McLeish stays calm as Villa frustrates Blues

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish is refusing to press the panic button despite his side slipping into the bottom three of the Barclays Premier League for the first time this season.

City chairman David Gold had described the home encounter with bottom-placed Derby as a “must-win game” in his programme notes.

But a late goal from Derby substitute Emanuel Villa cancelled out Sebastian Larsson’s 69th-minute effort.

It means Blues have been replaced in the relegation zone by Wigan, who overcame West Ham.

But former Scotland boss McLeish is remaining upbeat about his side’s chances of remaining in the top flight.

McLeish said: “If the league was decided by today’s game then I would agree with the chairman. It is not so therefore, I don’t agree with what he said.

“But the chairman is entitled to speak his mind and I don’t think what he said was controversial.

“There are plenty of points still to play for and as far as I am aware the league is decided in May so there is no need to panic because of this result.

“I thought the performance was good. We created chances. Maybe the final decision-making could have been better. And that is something which has to improve.

“This was not the deciding game although their late goal was a kick in the proverbials. I thought once we had gone ahead the game would be done and dusted and that we would be over the line.”

McLeish is retaining his faith in his squad even though they have failed to win since Boxing Day and have collected only three points from the last six games.

He said: “If it was a bad performance it might have created a pressure but we played well and got a good response out of the game at Sunderland.

“The league is not finished. Wigan and Bolton have been in the bottom three this season and they have got out of it and we have the quality to do the same.

“But we also know if we keep drawing it is not going to take us much further. Somewhere down the line we have to start winning games.

“In the transfer window I would have liked a couple more players but it was not to be. We have got a couple to come back from the African Nations Cup. I am sure we will stick together and can get the points needed to keep us up.”

McLeish decided to bring central defender Martin Taylor into the side for his first league start of the season in place of Rafael Schmitz.

And he was also impressed with the debut of David Murphy at left-back in place of Franck Queudrue, who will be out of action for a fortnight through injury.

Derby boss Paul Jewell admitted his team’s performance had not been over-convincing despite collecting a rare away point.

“I wanted to try and capitalise on Birmingham’s situation near the bottom of the league and take the game to them.

“But we did not get out of the blocks in the first half. I couldn’t wait for half-time to come so I could get at them.

“In the second half we were a little better but it needed for us to go the goal behind before we started to believe we could get something out of the game.

“It wasn’t a great performance but at least we showed some character to come from a goal behind.”

Jewell was pleased with the contribution of Villa and, when asked about his performance, joked “I though that Villa was the top team in Birmingham!”

In a more serious mood the former Wigan boss said: “Emanuel is one of those players who, if you put quality balls into the box, will score goals. He is a terrific header for the goal.

“He has just come here from Mexico so it will take him time to settle down, especially for a team at the bottom of the league but I am confident Emanuel will score a few goals.”