Bruce offers advice as fans turn on Lee

The Bolton manager was turned upon by his own supporters as Birmingham celebrated their first home league win thanks to Olivier Kapo's outstretched leg, leaving rookie Lee contemplating his fifth league defeat in six.

Lee had to endure shouts of 'You don't know what you're doing' ten minutes from time as he tried to rescue the game with his substitutions. But Bruce, who is now the third longest-serving top-flight boss after Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, had some words of advice.

"Let me tell you this," he said, "it would be difficult for any manager to replace Arsene or Sir Alex given the standards they have achieved.

"Now the same is going to be true of Little Sammy to replace Big Sam at Bolton. Come on, be fair, Sam did an outstanding job there.

"Sammy needs a little bit of time to do it his way and it's not going to be easy following someone like Big Sam.

"But Sammy is a proper football man and we all wish him the best of luck to try to turn it round.

"And the one thing he's got to have now is time because five or six games in, a new manager walks through the door, you've got to give him a chance to prove himself.

"It's not just the Premier League, it's the Football League, too. If you look at any successful club — and Bolton are one — they've got continuity.

"I hope the people at Bolton give their support to Sammy because it's a tough, tough job, believe me."

In terms of a net outlay in the transfer market since the turn of the year, Bruce has spent approximately £3m. That's chicken-feed by the standard of most Premier League clubs.

His class of '07 are by no means easy on the eye but Bruce made reference after the final whistle to the atmosphere being 'like a proper Premier League game'.

Reduced entry prices and late summer sunshine contributed to a near fullhouse and Birmingham played more like the side of five years ago.

Sebastian Larsson was at the heart of most of Birmingham's good work. Kapo met Larsson's cross to score the decisive goal and the Swede also hit the bar with a free-kick.

He said: 'It was a big three points for us. Hopefully, we have set the standard for the way we want to play.

More importantly this is the second game we have won against one of our immediate rivals and it is a strength we have.

"I think we can definitely stay up and don't see any reason why we can't if we keep performing like this.

"In Kapo we have someone who has that little bit extra you need in this league."

BIRMINGHAM: (4-4-1-1) Taylor 6; Kelly 7, Djourou 7, Ridgewell 6, Queudrue 7; Larsson 8, Nafti 7, Muamba 6, (Oubina 87mins) McSheffrey 5; (Schmitz 90) Kapo 6; Jerome 7. (O'Connor 90) Booked: Ridgewell

BOLTON: (4-3-2-1) Jaaskelainen 6; Hunt 6, O'Brien 6, (Cid 80) Meite 6, Samuel 5 (Gardner 73, 5); Alonso 3, (Braatan 54, 6), McCann 5, Speed 5; Diouf 9, Nolan 5; Anelka 4. Booked: McCann, Speed, O'Brien

Man-of-the-match: El Hadji Diouf

Referee: Phil Dowd