Aitken backs Blues for survival despite double disappointment

Last updated at 16:46 01 February 2008

Roy Aitken believes Birmingham's squad is strong enough to survive in the

Barclays Premier League despite double disappointment during the closing stages

of the January transfer window.

Defender Gary Cahill rejected the chance to join Blues and instead

switched from local rivals Aston Villa to Bolton in a £5million deal.

Then Georgian international midfielder Levan Tskitishvili was refused a work

permit to end City's hopes of signing him until the end of the campaign.

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But Birmingham number two Aitken remains confident of winning the battle to

stay in the top flight ahead of tomorrow's home clash with bottom-placed Derby.

He said: "I can't believe Levan didn't get a work permit given the

number of times he has played for his country and I thought this was the right

place for Gary to come and play his football.

"He would have been linking up with a manager (Alex McLeish) who played in the

position he plays in and would have learnt a lot from him. But you have to move on and I am confident the squad is still strong enough to stay up. We have shown, especially at home in recent games, that we can play very well.

"We've played at home since we came here against Reading, Middlesbrough,

Fulham and Chelsea and we've played very well in all those games. We've got

another home game on Saturday and we've got to continue that form.

"Yes, it would have been nice to have added one or two players in certain

positions to strengthen the squad for when injuries and suspensions may come

into things.

"But I do still believe we have got a squad capable of retaining Premier

League status."

Aitken is aware that Birmingham must cut out are the basic errors which have

cost them dearly in several recent games and they have proved vulnerable at set

pieces.

He said: "We just need a level of consistency to take us through the rest of

the season. We've played very well in games and then shot ourselves in the foot

in other games.

"I don't think we've been out-played in any of the games we've been involved

in. There have been some tough games against Tottenham, Manchester United,

Arsenal and Chelsea and we've done well.

"But then against Bolton and Sunderland, two of the games we have lost, we

have shot ourselves in the foot. We've lost slack goals where individually and

collectively we could have done better.

"It is something we will continue to work on at the training ground and try

and eradicate, those individual errors. Against Derby we need to cut out the

individual errors and hopefully continue our good home form.

"We've got eight home games left, with a lot of points at stake. If you win a

couple of games, it is amazing how quickly things can change."