McLeish hails Blues fightback | Sky Sports | Football | News

Alex McLeish hailed his Birmingham side after twice fighting back to claim a 2-2 draw against Manchester City.

The visitors were eager for a victory to keep their titles hopes alive and took a fourth-minute lead as Carlos Tevez's shot deflected in off Czech defender Martin Jiranek, making his Premier League debut for Blues.

Nikola Zigic poked in a dangerous free-kick from the impressive David Bentley to claim a 23rd-minute equaliser but Craig Gardner then gave away a soft free-kick in the 41st minute, and Aleksandar Kolarov curled it in from just over 20 yards.

But Blues then posed City a host of problems in the second half from set-pieces and Bentley's right-wing deliveries, and substitute Kevin Phillips was brought down in the box by fellow veteran Patrick Vieira.

Gardner stopped up to slam the 77th-minute spot-kick past Joe Hart to give Blues a precious point, which keeps them out of the bottom three on goal difference.

"It was a great performance second half,"McLeish toldSky Sports.

"We were a bit sloppy with the goals we lost. You can't afford to give free-kicks away on the edge of the box against quality set-piece players such as Kolarov.

Tough night

"But to fight back the way we did second half, we really made it tough for City. There's no doubt we made it a really hard night for them."

Curtis Davies stayed on the bench while fellow new signing Obafemi Martins was not even in the squad.

But McLeish confirmed the Nigerian striker, signed on loan from Russian side Rubin Kazan, should be in contention for Sunday's trip to fellow strugglers West Ham.

"He's out of the country getting his visa,"added the Blues boss."He has to go to the embassy abroad and there's a bit of red tape.

"It takes two or three days but we want him back this weekend for the West Ham game."

Source