Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish has hailed the character of tomorrow's opponents Wigan Athletic.

Eck was amazed by Wigan's victory over Sunderland just days after their 9-1 humiliation by Tottenham.

He told bcfc.com: "Wigan showed amazing character after losing 9-1 to Spurs to go on and beat Sunderland the next week," said McLeish.

"They could easily have been a team that went down the spiral after that.

"People might have expected their confidence to be shattered but they did some good rebuilding in the week leading up to the game against Sunderland.

"First and foremost they made a great gesture to the fans (by paying for their Spurs match tickets) so all that helps.

"And there was good management there because the performance they gave against Sunderland defied what had happened the week before.

"Roberto (Martinez) is a purist and plays a certain system, with one up as opposed to 4-4-2 and he had a very successful Swansea team who played that system well and now he's doing it at Wigan."