Blues praised for self-control

Alex McLeish believes his Birmingham players are starting to take on board his demand for them to show more respect to referees.McLeish is particularly full of praise for the change in attitude of central defender Roger Johnson towards match officials.And he revealed World Cup final referee Howard Webb gave the thumbs up to the greater self-control being shown by City after the recent derby with Aston Villa.McLeish told Press Association Sport: "When I matured as a player I did learn to talk to refs in the right way."I always had a good rapport with refs later in my career and certainly I don't berate refs in the modern day."We are all aggrieved at certain decisions, there is no doubt about it, and you can't hide that emotion, but at the same time it is a tough job the refs have got."