Darren Ambrose insists he didn’t join Blues just to coast through the rest of his career.

Ambrose has his sights firmly set on helping Blues to where he believes they belong and returning to top-flight football.

He was an eye-catching signing from Crystal Palace, in a deal worth a potential £1 million – signalling Lee Clark’s intention to maintain Blues’ prowess as an attacking force.

Ambrose said the Championship was a tough battleground – but Blues would be more than competitive this time round.

“It is getting harder,” he said at Blues’ training base in Austria. “You look at the teams that have come up as well, they are all good teams. There’s no game you’re going to go into and be thinking ‘we should be winning this’.

“But we know we are a strong side, we’ve got a fantastic squad. I’ve seen that from the first few days of training, how good we can be. I think we will give anyone a game and on form can beat anyone.

“There is a great team spirit and, coupled with the ability we have, I think we can go far. That’s my aim. I have not come here just to see out the end of my career. I have come here to get back to where Birmingham belong and where I want to play, which is the Premier League.

“Birmingham had a lot of games last year and they were unfortunate. This year we know we will be concentrating more on the league and hopefully we can go one better.”

Ambrose has already shown his finishing ability during this training camp. Three seasons ago he notched 20 for the Eagles.

“I would be delighted with that again,” he smiled. “I set myself targets as an attacking midfielder. I think you have got to look at double figures really and anything above that is a bonus. I’m 28 now and hopefully coming into my peak, and can have a fair few good years at Birmingham and play really well.”