McLeish vows to rise to challenge

BIRMINGHAM boss Alex McLeish declared himself “gutted” after his team lost their battle against relegation from the Barclays Premier League.

McLeish said: “I’m obviously pretty gutted.

“When we got a goal I thought we’d done it but then there was the Wolves’ comeback and their (Tottenham’s) late goal.

“You’d expect them to come back – but the way it’s happened to us is devastating, losing the battle to avoid relegation.

“When we got the equaliser I thought things would go for us – but lady luck has avoided us today.”

Asked if news of developments elsewhere were a distraction, McLeish said: “No, you need to know the other scores to push the lads on and get another goal.”

As for the future, McLeish said: “I’ve been knocked down today and I’m going to rise to it. It’s going to be a pretty horrible couple of days – or summer I suppose – but I’ve got to work to get Birmingham back to the Premier League. I’ll chat with the chairman (Carsen Yeung) in midweek and see where we go from there

“We know to get back (into the Premier League) we have to maintain the quality factor.

“The players have got to fight on and rise to the next challenge. It’s not fatal. They’ve got to pick themselves up again.”