Birmingham boss McLeish warns Chucho to cut out diving

Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish wants striker Chucho Benitez to cut the diving.

The Ecuador international made an impressive return to the starting line-up in the midweek 2-1 win at Portsmouth which lifted City in eighth spot in the Barclays Premier League.

But he blotted his copybook by going to ground too easily, picking up a yellow card, and McLeish fears such actions will be looked upon unfavourably by referees in future.

The former Scotland boss said: "Christian went down the other night and the referee quite rightly said it was a dive and he was spot on.

"Christian has got to learn the culture here and that we frown upon things like that. He has to stay on his feet.

"He will now have to stay on his feet because the next time he gets clipped I'm sure the referee will say; 'We've seen him diving and I'll book him for that'.

"Hopefully referees will treat Christian fairly but I'm certainly going to have a word with him about that situation. You don't dive."