McLeish glad to end away blues

Alexander Hleb pounced on a mistake by Stephen Crainey to put Blues ahead in the first half before DJ Campbell's 68th-minute equaliser. The visitors eventually emerged triumphant from a pulsating encounter after Roger Johnson headed down substitute Jean Beausejour's cross in the box with a minute of normal time remaining and Scott Dann fired home to make it 2-1. The result lifted Birmingham out of the Premier League relegation zone and up to 15th - something McLeish was far more concerned about than the fact that they had not won on the road in their previous 14 attempts. "I am delighted to win the game first and foremost," McLeish said. "I suppose people will stop asking about the away record now, although they might be asking me about it only being one (away win) in six months time. "But it is three valuable points and that is the main thing." McLeish felt his players did well to overcome the psychological burden of knowing that they were mired in the bottom three going into the game. "It is a great lift," McLeish said. "The players themselves know they played extremely well in the first half and that they didn't do so well in the second half, but there is obviously a big psychological effect when you find yourself at the bottom of the table. "Sometimes people can be a little bit uptight and apprehensive and that was a little bit evident in the second half - although I felt we had enough chances in us to have had a bit of daylight before Blackpool came back into it." McLeish's opposite number Ian Holloway praised Blackpool for their efforts in the second half and said he was satisfied Dann's goal should have stood, having initially been enraged it was not disallowed for offside. "I thought in the first half we fell into their trap again - how they were set up stopped us from doing what we normally do and we spoke about that at half time," Holloway said. "We managed to play a lot better from there with the same team, so I was pleased with that. We went and got a terrific goal and I thought it would be our night. "Then, unfortunately, I've had to eat a massive humble pie - there were people offside (when Dann scored), but they weren't involved in the move. "The one who headed it and the one who scored were not offside, so I've had to apologise to the referee. I was going mad at the fourth official because I saw two people offside. "I thought we deserved a point but that is the way it goes sometimes." A series of weather-enforced postponements meant it was Blackpool's first home game since November 20 and Holloway warned Seasiders fans not to get carried away with their expectations off the back of the team's recent success. "We have got so many fans here who want to see us win, but please don't turn up here thinking that we are going to," said Holloway, whose side have taken 25 points from 19 top flight games this term following their promotion from the Championship last May. "They (Birmingham) finished ninth last year in the Premier League, and we managed to climb up from being 16th the year before to get promotion."