Skip to content

McLeish proud of Blues

Image: McLeish: Proud

Alex McLeish was proud of his side after Birmingham held Man Utd 1-1 to stretch their unbeaten run to 12 games.

Boss pleased after unbeaten Blues break club record

Alex McLeish was proud of his side after Birmingham held Manchester United to a 1-1 draw to make it a club record 12 games unbeaten in the top flight. The Blues took the lead against the run of play at St Andrews when Cameron Jerome netted on 39 minutes. But United levelled when Scott Dann turned in Patrice Evra's cross on 63 minutes, with referee Mark Clattenburg allowing the equaliser after consulting with one of his assistants, although the Birmingham players believed Wayne Rooney was offside. Darren Fletcher was then sent-off for a second bookable offence late on as Birmingham earned a point, which keeps them in eighth spot in the Premier League. McLeish was pleased with the way his side bounced back from a lacklustre opening 45 minutes. He said: "The dressing room was very noisy at half-time because the players knew they had not reached the standards of previous games.

Great response

"But we got a great response. We were fortunate to be leading at half-time but we were a different animal in the second half. "United still have tremendous ability even though they are missing leaders like (Nemanja) Vidic and (Rio) Ferdinand and I was proud of the way we responded." McLeish shared a glass of wine after the match with his former Aberdeen boss Sir Alex Ferguson. The Blues boss added: "Sir Alex was very gracious and felt we played very well. "I know the man very well and he will be disappointed not to have won the game and we all aspire to be as big a winner as he is." Regarding United's goal, McLeish said: "In the end, two wrongs don't make a right.
Play on
"(Liam) Ridgewell did in fact play United on. I think the linesman thought that Rooney was offside and if the ball had come through to him then that's why he put his flag up. "But when you see the pictures, then you can see that Ridgewell's playing him onside but that doesn't make it right. "When he put his flag up we thought that Rooney had put Scott Dann under sufficient pressure to turn the ball into his own net, therefore that should be ruled offside, but I'm told that Rooney wasn't near him when Scott put it into his own net." When asked about Fletcher's sending-off, McLeish added: "When you've already been booked, you are always on thin ice when you make contact with a player."

Around Sky