Lee Bowyer says Birmingham are aiming to retain their place in the top half of the Premier League until the end of the season. From being written off as relegation candidates at the start of the campaign, Alex McLeish's side have been in the top half of the table since early December and are unbeaten at home for seven months.

Birmingham again showed their fighting qualities in coming from behind to draw 1-1 with visiting Liverpool on Sunday.

Midfielder Bowyer, who has been a key component in City's success, said: "It surprised everybody, including the players and the manager, that we reached the 40-point mark as early as we did.

"If we are all honest with each other, we thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was and that is a credit to everybody at the club for the hard work we have put in.

"We have surprised a lot of teams but we have still got to finish as high as possible.

"Once we did reach the 40-point mark, we could have taken our foot off the pedal but we have showed we want to get as many points as possible.

"It would be disappointing now if we didn't finish in the top half but, like I said all the way through that amazing unbeaten run we were on mid-way through the season, we have got to be realistic here.

"We haven't got a very big squad and we just need to keep taking it point by point.

"Even if we don't end up in the top half, it still hasn't been a bad season because everyone tipped us to go down.

"At the start of the season we would have taken 17th position but now we want to be greedy and we want to finish in the top 10."