McLeish took over as Birmingham boss in November 2007

Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish says he is looking forward to facing local rivals Aston Villa in the last eight of the Carling Cup.

Blues drew 0-0 at Villa Park in the Premier League on Sunday to end a run of six successive derby defeats.

McLeish told BBC WM: "We were excited to be in the draw and when we got a home game I was thrilled.

"To get our biggest rivals was the icing on the cake. It will be a full house and we'll go all out to win it."

The former Scotland boss added: "Over the past few years Villa have had a huge disparity over us in terms of finance and quality of squads. We've managed to bridge the gap in the past couple of seasons.

606: DEBATE I feel a team more clinical could of punished Villa Well_Done_Kev

"All in all we're much closer, although Villa have spent considerably more than we have."

A date has yet to be confirmed for the quarter-final tie at St Andrew's.

Blues needed a penalty shoot-out to get past League One side Brentford in the fourth round, while Villa beat Burnley 2-1 after extra time.

The last time the two clubs met in the League Cup was during the 1993/94 season, when Villa were 2-0 winners in a two-legged second round tie and went on to win the competition for the fourth time in their history.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version