McLeish Promises to Make Perfect Pitch As Birmingham Close the Gap on Leaders

Alex McLeish has said groundstaff will get to work on Birmingham's poor playing surface after the 2-0 defeat of Nottingham Forest


Birmingham City's next home match is against Bristol City on 4 March, by which time the quality of their pitch will be vastly improved, according to the ­manager, Alex McLeish. Two away games in a row will allow the ground staff time to attack the bare, ­rutted surface "on all fronts", with the aim of ensuring the roll of the ball can actually be trusted.

"It's easy to look from the side and ask why this player didn't control that ball, or that one played a bad pass, but it is very difficult out there," said the Scot, after an ultimately comfortable win over a ­dangerously inexperienced Forest team, who are only four points above the ­relegation places. "We talk about tactics and the way we should play on it. One thing you can't be doing is knocking the ball about at the back, because one little bobble or slip and you're done in.

"Normally I encourage my players to pass the ball – it would be against my principles to have players only capable of wellying it up the pitch. But sometimes you have to play a percentage game, and we did that today."

That pragmatism was applied ­sufficiently well to limit Forest to just two decent chances, both ­created by Nathan Tyson in the opening ­minutes of the match. The striker ballooned the first over after the ball bounced ­awkwardly as he ­prepared to shoot, before he drove so firmly across goal that none of his team-mates could capitalize. ­Thereafter City corralled the visitors into their own half, and it was only a matter of time before the growing pressure was rewarded, when Marcus Bent slammed home from close range shortly after the hour, before the match was sealed when Kevin Fahey's attempted cross with the outside of his right foot drifted over the Forest goalkeeper Paul Smith and inside the far post.

The young Irish midfielder could barely hide his embarrassment, but fluke or not, City deserved their win which remarkably – given they had won just two of their previous eight league games – lifted them into second, three points behind Wolves with a game in hand. The imminent availability of Gary McSheffrey and Garry O'Connor represent a welcome improvement to McLeish's forward options for the run-in, though he badly needs a right-back, where the winger Sebastian Larsson has been forced to fill in for the injured ­Stuart Parnaby. Better teams than Forest will take full advantage of that weakness .

Like Fahey, McLeish gave the ­impression of being apologetic. "I know in the league we've stuttered a wee bit, I would love to have seen us get to the top in style, ­playing with great flair, and we haven't done that this season," he acknowledged. "But we have shown our toughness, there's no doubt about that, and I thought today was a very good, above average performance.

"We had early scares, but when we ­settled we really did look like turning defenders, and getting balls and bodies in the box, when perhaps we've lacked that in earlier parts of the season, even when we were winning."

© Guardian News & Media 2008
Published: 2/15/2009
 
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