Players urged to grab opportunity of a lifetime

Apr 22 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

ALEX McLeish has told his Blues players they have the ‘opportunity of a lifetime’ in Saturday’s clash with Preston North End at St Andrew’s.

A victory – possibly even a draw – would seal automatic Championship promotion for Blues, primarily at the expense of Sheffield United, their closest challengers.

Reading, after a 2-0 win at Derby County, and Cardiff City – who recovered from 2-0 down to equalise in the 89th minute at Charlton Athletic – got back in the mix to a degree last night but a point for Blues would extinguish that pair’s chances of automatic promotion.

They need to win their remaining games (with Cardiff boosting their goal difference in the process), and Blues lose theirs – it’s Reading versus Blues on the final day of the season – and rely on Sheffield slipping up.

So although there remains some intriguing permutations, Blues can still dictate their own destiny.

McLeish said that Preston, who need a win to keep alive their play-off qualification dreams, would be no pushovers.

But he backed his players to maintain their focus and not let the magnitude of the occasion get to them.

“We have respected everybody in this division this season, and we won’t change that,” said the Blues boss, whose side went down 1-0 at Deepdale in December courtesy of Jon Parkin’s stoppage-time goal.