Liam Ridgewell has praised the character of Birmingham City goal hero Nikola Zigic in overcoming the doubters and becoming a key part of their Premier League survival battle.

Zigic struggled to make an impact after his £6 million summer move from Valencia and was held up to ridicule and regarded as a laughing stock on some Blues' fans message boards.

But boss Alex McLeish never lost faith in the Serbian international, urged him to install more aggression into his game - and now he is reaping the rewards.

Zigic followed up his winner against West Ham last weekend with an injury-time decider against Stoke at St Andrew's on Saturday as he netted for the third successive match.

It enabled Birmingham to seal back-to-back league wins for the first time in 14 months.

Defender Ridgewell said: "It is difficult when people are talking about you and there are bits and bobs being said.

"But Ziggy has kept focused on what he needs to do and is getting his rewards at the moment.

"It might have affected some people. It has affected bigger players before, that sort of thing.

"It shows how broad his shoulders are and how mature and good a player he is.

"He is starting to cause more problems now. He is starting to get more aggressive and more used to the league."

Ridgewell added: "It is not easy for anyone to come into the league and try and put their stamp on it.

"He's had to learn the league, and learn about us, and we've had to learn about him as well.

"It is fantastic for him at the moment and we hope it continues.

"Once Ziggy gets a pre-season under him with us, hopefully that will help him as well."

Zigic's strike partner Obafemi Martins, who is on loan from Rubin Kazan, did well on his debut and is confident he will score the goals to ensure Birmingham stay up.

He said: "When you play Stoke, it is going to be more difficult but I'm back now and have the focus now and try to score goals.

"What was Russia like? I am not going to say anything about that but I'm glad to be back in England and I will score a lot of goals.

"Would I like to come here permanently? We will see what is going to happen. I have a couple of months here.

"My hope is to stay and score goals and keep Birmingham up."