McLeish hits out at supporters’ ‘small club mentality’

BIRMINGHAM CITY manager Alex McLeish has said that the pitch invasion that took place after his team’s win over Aston Villa betrayed a ‘small club mentality’ amongst those Blues fans at the heart of the trouble.

After Birmingham City’s Carling Cup quarter-final win over local rivals Aston Villa, more than a thousand home supporters ran onto the pitch and confronted away fans housed in the Gil Merrick Stand.

Dozens of seats were ripped out and a flare was thrown from the Kop stand, before being tossed backwards and forwards between the two sets of supporters.

McLeish said that Birmingham City supporters had made the club look small with their actions.

“We have to be bigger than that,” he said. “We have to not have the small club mentality.

“The scenes were like when Hereford beat Newcastle in the cup a few years ago and the fans ran on at the end, and that’s fine. But not Birmingham, not a Premier League club. Our fans don’t need to do that.

“We should be bigger than that. Definitely celebrate it but don’t make it look as if it’s the World Cup final.

“It’s a kind of phenomenon for us that we’ve beaten them and we’ve got to think bigger than that.

“It’s a huge thing for our fans. I don’t condone them running on at all but I understand their emotions.

“Running on the pitch is just a no-go in modern day football.”

McLeish, whose side face Tottenham today, said that playing the derby match on a midweek evening was not to blame for the clashes. He said: “If it was on a Saturday and we won the fans would probably have still run on, such were the emotions of beating Aston Villa.

“The Villa fans are used to beating Birmingham so they wouldn’t have run on if they had won, even at their home ground.”

For his part, Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp takes his side to Birmingham today looking for the win that could take them back into the top four.

He said: “If we go up there and play as well as we have been playing then I think we’re in with a real chance.”

Meanwhile Tottenham yesterday rejected pleas from fans demanding a survey over the club’s stadium plans and urged patience over their controversial two-pronged approach to relocation.

The past month has seen a backlash against Spurs’ bid to take over the Olympic Stadium in Stratford after the 2012 Games, with disgruntled supporters campaigning against the possible move to east London before Sunday’s Barclays Premier League win over Liverpool.

The ‘We are N17’ group are also set to march down Tottenham High Street ahead of next Sunday’s game with champions Chelsea, while almost 4,000 fans have signed an online petition against the club leaving north London.

Last week saw Tottenham get the green light to redevelop White Hart Lane into a 56,000-seater stadium, a scheme called the Northumberland Development Project. But the club are refusing to confirm their preferred option, claiming they are waiting for a number of loose ends to be tied up.