Source: Team_Talk
McLeish hits back at Blues critics
Blues did not play the same expansive football as some of their rivals but made themselves hard to beat, difficult to break down and relied upon the solid base provided by the more experienced members of their squad.
The fact they boasted the meanest defence in the Championship but had the joint 12th best strike rate says a lot - but McLeish believes that was often highlighted too much.
"We were effective this season and I think it was over-played the fact that we weren't a very good football team," he said in the Birmingham Mail. "I felt that was exaggerated and the pundits jumped on that one.
"I said at one stage that we're not pleasing on the eye sometimes and I would like to make us more pleasing for the fans, they were the priority. And people jumped on that, without even seeing us. Even before a ball was kicked in certain games, people were already casting aspersions.
"We got the job done. We got promotion, which was the aim. It was a titanic effort. The Championship's a very difficult league to get out of. I will try and improve the team in terms of quality of football and also in the very real terms of staying in the Premier League."
