Larsson: Birmingham almost there

Birmingham City winger Sebastian Larsson believes his club’s status in the Premier League is almost guaranteed.

But the Sweden star, who scored his third goal in four games with the equaliser against Wolves in Sunday’s derby, is taking nothing for granted.

The draw for 10-man Blues kept them four points clear of the drop zone on 39 points and protected their five-point advantage over Wolves.

“We’re not thinking that way, that we’re safe,” Larsson told the Birmingham Post.

“But I am extremely confident about what we are going to do for the rest of the season and that we will get the points we still need. I don’t think we’re going to go down.”

“But we can’t count ourselves safe, not at all. We’re not going to be relaxed, we’re going to keep going and work hard to pick up the points we need.”

“We’ve got a bit of a lead, there are a few teams below us, and only three games left now.”

“We hoped we would have beaten Wolves and that would have been it.”

“But it’s one game less, we’ve picked up another point and we should be fine if we keep working hard, we shouldn’t be in any trouble.”

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish said he was disappointed that midfielder Craig Gardner was booked for retaliation and had no complaints about a second yellow card for diving which meant City played the last half an hour with 10 men.

“I was more annoyed at the first yellow card Craig got. Reacting to the tackle, it put him under pressure and he was then treading on thin ice,’’ McLeish said.

“The simulation, he went down. He had been booted two or three times before that and maybe he was diving out of the way.”

“We don’t condone the diving element and the referee acted correctly.”

Birmingham travel to Newcastle on Saturday, host Fulham at St Andrew’s on Sunday, May 15 and visit White Hart Lane to tackle Spurs on Sunday, May 22.