Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish was proud of his players after their 1-0 defeat at Manchester United yesterday.

"People said I was pitting my wits against Sir Alex Ferguson but it is like using a pop-gun to take on a machine gun," he said.

"Manchester United had £125million worth of talent on the pitch, so you have to be realistic, even though I felt we could get something out of the game.

"I am trying to add some new faces during the window because we are desperately short of bodies.

"We have gone into our fourth game this week with more or less the same players and we just cannot rotate the way Sir Alex can."