ALEX McLeish has urged his Blues players to continue to show their fighting spirit if they want to secure their Premier League status once and for all.

A gritty performance with ten men against Wolves saw Blues take a point from the St Andrew’s derby and keep the Molineux men at arm’s length at the bottom of the table.

Blues head to Newcastle on Saturday without the suspended Craig Gardner and there are still no guarantees that Nikola Zigic will be fit to return to the fray.

The pair are Blues’ top scorers, having contributed 17 goals between them to the league and cup cause this season.

But McLeish said Blues had to make light of any problems at the weekend and in their remaining two games thereafter.

“The guys put in a tremendous effort, their energy, stamina and concentration was fantastic,” he commented.

“You would have expected Wolves to have had more of the ball after the sending-off. But our resilience and desire was magnificent.

“We’re not relaxing, we don’t know how many points we still need.

“The focus is now on the next game at Newcastle and trying to get a result there – and giving that type of performance until the season’s end.”

Blues, on 39 points, have a five-point advantage over Wolves and four points on Wigan Athletic and Blackpool.

Fulham visit St Andrew’s on May 15 before Blues round off the season at Spurs.

“With that type of performance and will, and much better organised than we were at Liverpool, we are confident we can get some more points,” McLeish added.

“We were a bit open at Anfield, so I’ve got to take a bit of blame for that as well.