Blues are, indeed, on their way

Got into a sort of argument before the Reading showdown with a well known face on satellite television, who happens to be a Blues fan.

"Well, if we do go up, we don't really deserve it," he said.

Excuse me, I replied, you finish where you deserve to finish over a 46-game season.

Why do people think there's always a rain cloud hovering over their and their team's head?

Speaking to Lee Carsley after the promotion-clinching victory, he said he was shocked by the pessimism and air of doom and gloom surrounding Blues after he signed, and this from a local.

It wasn't until he was right in the thick of it did he realise what the atmosphere was like.

So Blues didn't deserve it? Nonsense.

Everyone would have liked them to have scored 100 goals and stormed to the title. But it doesn't happen like that and only three teams in recent years - Sunderland (of Peter Reid, not Roy Keane), Fulham and Reading - have torn it up in the Championship.

Blues got up their way. It wasn't always pretty, in fact it was grim on some occasions, but they were effective and in terms of character and will, they had no peer.

Their success was relative to the league they were in this season. Finishing on 83 points, that was two more than Albion totted up in winning the title last year.

We tend to forget that Blues made their best ever start to a league season when they hit the top in October.

And they ended with the best record against the top-half clubs, and they were the defensive unit, despite various changes for various reasons.

Sheffield United might think they 'deserved' automatic promotion because of their late run (helped along the way by Lee Mason of course). They didn't because Blues, with all the pressure on them at Reading - all the pressure on them all season in fact - got the result.

Reading, the team everyone kept telling us were the best around after bashing both Wolves and Blues away, they 'deserved' it, didn't they? No.

Imagine if Blues had finished the season with five defeats, three draws and just three goals on their home ground in eight games, there would have been hell to pay.

Cardiff City might think they 'deserved' a play-off place after being in the mix for so long and missing out on the last day by just one goal. Tough.

Blues never dropped lower than third position and were only out of the top two for roughly seven weeks, on and off.

The fact that Blues won promotion by scoring the fewest number of goals - 54 - since the Championship started should not be ridiculed but grudgingly admired for it showed that the fundamentals in other departments were strong and constant. Blues were difficult to beat.

Take the Reading match. They lost concentration only once really, just after scoring, and conceded a goal.

Then, as the game boiled to a conclusion, they repelled everything that Reading threw at them. By the end, there were five up front for the Royals; it was never like this in Instanbul, was it, Djimi?!

The age and experience of Blues was often held against them. In fact, it counted for a great deal.

Dave Jones's comments after his Bluebirds blew up struck a chord. They had the opportunity to finish top a few weeks back due to the games in hand they had.

"Where we have fallen short is through a lack of experience and knowledge of how to deal with the situation we found ourselves in," he said.

"Maybe my players have been affected with nerves as well. Perhaps they didn't have the mental strength to see through a promotion campaign."

After the celebrations had died down at the Madejski Stadium, Alex McLeish was quite reflective when he spoke to the media.

He said this season had been 'an absolute ordeal'.

He revealed how much of a burden it was carrying the hopes of so many people and dealing with the demands, criticism, sniping and general 'always look on the dark side of life' attitude.

His comments about his future were also illuminating. He didn't like what he called 'car crash' management, he didn't like having to use the loan system and thinking short-term.

Where Blues go from here, and whether or not McLeish will be able to implement the 'infrastructure' he talked of is going to be decided over these next few fascinating summer months.