Birmingham City Football Club News

• Nickname:Blues
• Founded:1875
• Manager:Chris Hughton

• Ground:St Andrew's
• Capacity:30,016

McLeish pleased to secure draw

28 Mar 2010 - 11:12:40

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Alex McLeish claimed his Birmingham City side were deserving of their last-gasp equaliser in Saturday's 1-1 draw with title-chasing Arsenal at St Andrew's.

Kevin Phillips came to the Blues' rescue with a last-minute equaliser which put a huge debt in the Gunners' Premier League title hopes.

It was a fitting contribution from the veteran striker, who only appeared for the last six minutes of the game but still managed to record the 250th goal of his career.

Arsenal appeared to be heading for their seventh successive win following an 80th-minute strike by Samir Nasri.

"I think we deserved our moment of glory in the game. It was a kick in the guts when Nasri fired that ball into the corner of the net but again I've got to bow to the never-say-die attitude of my players," said McLeish.

"I thought we passed the ball well at times today and there was a lot of good play, but the pressure was so high that if we didn't get the ball forward quick enough, we could have got caught on it and punished.

"There is no doubt that there was more pressure on Arsenal today and you could tell, the longer the game went on, the frustration was creeping in.

"But they have the quality of players like (Andrey) Arshavin and Nasri to come on and their fresh legs gave them a fresh impetus.

"I thought my players were very mature, they gave a top class performance and in the end we thoroughly deserved at least a point."