He told the Birmingham official site
“It was a point gained for us so I was grateful for small mercies from what was a poor performance,” said McLeish.
“But I’ve got to give Swansea credit because they played excellently.
“I said last week they were the best footballing team we’ve played against this season and I don’t change my mind after that today.”
Blues were below par for much of the game and McLeish says it is difficult to put his finger on the exact cause.
“I don’t know if there’s any particular one reason,” he said.
“There are a few things you can think about.
“They outmanoeuvred us in the midfield with three men in there in the first half and we tried to match up with that in the second half but never really got into our way of playing.
“But I think it’s a credit to Swansea and the way they played in that they made us look ineffective.
“We had a flurry of corners and there were some decent corners coming in from James McFadden.
“And Cameron probably had the best chance for us in the game when we were down to ten men but he said the bounce of the grass had beaten him, so the irony is we could have nicked it despite not playing well.
“But we nicked a point and for me that was a bonus.
“Today we second best in terms of the performance level but we still got a share of the points despite that.
“I’m not going to start panicking, but of course I was concerned that we didn’t play well.
“But I’ve got say there was a lot of spirit shown by the players.
“Taylor’s made a great save at the end and we had one or two good interceptions at the back so there was definitely a commitment there from the players.
“I was just about to take him (David Murphy) off because he’d been struggling with his thigh over the last two weeks and again he was feeling the effects of that in today’s game and he’s mistimed a tackle,” added McLeish.
“I don’t think it was malicious.
“He went for the ball and the guys nipped in there and he’s never even seen him,
“Whether it’s a booking leading to the sending off I don’t know but probably the nature of tackle makes it a booking.”
