This time we have to stay up, say Birmingham City's Lee Carsley

May 5 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

“It really did take me by surprise, what was surrounding the club and, I suppose, what was within the club, having just got relegated.

“We then had the pressure of being favourites to go back up and it didn’t make for an easy season.

“I think now that we’ve got out of the Championship we all have to look forward to next season and the club has to consolidate and then make progress. There’s no reason why we can’t do that.”

Carsley made the point that the reputation Blues have for building hopes up only for everything to come crashing down was easily remedied.

“I’m not one of these believers who think Blues always do it the hard way,” he said.

“Over the years it has perhaps been a lack of quality and perhaps a lack of getting the job done.”

Blues got the job done on Sunday at Reading in an incredible final day of the regular campaign.

And Carsley, raised in Sheldon in a family of Blues fans, said he knew how much it meant.

“There’s a lot of trouble in Birmingham with the recession and things. People are getting laid off at the Land Rover, there’s LDV with the vans and stuff, so it was important that we gave the people of the city something to smile about,’’ he said.

“I think if we had come in at half-time two or three-nil up that would have been fair. It was one of our best away performances, in what was a massive game.

“Monday and Tuesday were horrendous days after the Preston North End game. That was one of the lowest points of a lot of the lads’ careers.

“To put all that behind us and move on to Reading and win, it was tremendous.

“We have been grinding constantly all season, getting results and doing what we had to do to win games.

‘‘The Championship’s a very tough league. To let promotion slip would have been a disaster.”