Zigic has struggled to win over the Blues fans with his performances since making the £6 million summer switch from Valencia to St Andrews.
However, he earned himself hero status with the winner in their Carling quarter-final clash with bitter rivals Aston Villa and McLeish has admitted it has taken Zigic time to adapt to English football.
"Listen, Ziggy is 29, he is an experienced player, he is a Serbian so he is a proud man," said McLeish.
"He has come over to the Premier League and he wants to make an impression.
"He has tried to adjust to the English game.
"He is used to playing the European game where there is a build-up and there are probably only four or five headers in an entire game.
"In England it's crash, bang, wallop and he has got to compete for everything.
"It's been a bit of a culture shock to him. I was ready to take him off when he scored.
"It was great that he scored and hopefully he wins a few friends with that goal."
Blues defender Liam Ridgewell was delighted to see Zigic grab the headlines with his winning goal.
"It was great for Ziggy, fantastic for him to get the goal," said Ridgewell.
"Hopefully it will give him a lot of confidence to go on throughout the season."
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