Interview: Maik Taylor - Birmingham City & Northern Ireland

Maik Taylor admits he will feel responsible if Birmingham fail to win their battle to survive in the Barclays Premiership, despite being one of their most consistent performers.

The Blues goalkeeper remains confident Steve Bruce's side can achieve enough points from the remaining seven games to stay in the top flight, but they are currently second from bottom.

Victory over Bolton in tonight's home encounter, however, would take City out of the bottom three for the first time since October and hoist them above local rivals West Brom.

And Northern Ireland international Taylor wants Birmingham to take confidence from the deserved draw with leaders Chelsea at the weekend into the final part of the campaign.

Taylor said: "I have played the majority of games and I will feel responsible if the worse-case scenario happens at the end of the season.

"But there are still seven games left and we are totally confident and fully believe we will stay up and that's what we are trying to achieve.

"I have been in the situation before of fighting relegation. There are still plenty of points to play for.

"It was a massive boost for us to get a point against one of the best teams in Europe at the weekend and we want to build on that against Bolton.

"We have all had to look at ourselves in the mirror and it was important we worked extremely hard on the training pitch to try to put things right.

"It looks like being a three-horse race but we have got to look at our own performances and try to pick up points when we can and not worry about the other teams."

Taylor is full of praise for the way Bruce has tried to protect the players from the pressures of being in a relegation battle for so long.

He said: "He has tried to keep things away from the players and not mention too much about what is going on. If he felt the need to come down on players if they are not performing, he has done that - and some of the performances have warranted them.

"But in general things like getting relegated have not been mentioned. He tries to be bubbly and buzzing and try to make it intense and enjoyable and try to have that feel-good factor."

Leading scorer Jiri Jarosik will return against Bolton after being ineligible to face Chelsea because of the loan agreement between the two clubs.

But Bruce will check on the fitness of Matthew Upson, David Dunn, Muzzy Izzet and Chris Sutton to see if they can return after stepping up training following lengthy injury lay-offs.

Source: Yahoo Sports