Blues will bounce back for McLeish

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has insisted his players would learn from their 5-1 mauling to Manchester City and bounce back better for it.

Blues crashed to their biggest defeat of the season at Eastlands on Sunday as City's huge investment begins to show dividends as they cemented fourth spot in the chase to reach the Champions League.

But McLeish reassured fans his players will not capitulate like that again.

He said: "The players have to take stock and say 'we're not happy with that' and we'll certainly make sure it's a rare occurrence at this club.

"They have a chance to atone and the defenders, I'm sure, will be annoyed with themselves and have a look at the goals, as you must. If you don't do that then you learn nothing.

"We will analyse them, see where adjustments could have been made positionally and how we could have prevented one or two situations.

"I'm disappointed for the players, because in all the big games we have gone toe-to-toe with the opposition away from home as well. That was the heaviest defeat for them."

McLeish believes the defeat needs to be put into context, in terms of City's £250million spend.

He said: "The other thing that has to be remembered is we were beaten by a side that cost how many millions? There's a financial disparity between us and the gulf showed.

"We are an evolving side, one that's developing in the Premier League. We've got young centre-backs who are rookies in the Premier League.

"They've been brilliant this season, they will learn from what happened and they are quick learners."