Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish admits his side messed up their chance to go second after defeat at Blackpool

Jan 26 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

ALEX McLeish confessed that Blues messed up at Blackpool.

Blues could have gone back into second place in the Championship with a victory.

“It was a missed opportunity,” said the manager. “We spoke about it long and hard before the game and the players seemed up for it, and I thought they started very brightly.

“We got behind the defence, Hameur Bouazza may have chosen a better option, maybe a square ball to Cameron Jerome across the box for a tap-in.

“Then we shot ourselves in the foot with a defensive mistake, they went ahead and it gave them a real lift with the local support behind them.

“It was a little bit of slackness at the back and I think our defenders were waiting on the ball going up the pitch and DJ Campbell’s stolen a march on them. It was a clever ball in and the wee fella has notched a good goal.

“We were on the back foot after that and the second goal was a wonder goal. It was the sort he will score one out of 100. But the long ball in caused us problems, as it did all afternoon.

“That was a body blow and we chased it from then on in and threw everybody up but we couldn’t penetrate them.”