McLeish ready for survival battle

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    Blues boss hails players after Everton draw

    Last updated: 9th March 2011   Subscribe to RSS Feed

    McLeish ready for survival battle

    McLeish: Happy with point

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    Birmingham boss Alex McLeish expects the fight for survival to go to the wire after they climbed out of the bottom three with a draw at Everton.

    The Carling Cup winners moved out of the drop zone with a hard-fought point at Goodison Park to send West Ham into the bottom three.

    Jean Beausejour gave Birmingham an early lead, but John Heitinga’s superb effort just before the break drew Everton level.

    Birmingham had to withstand an Everton onslaught in the second half and McLeish was delighted with his side’s defending as they bounced back from last weekend’s home defeat to fellow strugglers West Brom

    “We wanted to be more compact and tighter than the weekend and in a way the game at the weekend was the wrong type of fixture for us after the Cup final.

    Back to basics

    “We had to get back to basics and we defended really well, but we didn’t really penetrate after a really bright start.

    “I have to play compliment to the battling qualities of my players and we will need that right until the end of the season.”

    On the battle to stay up, McLeish expects there to be plenty of twists and turns before the end of the campaign.

    “It’s going to be tough and it’s going to go right to the wire,” added McLeish.

    “We have a lot of tough away games, but if we show that spirit and character and on our day we can win any game as we proved against Arsenal.”

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    McLeish ready for survival battle