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Carling Cup is "greatest achievement" for Blues football manager

28th February 2011 - Berko Tau

Alex McLeish, Birmingham City's football manager, has said that his team's Carling Cup final victory over Arsenal is his "greatest achievement" in the role.

Obafemi Martins took advantage of a mix-up in the box to fire home a winner after 89 minutes and seal a famous 2-1 victory over the Gunners, ending the Londoners' hopes of a quadruple.

Speaking to BBC Sport, McLeish said: "I am so pleased for the fans, they have craved victory for a long time. Relatively speaking, it is my greatest achievement. For a small club like ours to beat Arsenal was a titanic effort."

Birmingham started strongly after taking the lead through a Nikola Zigic goal on 28 minutes, but Robin van Persie was able to pull one back on 38 minutes to make it 1-1 at the half.

McLeish's men held firm and put in an excellent performance throughout the second half, as goalkeeper Ben Foster had one of the best games of his career to stop a tenacious Arsenal attack. Blues striker Keith Fahey also hit the post.

Gunners goalie Wojciech Szczesny and defender Laurent Koscielny ultimately undid their team's efforts, as both got confused when attempting to clear a Zigic flick-on. Martins converted a simple tap-in to claim the win.

This weekend, both teams have football games at home on Saturday. Birmingham will host West Brom, while Sunderland will travel to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal.

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