Birmingham 1 QPR 0 - analysis

Alex McLeish has refused to condemn the stay-away fans after less than 19,000 turned up to watch them beat QPR at the weekend.

Only 18,498 turned up at St Andrew’s to watch City go top of the Championship, thanks to Kevin Phillips’ close-range strike in first-half stoppage time.

The attendance was a far cry from the 29,743 who attended City’s 1-1 draw with Derby at Pride Park five days earlier.

Co-owner David Sullivan called in his programme notes for fans to turn St Andrew’s into a “noisy fortress.” Yet the atmosphere was subdued for much of the first half, as the sides scrapped out a tense first 45 minutes.

McLeish thanked those who did turn out and believes it is up to his team to get the crowds going.

He said: “It wasn’t full but we had a really good crowd. Wherever you go, which ever team you support, you need to entertain the home crowd, you need to try and get them going.

“We needed to do that against QPR and it took us a wee while to get them going, but once we made that change (swapping Owusu-Obeyie from left to right wing) there was much more fluency in our game. We started to give them something to cheer about.

“The away supporters are always vociferous from start to finish in terms of encouragement. Sometimes the home support at any club, I would say, you need to get them going.”

City were more dominant in the second half and never looked in serious danger.

McLeish was pleased with his side’s performance and reckons it eclipsed their two previous home games against Doncaster and Blackpool.

He said: “It was much better than the last two home games, where I was uneasy. I felt secure. I know it wasn’t a fantastic performance but for the first 20 minutes I thought it was looking like a sleeves-rolled-up performance.”