McLeish hails Zigic as Birmingham reach Wembley

Alex McLeish saluted Nikola Zigic after the Serbia striker came off the bench to lead Birmingham into the League Cup final.

McLeish admitted he feared Birmingham’s Wembley dreams were over when Carlton Cole fired West Ham into a 3-1 aggregate lead at half-time of Wednesday’s semi-final second leg at St Andrew’s.

But the Blues boss responded by sending on giant targetman Zigic and the former Valencia star finally delivered a dominating display after a lacklustre start to his career in ~England.

With West Ham unable to cope with Zigic’s aerial power, Birmingham, whose only previous trophy was this one in 1963, took control and equalised through former Hammers midfielder Lee Bowyer.

Roger Johnson’s late header sent the tie to extra-time and set the stage for boyhood Birmingham fan Craig Gardner to drive home the 94th minute winner that sent the Blues through to face Arsenal in the final on February 27.

“We were down and out,” McLeish said. “I said to the players at half-time that to all intents and purposes we were out of the cup so I made a change to see if we could have an impact.

“I said if we had a chance to cross the ball, get it into the box because Zigic gave us a bigger presence. It was his best game for us, his most effective.

“When he plays like that he can be very, very difficult indeed to handle.”

McLeish enjoyed plenty of cup success during his time in charge of Rangers, but this is his first taste of a major English showpiece.

He admitted it was a tremendous feeling to be able to take a relatively unheralded club like Birmingham to Wembley. “The first word I think of is pride,” he said.

“It’s enormous pride for me to lead the club out at Wembley. I’ve been to lots of semi-finals in Scotland and to win one in England is great.”