Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish hoping players can hold their nerve and says they ‘owe’ him & the fans a performance

EPL : Alex McLeish, Birmingham City- Aston Villa(Getty Images)

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Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has called on his players to keep their nerve in the final weeks of the season to stay clear of the relegation zone.

Defeat to Wigan Athletic on Saturday keeps McLeish’s men deep in the bottom three with just nine games to go and the Scot is more than aware that now is pressure time for all the clubs involved in the relegation shake up.

“The pressure intensifies and I guess it’s about who can hold their nerve,” he told the Birmingham Mail. “We certainly need to start winning some games.

“There are about 10 teams involved, but I’d like to be 10 places up the division. It’s still concertinaed down there, but the games are obviously becoming of greater importance.

“There are players who have been in this position before, it’s up to them to show that they have the bottle to get out of it and get us further up the table because that kind of performance we saw at Wigan just won’t do.”

Despite winning the League Cup last month the club has been in and around the relegation zone all season and McLeish admits that the situation that they find themselves in right now is frightening.

He added: “The situation has been scary for quite some time. We’ve been down there once or twice before.

“But we’re there now, there’s no getting away from it. It’s up to us to deal with it, and it will take strong minds. The players owe me and the fans a performance the next game, no question.”