Birmingham City; Barry Ferguson warns Blues not to relax

Aug 17 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

BARRY Ferguson has warned Blues not to relax and lose their focus for the week’s games ahead.

Blues have Portsmouth visiting St Andrew’s on Wednesday then Stoke City at home on Saturday.

Regardless that Blues came away from Manchester United with credit, it meant nothing, said Ferguson.

“We were saying in the dressing room afterwards that we were really disappointed not to have got something,” revealed the midfielder, who made his competitive Blues debut in the 1-0 defeat yesterday.

“At times I felt we kept the ball really well and we created chances.

“James McFadden had a shot first half, Cameron Jerome, Franck Queudrue had headers off the line too and Christian Benitez was close. There were five, six chances. We were just disappointed we didn’t take one.

“We were also disappointed that Wayne Rooney got a bit of space in the box (to score). But overall we defended well as a team, as a whole.

“We go into two massive games now, Wednesday and Saturday. So we have to make sure our minds are firmly set on Portsmouth and Stoke at home and hopefully we will come away with the points.

“You’ve got to be consistent and we have set our stall out now the way we played on Sunday. We played at a decent level and we’ve got to do that again now, every single game.

“I’m confident we can because we’ve got the players, as we showed at Manchester United. But we have got to build on it. We can’t just rest on a decent performance. We have to carry it into the next game, then the one after that.”

Ferguson said he was not unduly concerned by Blues’ pre-season showings as they headed into the Old Trafford test.