Birmingham City FC

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• Manager:Alex McLeish

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McLeish dampens Euro hopes

23 Feb 2010 - 07:57:09

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Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish believes that his side will struggle to maintain their challenge for a possible Europa League place for the remainder of the season.

A 2-1 defeat at Fulham left the Blues down in tenth place in the Premier League table, with McLeish more than content with such a lofty position at this stage of the campaign.

He told the Birmingham Mail: "I'd take it (Europe), but I think it would be too early for this team.

"You can never say you don't want it, but if we did achieve it, it would be frightening.

"So the bottom line is people's expectations get too high, including the media, the fans and even directors at times.

"We are well ahead of schedule. I would have thought we were looking to be on 37 points in April, not February.

"We have not scored a lot of goals. That's another massive compliment to the players that they can still be this far up the table.

"For me, to be getting among the prizes you need your scorers to be getting ten, 12 maybe more a season.

"We may well end up with two or three players on ten at the end of the season, but you've got to be hitting those kinds of figures at this stage.

"In my experience, that's what wins you titles and gets you into Europe."