Bristol City.
The 2-1 win at Ashton Gate made it five wins and a draw from six Championship games, which represents Blues best start to a league campaign since 1991-92, the season when Terry Cooper’s side won promotion from Division Three.
The manner of Blues performance in the first-half, which was followed by a typically gallant defensive stand, particularly pleased the manager.
Before the match, the Bristol camp were describing it as a ‘must win’, their players had been talking about how important it was to beat Blues to stop them opening up an early gap at the top of the table.
“We came to a very tough place and Premier League teams would struggle at Ashton Gate I’m sure,” said McLeish.
“We played excellently in the first-half, our best 45 of the season. We scored two good goals and there was some fantastic play. We could have had more, we battered Bristol.
“We were a wee bit sloppy in the second-half. It’s hard to say why.
“A couple of people got tired perhaps. James McFadden, for example, has had a tough two weeks and I’ve asked him to go virtually the whole game Saturday due to Mehdi Nafti’s sending-off then again last night.
“But I thought in the first-half he was absolutely brilliant, the team was. Bristol never got a sniff.
“As for our start to the season, I’m not so sure that we could have made it much better other than having taken maximum points.
“But I think the players will gain in confidence from this.
“We won without being pretty against Doncaster Rovers and this time we won looking a lot more pretty.
“That suggests a major improvement on the previous performance and it was a great three points for us against very good opposition.
“The players will have spring in their step when the come back on Thursday and then we go into another one, a home game at St Andrew’s at the weekend, and we’ve got to try and earn the right again to get the result, just as we did last night.
“Pats on the backs to the players. After the first-half they dug in again. Defence was solid, they worked hard and they fought for every ball. I was thrilled with them.”
Blues, who are second in the table behind Wolves on goal difference, caught Bristol on the hop with a 4-5-1 formation, the first time McLeish has implemented it this season.
Cameron Jerome, scorer of the second goal, was the spearhead, and McFadden and Gary McSheffrey broke from wide to support him to turn it quickly into 4-3-3 once the ball was in Blues possession.
McLeish said: “It did catch them out. We dominated the midfield area for a change, where we’ve looked very vulnerable I think in recent games.
“Lee Carsley and Mehdi Nafti or Lee Carsley and Kemy Agustien have often looked liked the lonely two in there at times. It’s almost been like a 4-2-4.
“We’ve been trying to get people used to playing in the wide areas and what the role entails, like Quincy, like Cameron Jerome, who are more used to thinking attacking-wise, not defensive types.
“ So the formation gave us a bit more control of that area and solidity. But also we had that three in there [Agustien, Carsley Sebastian Larsson], with great attacking options. James was lively, Gary McSheffrey was lively and Cameron is a man with great confidence at the moment.”
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