McLeish needs his strikers to make up for the loss of top-scorer Kevin Phillips

Birmingham boss Alex McLeish is growing increasingly frustrated by the failure of his strikers to take their chances.

In the absence, through injury, of 13-goal leading scorer Kevin Phillips, Blues have failed to find the net against Coventry and Crystal Palace.

"We are profligate in front of goal, we miss too many sitters, absolute sitters," McLeish told BBC WM.

"The strikers have held their hands up, all three of them have had chances, Lee Bowyer had a terrific chance too."

McLeish has used Cameron Jerome, Marcus Bent and new signing Carlos Costly up front since Phillips damaged a hamstring during the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest earlier this month but none of them have made the most of their opportunities.

McLeish asked: "What can I do? Short of me going out and putting the ball in the back of the net myself!

"The strikers know the top scorer after Phillips having five has not been good enough."

What can I do? Short of me going out and putting the ball in the back of the net myself! Blues boss Alex McLeish

The failure to put ten-man Crystal Palace away at Selhurst Park leaves Birmingham three points behind the Championship leaders Wolves and two points ahead of Reading, who have two games in hand.

"There were gilt-edged chances in the game tonight that I've not seen for a while," McLeish noted.

"That's the crumb of comfort I take from it. I'm looking for somebody to take it by the scruff of the neck and say 'I'm on a scoring run and you can't leave me out' but they continue to mess up chances."

One of the positives of the goalless draw with Palace was the debut of the former Republic of Ireland defender Stephen Carr.

Carr, 32, signed a one-month contract at St Andrew's this week after announced his retirement from the game in December, after a period of niggling injuries while at Newcastle.

"I thought he did all right and allowed us to free Seb [Larsson] up in his natural position," McLeish pointed out.

"Seb's put a couple of killer balls in again as he does. We haven't capitalised on them, that's the disappointing thing."

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