Alex McLeish dead set on derby win

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish believes beating Villa is more important to Blues fans than where they finish in the Premier League.

His team head to Villa Park for Sunday's noon showdown having lost all of their last six games against their biggest rivals.

The last three of them have come during McLeish's reign - a 5-1 defeat in 2008 followed by two unfortunate 1-0 losses last season - and the manager is desperate to deliver the victory he knows the St Andrew's faithful so desperately crave.

He said: "It is one game but it is bragging rights. Even in the Old Firm derby, a lot of fans don't care what happens in the league as long as we beat Celtic and it's the same thing here with Birmingham and Villa fans.

"They say 'as long as we beat Villa, we don't care'. But, of course, we look at the bigger picture."

McLeish is adamant is team were harshly done by in last season's two defeats, both of which saw Villa score late winners.

He said: "It is bad enough but I've got to say the results don't tell the whole story because we've played excellent in the last two games and we will want to produce another great performance on Sunday.

"You have to be realistic in life. We can't guarantee anything but what we will guarantee is that we will go and give a good performance."

But the Blues boss is adamant they still do not feel a sense of injustice after the last game, where Villa were handed a controversial late penalty for what looked a fair challenge by Roger Johnson on Gabby Agbonlahor.

McLeish said: "I don't think so. It is important we control our emotions. We had a decision which went against us in the last game despite a marvellous performance and we reacted to that at the time.

"It was human emotions."

Michel is expected to recover from a shin injury in time, Martin Jiranek and David Murphy have both been rated as "touch and go" with muscle strains, while Cameron Jerome and Jean Beausejour both miss out.