West Brom winger Giles Barnes admits he came close to joining Birmingham City earlier this season.

Barnes trained at St Andrews following his release from Derby County, but in the end signed with the Baggies.

"I had a little trial with them. The idea was to go there, get fit and if they liked what they saw then I was going to sign," recalled Barnes to the Sunday Mercury.

"I had about three or four games called off just because of the weather. To be fair to Alex McLeish he said, 'we do want you to stay here and play but we just need you to play in a game. You've showed us everything you've got in training but we need to see it in a game now.'

"I thought I'd been there for three weeks already and I needed to settle down somewhere. I couldn't take the chance of a game being called off again because it was when the weather was snowy. I just left it.

"I didn't really speak to Terry Westley about that, I just got the call from my agent saying that Birmingham wanted to take me in. Maybe Terry had a word with Alex.

"That was my first trial. It was a massive help just to get back around the football environment. I worked with their fitness coach as well, which obviously helped me to get fit so I thank them a lot for that."