Fulham 2-0 Birmingham

May 4 2008 John Mathieson Reports

Eck Needs A Miracle To Save Blues

ALEX McLEISH arrived at Birmingham as the Messiah - now he needs a miracle to save them from relegation.

Defeat at Craven Cottage sent City to second bottom and edged Fulham out of the bottom three going into next Sunday's final round of matches.

Victory at home to Blackburn next week will only keep Birmingham up if both Fulham (at Portsmouth) and Reading (at Derby) fail to win.

It's a disastrous scenario for McLeish who took over at St Andrews last October with big ambitions after quitting the Scotland job with his reputation soaring.

Relegation will cost the club £35million but McLeish believes his men can beat the odds to survive.

He said: "It goes to the wire and we still have a lifeline. There's still an opportunity to stay up. It's no longer in our hands but it probably wasn't before today.

"We have to win next weekend and we're capable of doing that. I've never found it difficult to pick the team up.

"Now the players have to do everything in their power. We fight on for another week.

"I thought we had a couple of good chances today that we didn't capitalise on.

To lose the second goal when we were chasing the game was hard to take."

Brian McBride and Erik Nevland were the heroes for Fulham as they claimed back-to-back wins for the first time since September 2006.

Three victories in four games has put them on the verge of survival - at one point they were 1-150 to lose their top-flight status.

Home fans created tremendous noise at the start and their team almost got off to a flier when McBride headed Paul Konchesky's cross on to the bar.

Lightning reflexes from Maik Taylor denied Fulham in the eighth minute as Simon Davies pulled the trigger.

The Cottagers hadn't kept a clean sheet for 17 matches but were defending bravely.

James McFadden sliced Fulham open with a jinking run and pass to Sebastian Larsson but his cross came to nothing.

Three minutes from half-time Aaron Hughes saved Fulham after more McFadden magic.

The Scotland forward seemed to be City's only outlet and he weaved his way into space and picked out Mikael Forssell but Hughes blocked as he was about to shoot past Kasey Keller.

Fulham started the second half strongly and stormed ahead after 52 minutes.

Jimmy Bullard lofted a free-kick into the box and as the defence switched off McBride nodded home from virtually on his knees.

McFadden flashed narrowly wide before Nevland settled the issue when he collected a bouncing ball and rifled past Taylor.

Fulham boss Roy Hodgson said: "The atmosphere right now is euphoric but it's not finished yet and the euphoria of this week could turn into sadness next Sunday if we're relegated."