McLeish: Pompey will not be a pushover for Birmingham City

Aug 19 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Mail

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A QUICK scan down Portsmouth’s squad list should dispel talk of the crisis club being there for the taking tonight, according to Blues boss Alex McLeish.

Pompey arrive at St Andrew’s this evening seemingly in turmoil. Doubts over Sulaiman Al Fahim’s takeover at Fratton Park refuse to go away while Paul Hart is working with a paper-thin squad following the departure of several stars.

We will be blogging live from the game tonight - more details at www.birminghammail.net/live

However, cautious McLeish feels that Pompey are still a side that boast more Premier League experience than his Blues squad and he’s not preparing to take an easy three points.

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“When I look in the players in that (Portsmouth) team at the weekend, I see nothing but household names, guys who have been in the Premier League a long time,” said McLeish.

“I have massive respect for Portsmouth. They have good players, we are the rookies in this encounter. The big advantage is we are playing at home and in front of our crowd we don’t fear anyone.

“Why should (Niko) Kranjcar suddenly turn into a bad player overnight? I would doubt that very much. They’ve got more experience than us on paper. They’ve been a Premier League side for the last seven years and we know we have to beat this Premier League side as a rookie coming up from the Championship.