McLeish: Villa result in the past April 24 2008
Alex McLeish has challenged Birmingham to recover from their Aston Villa nightmare and maintain their impressive form shown at St Andrews if they are to survive in the Premier League.
Blues striker Cameron Jerome admitted he was "embarrassed" by the 5-1 mauling at the hands of Villa which left City in the bottom three with only three games remaining.
It meant they have taken only two points from their last ten away games since winning McLeish's first match in charge - 3-2 at Tottenham in early December.
But Brum have lost only once on their home soil - 1-0 to Chelsea - during McLeish's reign and will look to give themselves a lifeline when they entertain Liverpool this weekend.
The Birmingham manager said: "It's now come down to a three-game league. I said that to the players immediately after the Villa game in the dressing room.
"I told them they had to move on. That's not lessening the result against Villa and how we all felt. We all wanted to do a lot better against Villa.
"But our season comes down to the next three games. At some stage in the Premier League season the gulf between teams will become evident.
"We have shown time and time again our resilience in the way we have bounced back. We have a proven record of doing that on more than one occasion since I came here."
Blues, who earned a goalless draw at Anfield during Steve Bruce's spell in charge in September, defeated Manchester City and shared the spoils with Everton during their last two home games.
McLeish said: "We have tried to make sure that any team leaving St Andrews have gone away saying 'that was a difficult game, Birmingham really made us work hard'.
"That's our intention in terms of Saturday. We hope that Liverpool will go away knowing they've been in a right game thinking that Birmingham are a really tough team to play against.
"But I am also hoping that that means three points because there have been many times we've played well but haven't quite got the three points.
"Our second-half performance against Everton two weeks ago was excellent but we couldn't get over the finishing line."
McLeish added: "It's a fantastic challenge lying ahead for the boys. They are very keen to be in the Premier League again. They know it's such a terrific league and full of quality.
"But to do that, it means pitting yourselves against fantastic players every week and a club like Liverpool have so much depth to their squad."