Peter Grant has compared City hot-shot Robert Earnshaw with Scottish legend Ally McCoist.Grant saw first hand how devastating McCoist could be when the pair were on opposite sides of the Glasgow footballing divide.

Peter Grant has compared City hot-shot Robert Earnshaw with Scottish legend Ally McCoist.

Grant saw first hand how devastating McCoist could be when the pair were on opposite sides of the Glasgow footballing divide.

And he reckons his Welsh wizard - whose nine goals in 11 starts this season make him the Championship's leading scorer - has the same killer instinct as the former Rangers man, for whom he scored 250 league goals.

“I said to him the other night, you have a wonderful knack because you put fear into the opposition,” said Grant.

“It is a fantastic thing. When I played up in Glasgow, Ally McCoist had it, you were always worried where he was.

“For 89 minutes he'd not have a kick then all of a sudden he'd produce a moment of magic and scores a goal - Robert Earnshaw has got that.”

Earnshaw suffered a rare blank at Birmingham on Tuesday, but not for want of trying, and only home keeper Maik Taylor stood between him and yet another goal.

“He played against two central defenders the other night that played in the Premiership last season and I thought he gave them a torrid,” added Grant. “He missed a couple of chances, but the pleasing thing for me is he showed the composure to get the chances and we won the game - hopefully he is keeping his goals for Cardiff.”