Taylor: Rallying cry

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Maik Taylor has urged his Birmingham team-mates to learn to 'shut up shop' and hold on to winning positions.

Blues looked set to secure three valuable points in their battle against relegation when they took a 2-0 lead against Liverpool on Saturday, only to concede two goals in the last half hour.

The result left Birmingham in the bottom three with just two games of the season remaining, and Taylor has admitted that the defensive lapses are proving costly.

"We wanted a reaction against Liverpool after the Aston Villa game - and we got it," said the goalkeeper, referring to the 5-1 defeat in the Midlands derby.

"But we've again given a soft goal away to let them back into the game and that has been the case for most of the season. Teams don't really have to work very hard to score past us.

"Sometimes we get into good positions but when a team has a good spell against us, which every team will do in the Premier League, we just don't seem able to shut up shop and weather the storm.

"It is very disappointing and something we need to look at. We will sit down and talk about it and iron a few things out and we will go forward.

Fighting

"We are all in it together, we are 11 out there fighting for the cause, we all mean well but unfortunately teams have got at us and found it easy to score."

Birmingham face Fulham in a crucial match on Saturday and Taylor accepts it will be difficult against Roy Hodgson's improving side.

He said: "We still have a fighting chance. We've got two massive games coming up. Fulham will have their tails up. They've had a great result at Manchester City.

"As a result they are still in the mix but we will work extremely hard throughout this coming week, look to sort a few things out and we will be ready.

"We will get this weekend out of our system and then all our focus will be on Fulham."