Steven Caldwell is quietly confident that Brimingham City can progress to the next stage of the Europa league, and has admitted he would be devastated if they crashed out now.

The Blues face Club Brugge for the second time this season knowing that a win will guarantee them a place in the knock-out stages of the draw. The omens are looking good – they have already beaten them once, and Brugge sacked their manager on Saturday night after a torrid 5-4 defeat to Genk.

Caldwell can’t wait. “It’s a crucial game. I am certainly looking forward to it. It’s been fantastic playing in Europe and I think it has actually helped our league form a lot, the confidence we’ve got from the results, especially the last two away from home.

“Back here hopefully it’s going to be full at St Andrew’s, or very near to full.

“I think it’s important we do well in it to push on with the league form. Hopefully we can get the victory and that will set us up nicely.”

Birmingham City boss McLeish says that he is sad to lose McFadden due to injury. The Scotland international sustained anterior cruciate ligament damage to his left knee in training on Friday and is now set to undergo surgery.

McLeish will then discover how long he can expect to be without McFadden, although Birmingham have already admitted the forward will be missing for the ‘foreseeable future’.

The manager believes McFadden was in the best form of his Blues career before the setback and he concedes news of the injury was hard to take. “It is a shame because I felt James was coming back to his best. He was looking really bright in training. His fitness regime has been fantastic. He is eating the right things,” said McLeish.

Birmingham City’s vice-chairman has been forced to backtrack his comments over manager Alex McLeish. Peter Pannu, Birmingham City’s vice-chairman, was forced into an embarrassing climbdown today when he claimed that he enjoyed a “phenomenal” relationship with Alex McLeish, 24 hours after accusing the club’s manager of making unreasonable contract demands and “not being totally tried and tested yet”.

Pannu, who had also suggested in his earlier remarks that McLeish was “no [José] Mourinho”, said that he had never intended to criticise the Scot and went on to claim that the two parties were close to agreeing a new contract that could be in place by next week. That stance contrasted sharply with the picture that Pannu had painted beforehand, when he claimed McLeish was “asking for a very large amount of money which I was not prepared to meet”.

McLeish, who led Birmingham to their highest top-flight finish in 51 years last season, when the club secured ninth place in the Premier League after winning promotion 12 months earlier, was disappointed with Pannu’s initial comments and it remains to be seen whether there is any lasting damage to their relationship. Pannu was understandably keen to stress that was not the case today as he tried to pick up the pieces from an embarrassing episode.

Birmingham are aiming to remain in the Premier League this season according to manager Alex McLeish. McLeish’s side were heavily tipped to be relegated last season, but surprised many by finishing in ninth place on their return to the Premier League, thanks to a miserly defence and a stellar season from on-loan goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Birmingham have seen Hart return to his parent club, Manchester City, but McLeish was able to acquire Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster and Valencia striker Nikola Zigic for £6 million each.

While some expect Birmingham to improve their shock ninth place finish, McLeish insists that he has one simple goal for the upcoming campaign.

“Finish in the Premier League again,” McLeish told The Sun.

“I don’t look at last season — we’ve got to now start totally afresh. These two guys have given us a bit of freshness but I’m looking for more signings, we can’t rest on our laurels.

“If any player is down on their level from last year, the Premier League is unforgiving.

“Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, said this is his club’s third year in the Premier League and he only wants to stay up.

“That’s the target he’s set for his players because if you do three years in a row, you’re recognised as a Premier League team.

“We’ve only done it one year. People are expecting us to finish higher than ninth, which I think is ridiculous. There’s a top seven that are pretty much untouchable and between the next 13 teams, it’s a big battle.”

McLeish intends to add some more players to his squad before they kick off their Premier League season at Sunderland on August 14.

“I might need to bolster the left-back position or one of the centre-back positions because if one of them go down, the numbers are quite short, but certainly in forward areas.

“We will try to bring in more players, the board have told me I would have the money for more players.”

Nikola Zigic has landed himself a tall order – finding the goals to fire Birmingham City upwards after completing a £6million switch from Valencia.

The giant Serbia striker has agreed a four-year deal with the St Andrew’s club, becoming Alex McLeish’s third signing of the close season.

Zigic stands at almost 6ft 8in – he doesn’t exactly dwarf Spurs’ Peter Crouch, but the England international has finally found someone in the Barclays Premier League to look up to. Albeit by less than an inch.

Birmingham City star Barry Ferguson feels he has proved his critics wrong after a successful first season at St Andrews.

Ferguson was brought to St Andrews last summer by his former Rangers and international boss Alex McLeish after a controversial final season north of the border.

The former Blackburn man has been instrumental in Birmingham’s surprise success this term and has been virtually an ever-present in McLeish’s starting XI.

The 32-year-old admits he has been happy with his performances this year and believes he has silenced a few of his critics.

“My form? I’ve been happy with it. I couldn’t have asked for any better.

“The gaffer gave me chance to come back down here and maybe shut a few people up and I think I’ve done that.

“It’s all about enjoying my football and that’s certainly what I’m doing.”