Carrot Seeing blue after Birmingham city success

Funny man Jasper Carrott has returned to the island after last year's successful Robert Winsor Charity Golf, boosted by the fact his beloved Birmingham City have just won promotion to the Premier League. “It's always a lovely place to come to and I've got a lot of friends on the island, then you get the weather and the golf and it's great,” said Carrott after his practice round yesterday. “The Robert Winsor Charity is excellent, it goes to all those different causes and he runs it really well, he really does run an excellent ship.” It's not only the island and the thought of being charitable that has put a spring in Carrott's step, but also Birmingham City's recent success in the First Division play-offs. “I'm delirious, I hired a box at the stadium and there were 12 of us, all big heavy Blue Noses. And we've been waiting 16, 17 years for this moment,” said the former club director. “Actually we've been waiting 127 years for this particular moment where we've actually won something of consequence. It means a lot to the club and it means a lot for the City of Birmingham because the club carries the name of the city which is very important.” Birmingham defeated Norwich City in Sunday's match, after Norwich had knocked out favourites for promotion Wolves in the semi-final play-off match. “We flew into Cardiff airport from Birmingham and the head honcho came up and said hello, how are you etc,” recounted Carrott. “You'll be pretty busy, I said, there must be a lot of Norwich fans flying in from there. “And he said yes, one of them is a plane load of 23 Norwich fans and they haven't asked permission to land and they've had two weeks to do it. I'm not going to let them land. “So I said where are they going to land. “Well they can go to Bristol or to Swansea, he said. “So I stood there a minute and said, who do you support. And he said olverhampton Wanderers!” But what about Birmingham's chances for survival in the Premier League and Steve Bruce replacing Carrott's big mate Trevor Francis as boss? “I think if you go into the Premier League thinking survival is the name of the game, then you're not going to get anywhere. I think you've got to say top six. “He (Steve Bruce) needs to buy some players but everyone knows that, but there again you could say that for anyone in the league. It's certainly a mid-table side if, for instance he buys someone like Paul Ince. “You can't say Bruce isn't the right man for the job now. Of course myself and Trevor Francis are very good friends and he would have dearly have loved to have been where Bruce is today, but it wasn't to be.”