Source: Team_Talk
McLeish: Players must learn
Alex McLeish has admitted that Birmingham may have been 'over-zealous' against Aston Villa and must learn from their mistakes.[LNB] The Football Association confirmed on Tuesday that Blues had been hit with disciplinary action following the dramatic 1-0 defeat to their Midlands rivals. [LNB]The club has been charged with failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion after referee Martin Atkinson was surrounded by a furious group following his award of a controversial late penalty.[LNB]Stephen Carr has also been charged with improper conduct for allegedly making an offensive gesture to Villa fans at the end of the match. [LNB]McLeish has defended his players for showing passion but concedes they probably stepped over the line.[LNB]"Listen, the boys are passionate, they care, they're winners," McLeish told the Birmingham Mail. [LNB]"They saw something as an injustice and fought for their cause, maybe over-zealously.[LNB]"Anybody who has emotion, any normal person, it's hard to keep that emotion in check in those circumstances, especially in a game like Sunday's, a derby with what was at stake.[LNB]"The players went to the ref and I don't think it was in a confrontational manner. I felt we were just asking the question, which was to speak to his assistant. But he thought it was a penalty as well.[LNB]"It's something that hopefully the boys will learn from if a similar thing happens to them again."[LNB]Carr has requested a personal hearing to answer his charge, while West Midlands Police are also expected to question the defender over the incident.[LNB]McLeish commented: "I didn't know anything was alleged to have happened until Monday. Somebody told me.[LNB]"In fact, one of the press might have told me after the game that Stephen had made a hand gesture or something, but it didn't register.[LNB]"The players walk off the pitch or down the track and some of the things you hear from the fans, it's frightening - and I'm not saying it's just opposition fans, I'm sure our fans dish it out as well - and you really have to have a thick skin and ignore the comments."[LNB]McLeish shrugged off his own angry reaction to the penalty decision, saying: "What can you say? [LNB]"From the dugout I couldn't tell it was a penalty. But I knew from Roger's reaction that he had got the ball. There was no way he would fight his corner like that if he hadn't touched the ball.[LNB]"And from that second onwards we knew the referee had made the wrong decision."
