Blues boss hails his record breakers

Birmingham boss Alex McLeish has hailed his record breakers and admitted he was almost speechless after another win at Everton.

Blues' 2-1 FA Cup fourth round victory at Goodison Park on Saturday stretched their unbeaten run to 15 games.

McLeish found himself struggling to find the words to describe his team, after goals from Christian Benitez and Barry Ferguson set up a fifth round clash at Derby.

He said: "I'm running out of superlatives for these players. I'm on my soapbox and I'm trying to think of a different phrase every week to give them in my team talk, just to see if it inspires them but I don't need to inspire them.

"They were two brilliant goals, absolutely delicious. I thought they were awesome in the clinical moves and incisive passing, right through to the box.

"Chucho's finish was good, the Ferguson goal was even better, a contender for goal of the month, if not goal of the season. The intricate passing, the driving run, the expert finish.

"It was a wonderful goal."

Leon Osman hit back for Everton after the break but McLeish was left praising his team's resilience as they held off the Everton storm.

He said: "It wasn't a surprise when Everton responded in the second half. The players rolled their sleeves up for it. We knew they would cause some problems, we stood up to them when we were facing an onslaught.

"I was disappointed with the goal. We gave Osman too much room and he's shown in the past he's a good finisher.

"We knew the Goodison crowd would get right behind them and we had one or two close shaves, but the referee was spot-on with a couple of decisions and we got there in the end."