Nico Vaesen has six months remaining on his Birmingham City contract, with a year's option in the club's favour. Everything he says and does urges them to exercise that right.

Restored to the first team after a nightmare that lasted nearly two years, the affable Belgian has strung together two clean sheets in Birmingham's last three Premiership matches and starred in the penalty shoot-out that put City into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup. Such actions speak eloquently on his behalf.

But just in case the St Andrew's hierarchy are yet to internalise such evidence, Vaesen last night took a less subtle route and openly committed himself to the club and called on them to do likewise.

"I love the area and love the club," Vaesen said. "Hopefully, I will find out [whether they are taking up the option] soon. I am happy where I am. First and foremost, I would like to help this club stay in the Premier League as long as I can.

"I would like to sort out my future, sooner rather than later, but I have confidence that they will do that in good time," he said.

Vaesen is aware that his current bargaining position is stronger than it has been for several seasons, but he also knows it could be even better: "If we win five or six games in a row, it is easier to knock on the manager's door and talk about contracts," he shrewdly pointed out.

Such talk is a long way from this time last season when the former Huddersfield Town man sat on the Birmingham bench, unable to rebuild a career that looked over in March 2003 when he sustained a serious knee injury.

In the wake of the relatively innocuous incident against Aston Villa, Vaesen was sent out on loan to Gillingham, Bradford City and Crystal Palace to prove his fitness. Having done so and helped Palace to promotion to the Premiership, he was offered another two-year deal by manager Steve Bruce - the first season of which was spent watching Maik Taylor create a reputation for himself as one of the best goal-keepers in the division.

That was not enjoyable. "Last year was difficult," he admitted. "You can accept being behind a player like Maik Taylor - he is a great goalkeeper - but it doesn't make it any easier."

Such misfortune - a long-term injury followed by an apparently immovable teammate - would have caused many men to have lost faith. Not Vaesen.

As the Northern Ireland international began to splutter and conceded a succession of embarrassing goals, Bruce sharpened his axe and, at the end of last month, chose to reward his patient under-study with a call-up for the match against Sunderland.

Vaesen responded with a clean sheet which permitted Birmingham's first league win for two months. He's been the man in possession ever since.

"I have always trained 100 per cent and worked for this because I knew, one day, it would come," he insisted. "I always believed I would get my chance. If I didn't, I would not have trained so hard.

"It was always my goal, I dreamed about playing in the first team and in the Premiership. It was just a case of working hard and making the manager notice you."

Strangely, he might not even have been around to take his chance had he chosen to move to Palace at the end of their promotion campaign.

While the Selhurst Park side represented a better opportunity of regular football, he had other things to consider.

"I had to look at the overall picture, which is my family and the situation at Blues," he recalled. "Steve Bruce wanted to keep me at the club - that was a very important reason - and my family is settled in the area. I have children of ten, seven and four who are going to school and are well settled in.

"If I was 24 or 25, then I would have done it straight away because you have to play week in, week out."

Instead he chose to bide his time, turned 36 and, for the first time, is playing regularly in one of Europe's most high-profile leagues. What an good option that was. n Steve Bruce's son, Alex, has been fined and warned about his future conduct by the Football Association after the Birmingham City defender admitted a charge under FA rules relating to abusive, indecent or insulting behaviour.

The incident happened during the game against Bristol City while the 21-year-old was on loan with Tranmere Rovers. Bruce, who has yet to start a first-team game for the Blues, was fined £500 and warned as to his future conduct after admitting the charge.