Wolves still in charge admits McLeish

Second-placed Blues cut the gap on Mick McCarthy's frontrunners to two points with a 2-0 win at St Andrew's – despite being reduced to 10 men from the 37th minute.

Lee Carsley saw red for a dangerously high tackle on Chris Iwelumo, which led to the Wolves forward being carried off.

McLeish concedes Wolves still have the upper hand with five games to go, but has cranked up the pressure by warning his team will be there to take advantage of any slip-ups.

He said: "I still think Wolves have the advantage, I would rather be two points ahead. But we have got a bit of momentum and who knows?

"They are three huge points. We have closed the gap on Wolves and we have got to make an attempt to win the title.

"If we had lost the game it wasn't beyond us to still get promotion. We could have then gone on and won the next five games.

"We knew the next five games were going to be hard whatever happened but we have given ourselves a massive shot in the arm.

"It's in Wolves' own hands. If they win their remaining games they will be champions but we've got to look at the team above us as the teams below us will be trying to target us."

McLeish paid tribute to the performance of substitute Garry O'Connor, whose fine second-half performance was rewarded with the second goal.

The striker took full advantage of a Christophe Berra mistake to seal victory in the 69th minute, after Cameron Jerome had given Blues the lead in first-half stoppage time.

The Blues boss said: "Other strikers may have given up the ghost, because Garry was against two centre halves for the whole second half.

"He chased it down, he put Berra under pressure and he was in a great position to capitalise.

"I was pleased for Garry because he's been a long time out. He's a goalscorer and we have missed him."