Phillips gives Mick birthday blues

MICK McCARTHY hardly needs reminding of the prodigious scoring talents of Kevin Phillips, but Wolves supporters will be burning effigies of the veteran Birmingham City striker for the remainder of the season after he conjured another curse against the men from Molineux, who always seem to inspire him to his very best.

Phillips is less popular on the streets of Wolverhampton than a case of the plague – but the hatred for the former West Bromwich Albion striker and sworn enemies of Wolves will run deeper after his two-goal salvo brought a premature end to McCarthy’s 51st birthday celebrations.

Kevin Doyle’s sixth goal of the season might not have been the twin-engined helicopter that McCarthy dreamed of as a birthday present from his wife, but it seemed enough to give Wolves the launchpad for a move out of the bottom three with their first win in six league games.

Enter the veteran 36-year-old when Alex McLeish’s side needed the inspiration to spare them a first home defeat since September and Phillips is not the kind of man who is unable to rise to the occasion when presented with opponents who have proved so inspirational down the years.

The former England striker singlehandedly deprived Wolves of a crack at the Premier League in 2006-07 with four goals in as many appearances, including both play-off semi-final games; hence the head-in-hand stuff from Wolves supporters who feared the worst when he arrived as a 63rd minute substitute and the trail of destruction he left behind confirmed all those fears, to leave Wolves deeper in relegation trouble and at the lowest point McCarthy has seen them this season.

“The thing is with Kev is that he will lose all his teeth, go bald and his legs will fade, but he will never lose that instinct to score goals. I wish he would tell me the secret so I could tell the rest of the strikers,” said McLeish.

What will make this harder for Wolves to stomach is the fact that Phillips would probably have not even been involved if McLeish had been successful in his January transfer window pursuit of Roman Pavlyuchenko.

Both goals were typical of the former Premier League Golden Boot winner and iconic Sunderland figure. Both volleys. The first a gentle prod, after Craig Gardner headed back into the penalty area. The second a far more ferocious affair after his excellent chest control of Stephen Carr’s centre. The veteran might be coming to the end of his career, but he still manages to leave the biggest cases of destruction for games against Wolves.

“When you get in your 30s, people write you off. I am 36 now and reaching the end of my career, but players have clubs that they do well against,” said Phillips. “Wolves fans must be sick of the sight of me because I have done well against them in the past.”

It was further proof for McCarthy that life at this level can be the harshest existence of all and now he accepts he faces a mammoth task to repair damaged morale ahead of Wednesday’s game with Spurs at Molineux.

“That is the lowest I have seen the dressing room after a game,” said McCarthy. “Football is really cruel at times. It is a great game, but a cruel one. It is fair to say that we did not deserve that. ”

After the dreadful FA Cup defeat against Crystal Palace and now this, McCarthy’s critics have even more ammunition to suggest an immediate return to the Championship is inevitable, but the former Ireland boss will not throw in the towel.

“We have been written off before this season and we will be written off again. I can’t do much about that. If we show that same kind of spirit, then it would be remiss of people to do that to us.”

One person who does not deserve another brush with relegation is Doyle. Once again the striker was immense in a lone role up front and gave Birmingham’s defence as torrid an afternoon as it had experienced at home this season.

His appetite for the cause and work-rate was exceptional and when Matt Jarvis’ cross struck Roger Johnson and the base of the post, Doyle reacted faster than anyone to snap up the rebound for his sixth goal of the season.

Unfortunately for McCarthy he does not have too many other Kevin Doyle’s at his disposal.

MATCH RATING: *** - Good entertainment with a classic punchline as Kevin Phillips came off the bench to snatch victory from REFEREE: Lee Probert (Wiltshire) 6/10 - Probert ran a tight ship, booking eight players in the game.