BARRY Ferguson today looked ahead to seven weeks which will decide Blues’ destiny and insisted: “We have no excuses”.

Blues will face Bolton at St Andrew’s on Saturday desperate to put behind them a depressing 2-1 defeat at Wigan which left them in the Premier League drop zone during the two-week fixture-break.

The players returned to training yesterday after being given a week off by manager Alex McLeish.

After a frenetic few months which saw them go all the way in the Carling Cup while Premier League games came thick and fast, a spot of recharging will have done them no harm at all.

But midfielder Ferguson gives short shrift to the notion that fatigue might hamper Blues in their survival battle – or was a factor in the defeat, meted out by a heartbreaking last-gasp goal, at Wigan.

“It is a tough schedule but I am not going to use that as an excuse,” he said. “I honestly don’t believe that tiredness comes into it.

“This is what you do as a football player.

You want to play in these sort of games and you realise that if you go on a cup run you are going to play extra games. It’s what we are mentally and physically prepared for.