Birmingham City: James McFadden: We've shown we belong in the Prem

Aug 18 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

“I think we found that level at Man United. I wouldn’t say we’ve proved anything to anybody apart from ourselves, that we can do it on this stage.

“The best thing for me was we actually passed it about a bit. Everybody was ready to take the ball. People wanted to take it, people wanted to give it to you. Although it was really hard work as well, it was enjoyable.

“Also, although they had more of the possession, we were a threat and we were disappointed we took nothing from the game.

“I think we made more chances in the game than we did the whole of last season in the Championship!

“You have to work hard for anything in football, but it was also nice to give Man United a game and make chances. We have to keep that up.”

Blues tackle Portsmouth at St Andrew’s tomorrow in what is already shaping up to be a crunch game considering the mess Pompey are in.

McFadden said it was important Blues built on Sunday’s display. And he admitted Christian Benitez could prove to be their ace in the pack this season.

Benitez was thrown in at the deep end as a substitute at Old Trafford having barely trained this pre-season. The Ecuador striker could cost £7.75 million – but is actually on a glorified loan from Santos Laguna.

Blues are paying them £1.2million for this season and then can decide whether to send him back, or proceed with further payments to cement him on a long contract.

“To be fair, I only trained with him for the first time on Friday and I didn’t know what to make of him then,” said McFadden.

“He came on, looked sharp, he got on the ball and wanted to make things happen.”