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"I felt there was a flatness about us today," McLeish said. "The players look a bit tired and weary. The first half was fifty/fifty, Lee Bowyer should have scored with a great chance and if Scott Dann gets a touch on Fahey's cross it's a goal.
"But it was a second half to forget after the goal. We didn't react to it as we have done so well this season and that was disappointing. James McFadden felt there was a handball in the wall from the free kick which led to the goal. I'll have to watch it again to have an opinion but James said the player had his arms up and that's sometimes a grey area.
"But Fletcher had plenty to do after that and Joe Hart held his hands up afterwards, he said he anticipated the shot going the other way and found himself wrong footed. After that we were second best to everything."
Owen Coyle described it as the best win yet as Burnley made it four out of four at home this season and took their run of home wins to ten since the defeat to Sheffield Wednesday last February.
"I believe today was our biggest result of the season, not your Manchester Uniteds or Evertons or Sunderlands," a delighted Coyle said after seeing goals from Steven Fletcher and Andre Bikey give us a 2-1 win.
"A lot of people coming today would have thought 'I fancy Burnley to win that' and sometimes they are the games that you trip up on, but we didn't.
"Birmingham will be in our group of teams, we know that. That's why it was the biggest result of the season. If we can pick up points in those games, against the teams around us, that will serve us well for the duration."
This run of home wins this season has already created a new Premier League record and that pleased Coyle. "We wanted to retain that 100 per cent home record, which is so important," he added.
"Not many people thought we would have 12 points, but we have and now we go to look to get some points away from home.
"After the week we've had with injuries, my players showed that togetherness, quality and resilience. And for the second goal itself you would have paid the admission money, although I'm not sure about Andre's celebration. I'll have to have a word with him about that.
"We scored two goals today and it could have been four or five."