Birmingham City: Reason behind Birmingham's resurgence revealed

Mar 21 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

THE strikers set the tempo – and have helped revive Blues promotion push.

Blues went into today’s match against Norwich City on the back of three wins and a draw.

It has put them in the box seat for automatic promotion again. So what’s been behind the resurgence?

“I think the two recent home games were very significant,” said Alex McLeish. “The workrate has always been there. I’ve always said there’s been a resilience about us, a never-say-die attitude.

“But that night, against Bristol City, for the first time in a while the strikers started to play together.

“Looking at the evidence of the Coventry City game again, Cameron Jerome and Marcus Bent were never on each other’s wavelength the whole game, there was no chemistry at all, and I spoke to them about it before the Bristol game.

“I said ‘look, we need to get the two of you playing closer together’ and that night they worked really hard for the team.