Houllier, McLeish rue missed chances

Gerard Houllier and Alex McLeish lamented their sides’ failure to snare the three points after a closely fought Birmingham derby on Sunday.

The St Andrew’s clash saw Birmingham and Aston Villa share city bragging rights in a 1-1 draw after James Collins cancelled out Roger Johnson’s opener to salvage a point that took Villa out of the relegation zone.

But following a frantic finish that saw both sides push for a winner, Villa boss Houllier felt his team created the chances that warranted a victory over their fierce rivals.

“If there’s got to be a winner, I would say it was Aston Villa today,” Houllier told Sky Sports.

“We created a lot of chances, I counted nearly seven; we hit the bar four times.”

“The players, the minimum they deserved from that game, is a draw, and I’m very, very pleased and proud of their performance.”

Houllier added that the character his players displayed to recover from a second-half deficit provided a positive omen that will keep them in good stead as they seek to skip well clear of the bottom three.

“I was impressed by the performance of our players, but I was also impressed by their character,” he said.

“I think some time ago we would have probably lost that game, but like in Chelsea, we fought hard to get the minimum of one point.”

“It’s not easy for us at the moment, it’s difficult, a bad run, we’re just getting out of it and we can just count on ourselves.”

While pleased that his side were able to match their more fancied city rivals, Birmingham boss McLeish was left to rue the hosts’ lack of killer instinct after they went ahead through Johnson’s 49th-minute strike.

Asked if the result was fair, McLeish responded: “Probably, but I think we’ve come a long way in a couple of years in terms of these games and these results.”

“Had we been a wee bit more clinical in our chances after 1-0 we would have seen it through.”

“Craig Gardner had a wonderful chance with a volley. Normally he is the guy you would trust in that situation … and he’s completely miscued it.”

“And Matt Derbyshire going through and (Brad) Friedel making a good save, you know these were all at 1-0, that’s when we really had to turn the screw, and then Villa came back.”