Alex McLeish is comfortable with Birmingham City success

Nov 30 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Mail

ALEX McLeish believed his Blues side showed all the ingredients of a successful team against Wolves.

Despite a nervy spell at the end, Blues looked comfortable throughout at Molineux and arguably deserved to win by more than their 1-0 victory.

And McLeish was delighted with the manner in which his players took to yesterday’s West Midland derby.

“I thought it was a terrific performance,” enthused McLeish. “Wolves threw caution to the wind at the end, which they had to because when it’s only 1-0 you’re never totally comfortable.

“But it was a fantastic performance from the players, the Birmingham City lads were awesome from start to finish. We worked really hard, we passed it well, there was great composure and stout defending. All the ingredients you would want from a football team.

“Tactically we knew Wolves would have a right go at us because of recent results and Mick said, quite rightfully, that it’s glamorous to get the Manchester Uniteds and the Chelseas but this is what their Premier League season is about. It’s early days, Wolves will get results.”

Blues are now unbeaten in five and the win at Wolves was the first time they had picked up back-to-back Premier League victories since December 2004.

Now McLeish wants his squad to continue to live up to their high standards.

“Hopefully we can continue this form but I know that some days football comes back to bite you on the bum. We have done our confidence and belief no harm at all,’’ he said.

“The evidence is there over the last few games, we’ve set the standards and I’m going to be demanding that all the time from them.

“Consistency and the individual performances have been excellent, as a result the team benefits from that.

“We played 4-4-2 and we knew of the threats of the Doyles and the Ebanks-Blakes of this world. It was just a matter of individuals winning their separate battles.”