McLeish Bemoans Defending

Blues manager Alex McLeish was not happy at the way his side defended during both Bolton goals that gave the away side their victory at St Andrews on Saturday.

After Bolton had hit an opener from Tamir Cohen, it looked like an 84th minute goal from Kevin Phillips was enough to earn the home side a point.

But more poor defending from a free kick just two minutes later saw Lee end up walking the ball into the net.

McLeish said: 'After we had equalised I don't know if the players thought that the game was over. It looked like they were in a trance for a couple of minutes.

'It was poor defending for their winner and was another harsh lesson of what can happen in the Premier League.

'We also lost the first goal to a set-piece, the sort of thing we practice on the training ground to make sure it doesn't happen. But we were punished again.'

McLeish also defended his decision to start the game with only one striker in Christian Benitez after fans began chanting for him to switch to a 4-4-2 system.

He said: 'I heard what the fans were saying but there is no evidence in terms of our performance to suggest we create more when playing two up front rather than one.'

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