Birmingham City lack strength in depth in terms of Europe as well as experience according to the Blue’s manager Alex Mcleish.

Birmingham sit seventh in the Premiership and even though mathematically they still stand a chance of getting in to a European spot it does look slim but that will not stop them fighting all the way as Mcleish declared

“I still feel that we’re short of strength-in-depth and experience in terms of Europe, but as we proved today we’ll keep going to the end.”

His team did show tenacity and resilience against Everton and a draw was probably a fair reflection on the game though for the first 20 minutes Birmingham were on the back foot, something Mcleish accepted

“Everton came here on fire, but St Andrews is a tough place to come.

“We had to up the tempo because we were pedestrian in the first 20 minutes, we were getting no penetration and we weren’t getting the ball to the forwards.

“But once we did Cameron Jerome led the line brilliantly, that was the best I’ve seen him.

“And Craig Gardner’s contribution was the kind we would anticipate from him.

Even if Birmingham do fail to grab a European spot it has still been a remarkable season for them and if you would have told them at the start of the season that with just nine games to go they would sit just four points behind Liverpool they would have dismissed the prediction out of hand.

Birmingham can be proud of their season no matter the final position and one thing is for certain, Birmingham City will be a Premiership team next season