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McLeish lets Gunn's results do all the talking as the Master watches the Apprentice go to work

23rd March 2009 By Latest News Leave a Comment

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The Master was giving little away afterwards.

Whether or not the Apprentice would go on and carve out a decent managerial career for himself was, said Alex McLeish, too early to tell.

Given his rather dour response, it was probably too early to even ask the question after his one-time boot-boy Bryan Gunn had whipped two points out of his hands with Saturday's 1-1 draw at St Andrews.

What's more, he'd also pulled a motivational trick or two by inviting Dion Dublin to join the Canary squad in the dressing room beforehand; thus fired up, City went at their hosts from the start – and, indeed, never really allowed Birmingham on the front foot all afternoon.

Kevin Phillips' late header which David Marshall acrobatically tipped over was about as close as McLeish and Co came to putting Gunn back on the seat of his pants.

Otherwise, he had to be grateful that the Canaries did not inflict greater damage on his promotion prospects with a winner.

“Has he the makings of a great manager? How can you tell at this stage if anybody's going to be a great manager,” said McLeish.

“I think he knows football – he's been in it a long, long time. And I think he's as capable of it as anybody else – of being a decent manager. And certainly his results have been the proof of that.

“And that's a great result for them today – and they played well.”

Given that Blues' next game is against Wolves, the fact that he had just seen two, big points slip through his fingers did not help McLeish's mood.

Particularly when the home side had nicked the game's opening goal. From there he would have expected his team to have steam-rollered their way to a big, home win.

Instead, Norwich proved more than a match for them – and in the likes of Alan Lee and Simon Lappin proved that there was spirit and fight a-plenty in the Norfolk side as the Canaries edged further away from the drop zone and watched Nottingham Forest and Plymouth slip ever deeper in it.

“We had a good chance to shut the game out,” rued the former Rangers and Scotland chief, after Jerome's controversial opener put Blues in charge of the contest. Right up until the moment that Sammy Clingan took aim from some 25-yards out eight minutes after the re-start.

“We've shot ourselves in the foot; we've been giving too many free-kicks away outside our box in recent games and somewhere along the line you're going to get punished.”

Which they duly were as Clingan's Northern Ireland pal Maik Taylor stayed rooted to a spot as the ball whipped in for Norwich's richly-deserved leveller.

He certainly wasn't about to give Marshall – or Gunn – the benefit of the doubt on their opener.

“I've seen it – and it's a clear jump from Cameron,” he insisted. “It's a clear jump; clear.

“Marshall should probably have punched it instead of trying to catch it. So I don't think it was anywhere near a foul – not to me.

“I think he hurt his nose on the way down when he bumped into the back of Cameron. Because there's no contact from Jerome at all. It was a powerful jump from a big, strong man – a clean jump,” added the Blues boss, in dangering of over-labouring the point to the Press afterwards.

Quite what he would say to his big pal Gunn over a wee dram afterwards is another matter.

The Apprentice had certainly enjoyed his day out at St Andrews.

“We had a chat – and we'll have a drink after we finish this,” confirmed the Canary boss, as he spoke to the Press immediately afterwards.

“To come up against one of your best mates in football… Obviously we were very professional in the way that we go about it,” he said.

“We had a little hug at the beginning of the game and a nice handshake at the end of it. But to come away tonight with a draw is creditable, but it could have been more.

“But I'm sure he'll be saying the same to you guys afterwards as well.”

Well, kind of.


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