Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish insists it's no major setback he didn't get his striker signing yesterday.

McLeish was foiled in his bid to grab one of a couple of top targets and the easy option would have been to fall back on one of the hundreds of other names pitched into him over the last few weeks but was not prepared to upset the equilibrium of the squad or do an ultra-expensive deal for a player he felt wasn't worth the money.

He told bcfc.com: "I have total trust in these players, who have been excellent in the first half of the season in getting us to where we are.

"On the striker front we now have to go forward with Cameron (Jerome), Chucho, James (McFadden) and Kevin (Phillips) and we will do exactly that.

"The challenge to all of them, and to the rest of the squad, is to have an even better second half to the campaign than they did the first, and if they can do that it will be a season to remember.

"It took me time to get the right centre-halves for this club and just like recently on the striker front I have had hundreds put in to me over time.

"But I want to do the right thing by the fans and by the players that have served me so well this season.

"We did go for a select few targets but couldn't get the deals done, even though there were a couple of players extremely keen to come to Birmingham City.

"However, just because we didn't capture any of those players in this window I was not prepared to just sign anyone for the sake of it. Morally and financially that wouldn't be right with the long-term vision that we have."