Alex McLeish has told his Birmingham players to "free your mind" as they battle to stay in the Premier League this season.Blues moved out of the bottom three with a hard-earned 1-1 draw at West Ham on Saturday.
McLeish accepted his players have looked a bit of a "soft touch" at the back, and needed a boost after they missed the chance to secure a vital win against whipping boys Derby at home last weekend.
A penalty from James McFadden - his first goal for the club since a £4.75million move from Everton - proved enough, along with a determined rearguard action, to get what could be a crucial result in the battle for survival.
With title challengers Arsenal and ever-improving Tottenham up next at St Andrews, the Birmingham manager knows his squad will have to be fully focused to continue their progress.
"You have got to try and free yourself and your mind, going into these games," said the former Scotland manager.
"You've got to be realistic and the outcome of this may be that you don't win, or you lose this game, and, as long as you have that realism, rather than saying 'we must win, we must win', that you put yourself under much more pressure.
"So I've tried to relax the players from that point of view and say what they can guarantee me is they give me everything."
McLeish added: "There is a lot of psychology in it nowadays and you have got to be able to choose the right words for players also as well, and have them working in the right environment.
"I think there's a place for it because there's a place now for physios, for doctors, for fitness coaches, for sports scientists, so why not somebody educating the mind a little bit?."
As for what the former Hibernian and Rangers boss does to keep himself focused away from the training ground, McLeish revealed: "For the first time in a while, I went to the pictures last week. I saw No Country For Old Men, which was nice and violent."
The Blues boss added: "It is hard, you very rarely switch off.
"You are always looking at the next game, and looking back, and analysing the video, and then looking at the opponents, to see what we can do to try and retain the Premier League status."
McLeish hopes the likes of McFadden and fellow new arrival David Murphy can help add a bit of experience to what is a young squad which is being tested to the limit.
"We have tried to add a wee bit more quality and experience, just to help that group of players," said the Birmingham manager.
"We were only able to get James and [Mauro] Zarate is a little bit of an unknown force at the moment. We hope he'll have a part to play in it as well, while Murphy has come in and settled well."
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