BIRMINGHAM chief Trevor Francis isn't ready to throw in the towel just yet in his quest for automatic promotion.

But the Blues boss had to swallow hard yesterday after finally accepting defeat in the race to land Derby's Dean Sturridge.

Former England front man Francis has spent the last 12 months trying to tempt the Birmingham born striker into thinking his future lies at St Andrews.

But, after failing to meet the player's wage demands, Sturridge finally joined Leicester yesterday.

And now Francis knows he must switch his attentions elsewhere if he wants to beef up his strikeforce before automatic promotion slips out of reach for yet another season.

"I'm very disappointed to have missed out on Dean," said Francis.

"I've been chasing him since last summer when Derby wanted £1.5 million but, because he was getting to the end of his contract, we'd got the fee down to £200,000.

"But we just couldn't meet his wage demands.

"To be fair to him, he's come down twice in his demands but, understandably, there was a limit to how far he would go.

"And, because of the wage structure we have in place at the club, we went as far as we could.

"So a deal just couldn't be done."

Francis had hoped to land Sturridge in time for tomorrow's vital promotion clash with in-form Rovers at St Andrews.

A 2-1 defeat at Ewood on Boxing Day triggered an alarming slump in form which has seen the Blues slip from second to sixth in the First Division table. And, with 10 points now separating City and the automatic promotion places, Francis may have to turn to Marcelo instead, in a bid to save his bacon.

The Brazilian striker has struggled to pin down a regular starting spot for most of the season.

But, whenever he has featured, he's been something of a lucky charm when it comes to getting results.

Of the eight games he has started, the Blues have won seven and drawn the other.

And the former Sheffield United hit-man showed no mercy when given a rare chance last week, scoring one of Birmingham's goals to condemn Barnsley to a 3-2 defeat in Nigel Spackman's first game as manager -- the man who brought him to England from Benfica in the first place.

"It's good that we seem to win when I play but that's the team, not me," said a modest Marcelo.

"I want to have games to show what I can do and that I can score, but there is a lot of competition at the club."

Francis is not short of striking resources but he has struggled to come up with a winning formula.

In the absence of Dele Adebola, who was missing with toothache, Marcelo was paired with the recalled Peter Ndlovu upfront at Oakwell. And that meant record signing Geoff Horsfield and Andy Johnson had to settle for places on the bench.

"Marcelo has done well alongside Peter before," said Francis.

"One or two people were surprised they played, but that's why they started."

Whatever permutation he settles on tomorrow, Francis is desperate for revenge against Rovers after feeling cheated out of a point at Ewood on Boxing Day.

The City chief claimed Damien Duff dived to win a last minute free kick from which Matt Jansen slotted home the winner to give Rovers a dramatic victory.

"Their winning goal arrived in controversial fashion and, with the next game coming just around the corner, that will still be fresh in our minds," said Francis.

"Blackburn are on a good run at the moment and the only surprise is it's taken them so long to get going."

"But when you can field £15 million of talent on the bench, which is what they did against us on Boxing Day, then you've got to give them respect. That puts them in a different league to clubs like us."