Birmingham boss Alex McLeish has challenged his players to maintain the standards they set in demolishing Tottenham for the rest of the season.McLeish believes the 4-1 triumph over Juande Ramos' side is the yardstick by which his squad should be judged during the final quarter of the campaign in their battle to stay in the Premier League.

Blues visit new FA Cup favourites Portsmouth in Wednesday's rearranged clash with McLeish acknowledging only a performance of "the absolute best" will earn them any tangible reward at Fratton Park.

McLeish, whose side are unbeaten in four games, said: "I'd like to play like we did against Spurs every week and that is the standard we'll be asking the players to set for themselves between now and the end of the season.

"That performance should have enhanced their belief. The players are entitled to be confident after that and entitled to have belief. A result like that has got to strengthen the mentality.

"But the proof of the pudding will be in the coming games when hopefully the players will give me that kind of performance again.

"It is a brilliant platform they have given themselves. As far as I am concerned, they have set standards now that they can't go below because I will be watching closely."

McLeish added: "There was a lot of talk before the Spurs game about how focused they would be after their Carling Cup win.

"I said to the players beforehand that I couldn't care less which Tottenham turned up - whether they were world class or had partied too much.

"It was about us. We produced, as we had against Arsenal and Chelsea in previous home games, and we now need to be at our absolute best to take something from Portsmouth."

McLeish was quick to praise the job done at Pompey by Harry Redknapp, whose side gained a shock win over Manchester United at Old Trafford to book their place in the last four of the FA Cup.

"I watched them at Old Trafford at the weekend and they are a big strong side but also have people with ability and they can bring back people like Jermain Defoe, who was cup-tied," said the former Scotland boss.

"There have been a few bob invested in the squad and Harry has got some quality there and has got the best out of them.

"People are now making Portsmouth FA Cup favourites but even if the big clubs were still in there, you could never discount Pompey with the quality they have in that squad.

"They have strength in the team, flair in the team, speed in the team and it is a great job Harry has done."

McLeish admits he has gone for a more attack-minded policy in recent games away from St Andrews and he has been impressed with the Mikael Forssell-James McFadden combination up front.

He said: "There have been tactical switches. When I first came, the team had been used to playing one up front away from home, and even sometimes at home, and I could understand it because I did that with Scotland.

"But I just felt in some games we never caused a threat at all away, which is why we've gone with the two up front and now we are seeing it come to fruition a little but via McFadden and Forssell.

"It was after the game at Bolton that I felt something needed to be done. Although it was 3-0 on the day, I wasn't happy with the lack of forays into the Bolton box and we kind of changed it after that.

"Mikael and James have struck up a good partnership. It would be stupid if I was to change that."

Meanwhile, Birmingham chairman David Gold has increased his holding in the club after the purchase of 50,000 shares on Tuesday.

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