Birmingham City Football Club News

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

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

McLeish to protect Forssell

02 Mar 2008 - 12:24:26

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Alex McLeish has vowed to wrap Mikael Forssell in cotton wool after his hat-trick secured a priceless 4-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur.

The injury-plagued Finland international put Spurs to the sword at St Andrew's as the Blues picked up three precious points in the battle to avoid relegation.

McLeish's side, who also profited from a Seb Larsson strike, moved up to 16th place in the table in what is an increasingly tightening relegation scrap.

"I'm really pleased for Mikael. I've had him in and out of the team since I came here but the lack of goals in previous weeks meant I had to push his experience back into the team," revealed McLeish.

"He was merciless in front of goal. He could have had four or five goals but his link-up play was also good.

"He's had a lot of injury problems and, when they're of that magnitude, it's going to have some effect.

"It's a case of whether he can play 40 games a season but, when he's as hot as that, we have to wrap him in cotton wool."

Referring to the overall performance, the former Scotland manager added: "We've deserved more from previous games at St Andrew's and this time we got our reward.

"It was worth the wait. It was a fantastic show. The work-rate in every game can't be faulted but this time we also added the finishing touch."