Kevin Phillips hoping to recreate special strike partnership at Birmingham City

Jul 11 2010 by Colin Tattum, Sunday Mercury

After a campaign that was their best for 51 years – McLeish’s side finished ninth in the Premier League – nobody could get carried away and relax, said the former Villa and Albion marksman.

“We weren’t really aware of the significance of what we were doing while we were playing and while the season was still on,” said Phillips.

“Now it’s gone, you look back and realise what a fantastic achievement it was.

“I managed to finish seventh two years on the bounce with Sunderland and you don’t realise what you’ve done until you stop and think ‘cor, that was a hell of a season’.

“Obviously the big test now, as everyone knows, is making sure we don’t suffer in the second season.

“We’ve strengthened and we’re looking to strengthen more.

“At Sunderland, we didn’t really strengthen the second time. But we are doing that.

“The club want to move forward, everyone is ambitious here and I’m happy to be a part of it.”

Despite the cautionary tone, Phillips urged Blues to believe, too.

“There’s no reason why we can’t achieve what we did last year and go one step better.

“But teams will all work us out, they know how we play. We run a tight ship at St Andrew’s, we’re very hard to beat there.

“I’ve said all along that if we can be strong defensively, and then the manager adds some firepower, some creativity, who knows? Maybe we will score more goals. But it will be a lot tougher for us.”

For McLeish, re-hiring Phillips for another term was not an issue.

Phillips has bought into what has evolved into a cameo role, coming off the substitutes bench.

Can there be many better predatory impact players in the Premier League? Forget his age.

Phillips said: “I have accepted the role. I wouldn’t have signed otherwise.

“I still believe that if I was to have moved on to a Championship team I could have played week in, week out. But I had a chance of playing in the Premier League. It’s the lure of the Premier League, staying here where I’m settled.

“There was a lot of speculation as I was out of contract. But I just concentrated on putting my thoughts into re-signing for Birmingham.

“I hadn’t really pushed anything. My agent had quite a few phone calls.

“There were half-a-dozen clubs keen and there was interest from abroad as well, which I looked at.

“But I still feel I’m too young yet in my career to go abroad.”