McLeish believes Foster, signed from Manchester United for £6 million, has started his St Andrew's career even better than Joe Hart 12 month ago. Hart capped a successful loan spell at Blues by earning a place in the World Cup squad and is now the Manchester City and England number one. But he made initial errors last season, whereas Foster has been a solid performer from the start of the campaign. McLeish said: "I think Ben has gone up a level and started better than Joe Hart did here. "Joe came on here on loan from Manchester City and ended up having a fantastic season. "Ben has started very solid indeed and we are delighted with the guy. "He has got a little bit more experience than Joe and I am not surprised how well he is doing. He is a good goalkeeper and he just needed really to be injury free and to play first team football." McLeish is confident midfielder Alexander Hleb will be fit for Sunday's Second City derby at Aston Villa. The on-loan Barcelona player suffered a twisted knee during last weekend's 2-0 win over Blackpool. McLeish said: "Guys like Hleb are still trying to find full fitness. He is still missing training days. "We really need him to get in full weeks of training to get him up to speed so that is a little disruptive in terms of momentum. "But we saw the signs against Blackpool of a very entertaining player and he is fit to play on Sunday."
