Birmingham Need Another Gear to Stay in the EPL

Birmingham City's great form under Alex McLeish came to a crashing hault on Tuesday night with a 2-0 defeat at the hands of relegation rivals Sunderland.

I'll be honest and say I hadn't watched a worse game this season, but the game was far more important than trying to play decent football.

Birmingham were found wanting by a passionate Sunderland side.

The Blues had no answer!

Where do the Blues go from here? Well, they couldn't ask for a better game to recover their form.

Birmingham are at home to Derby County today, but they will need to show a lot more character than on Tuesday to get all three points.

Birmingham had been outstanding lately, but the fact that they crumbled so easily to the relegation pressures will be a huge concern for boss Alex McLeish.

So what needs to be done to avoid the drop?

First, they need to get the ball into the feet of the front three. Cameron Jerome, Olivier Kapo, and James McFadden are all skillfull players, but are not going to win you many headers. All Birmingham could do on Tuesday was smack it long!

I'm pretty sure Maik Taylor just had an off day, but he wasn't really helped by Liam Ridgewell (who I think is a quality player, but seems to occasionaly lose his concentration) with the seconnd goal.

In general I'm happy with their defence, especially after David Murphy slots in ahead of Franck Quedrue at left back.

They simply have to use what they have. The skill of Kapo and McFadden, the pace of Jerome, the strength of Garry O'Conner, and the experience of Captain Damien Johnson.

The one bright spark on Tuesday for Birmingham was Mauro Zarate who played well after coming on and will surely start today.

Strangely enough, I was 100 percent sure the Blues would stay up before I watched them on Tuesday night, but now it's up to them to prove to me that they aren't going down. How times change.....

It's a funny old game really!