Birmingham grit delights McLeish

Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish praised his side after they secured a 2-1 victory at home to Sunderland, to give new club owner Carson Yeung a winning stat at St Andrew’s.

Goals from Liam Ridgewell and James McFadden were enough to earn all three points, despite a late Scott Dann own goal.

McLeish said afterwards:“We are persevering right to the very end, we are showing that real strength of character when under the cosh.

“On another day, we should probably have been more goals up than the two, but we gifted them a goal and it put us under a bit of pressure.

“But we withstood it and credit to the new players who have come to the club.

“I said to them before the game ‘it’s not a dress rehearsal, so enjoy it in the Premier League’, and they looked as if they enjoyed their football today.

“But they have got to prove themselves every week. You can say they have nothing to prove, top players, but for me, you go out every week to prove yourself.

“I didn’t put any pressure on them and say they were playing for their places.

“They know on the horizon, there might be new players to augment the squad, because we have had problems injury-wise and the fragility of the squad has been evident.”

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