ANDY WALKER

Staff Writer

Birmingham City were left kicking their heels for the second consecutive weekend while their Championship promotion rivals played on.

The big freeze is in danger of causing Blues to drop off the pace at the top of the table. While Wolverhampton Wanderers weren’t able to build up an even more commanding lead at the top of the league following their 3-1 defeat to Preston North End, second-placed Reading did gain ground with a convincing 4-0 victory over Watford on Friday night.

However, Birmingham had to make do with a pointless and matchless Saturday afternoon following a far from pleasurable trip up the M6 to chilly Blackpool.

For the Blues manager Alex McLeish, who was denied the opportunity to unleash his new loan pairing of wingers Scott Sinclair and Hameur Bouazza due to the postponement, it was another unwanted break that could dent any sort of momentum that he was hoping to build with his promotion-chasing side.

However, in a league that can easily change like the current wintry weather, McLeish isn’t concerned about other teams’ activity and his side’s recent lack of it. The Scotsman knows that there will be plenty of twists and turns along the way during this final four months of this season’s Championship campaign.

“I don’t really judge us on other clubs,” said McLeish. “We’ve got our focus and we will stick to that. I don’t look at statistics from other teams, I’d rather not focus on what other teams are doing, just totally concentrate on Birmingham City’s visions and goals.

“I’m optimistic but there’s nothing in it and teams are beating each other. We’re not a million miles better than anybody else, equally there’s nobody a million miles better than us.

“There’s a few teams around about the same. It would be nice to think we can go into every game and win 5-0 and be 10 or 20 points clear, but we know that’s not going to happen and we’re going to have to earn the right to go up by winning some very crucial challenges.”

Birmingham are third with 51 points from 26 games while Wolves and Reading have 58 and 54 points respectively, having played an extra game, However by the time McLeish’s men welcome Wolves to St Andrew’s for a league fixture on April 4, that situation is likely to have changed vastly and even more so when Birmingham travel to the Madejski Stadium on May 3, the final day of the season.

“It’s a very competitive league,” added the Birmingham manager. “The Premier League is similar, people talk about the top four now being the top four at the end of the season but outside the top four there’s a lot of competition in the Premier League.

“The way things are going, you couldn’t rule out a tense finish. It depends what happens in the coming weeks. We can’t afford to put our feet up. I’ve got to make sure my players are right up to speed from the first whistle.”