McLeish’s Sounding Out The Right Message

December 13, 2009 by KevB8ll
Filed under: Articles by Dale Moon, Blues News

Here is Dale’s latest thoughts inspired by our victory yesterday.

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The Cogs keep turning and the machine churns on! A packed out St. Andrews witnessed the Premier League’s latest phenomenon. Birmingham City.

Like a well oiled machine, Alex McLeish’s regimented side seemed to wear down a disgruntled West Ham team that really never looked like taking anything back to the capital. It seems now that blues fans expect a goal from Lee Bowyer. Clocking up his sixth of the season which proved to be the only goal of the game. It’s also to be becoming almost annoyingly predictable for the pundits who sit on the flamboyant sofas at Match of The Day. Another clean sheet, another 1-0 win and another Lee Bowyer run from deep accompanied with a tidy finish. Would be nice to hear something more from the likes of Lawrenson and Hansson about the so called “relegation candidates” though wouldn’t it. But we’ll save that argument for another day.

Today we should rejoice in the fact that we are competing in the same ball park as the Liverpool’s and Manchester City’s of the world. Daring to look higher up the table, I came across six teams who perhaps you would expect to be above the Blues. The other one we’ll not mention. But over our shoulder are teams like Sunderland, Everton and West Ham, so called established Premier League sides. And there at the peak of the form table, Birmingham City! Beautiful!

But – and there always is a “But” with Blues, we should not adhere to all this talk of European ambitions and superstar signings. The media love to heighten a teams fortunes and laugh from there offices in Central London as the form starts to drop and the league position plummets. Blackburn and Everton will know that we are the inform team and expect a tough test from us but January brings a new threat. Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham make up three of the four fixtures. Three games where at the start of the season we would consider a point as a blessing. Yes we are a different side to that who produces a woeful display against Bolton in September but let’s just get over that 40 points mark and then and only then can we start concentrate on the getting the like of Messi and Ronaldo leaping into the Tilton to celebrate . . . if only!

Without being a typical pessimistic Bluenose, I like the cautious and grounded approach from McLeish. He speaks wisely and tries to prevent all the tabloid bravado filtering through to his players. Securing Premiership status is our primary objective, something which none of us must forget. As the fog settled over St. Andrews on Saturday evening, McLeish reiterated the clubs position as premier league new boys but also stressed that striving up the table can only give us the best chance come the end of the season.

“The most important thing is for us to be in the premier league but there’s no reason why we can’t be aiming higher than 17^th. But the top 17 will be a successful season.” If 17^th is known as “successful”, then I’d love to know what adjectives McLeish has in his locker come a top 8 finish in May!

Dale Moon

Tags: Alex McLeish, BBC, Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers, Chelsea, Everton, Lee Bowyer, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester Utd, Match of the Day, Premier League, Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham Utd

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