McLeish eyes Midlands rivals

Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has set his sights on a derby victory against rivals West Bromwich Albion at Villa Park on Saturday.

The Villains had been enjoying an unbeaten run until their 4-1 defeat at the hands of league-leaders Manchester City, but McLeish insists that, with a little more belief, his side could have taken points from the game.

“People didn’t expect us to get anything up there, but I really did believe that we could have got something up there,” he told Sky Sports.

“It’s about having that belief against bigger teams, but anyway we move on.”

Looking to the club’s next fixture against West Brom, the Scottish manager highlighted the threat that Roy Hodgson’s side can pose but insisted that his side have the tools to secure a derby win.

“We have a home game in front of our own fans, against a pretty experienced West Brom team, who know their way about a football pitch – that’s for sure,” the former Birmingham boss said.

“But we have got the tools, I believe, up front that can hurt them.”

The Baggies completed a 2-0 derby victory over Wolves on Sunday, but McLeish notes that while it will have given his opposition confidence, his side have the will to win.

“I’m sure their players would have taken a lot of confidence from it, it was a derby game,” he added.

“But we have home advantage, and sometimes in these games, it’s about the will to win, as well as the skill.”

The Scot made the move to Villa Park from fierce rivals Birmingham at the beginning of the season and some have suggested that the fans are not yet convinced by their new manager.

But the 52-year-old insisted that he thought the fans had taken to him well, but claimed that he was more concerned with focusing on results.

He continued: “I think the fans have been terrific as a matter of fact.”

“We had a disappointing night against Bolton (in the League Cup) but the most important thing for us right now is to concentrate on the Barclays Premier League.”

“The undefeated run came to an end last week, and we would like to think we could string another few positive results together in the coming weeks.”