Holloway believes it will be tough to beat Birmingham on Saturday.
“Birmingham are one of the teams that I keep talking to my team about. I think the way they play football is a credit to their manager,” Holloway said.
“Alex seems a real honest, robust, old-fashioned man who’s got values and morals and I love the way his team plays. To be honest, I’m pretty scared of them.
“They really do put a stint in and I think they’ve been slightly unfortunate this season, but they were exceptional last year, which is full credit to them.
“When you look at the players they’ve got, I’m expecting a really tough game. When you go to Birmingham City, their fans – if there was a roof on there, they’d lift if off every week.
“They’ve got a marvellous record at home so we’ll have our work cut out. But I’m really looking forward to it. I want to see my lads bounce back from the disappointment of getting no points and see what we can do in this game.”