McLeish regrets ignoring claims of little ‘genius’
Veteran Blues striker Phillips made the most of being handed his first league start of the campaign in Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Bolton at St Andrew’s by opening the scoring in the fourth minute.
The 37-year-old latched on to Sebastian Larsson’s corner and unleashed an effort that Wanderers goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen could not stop going in.
Phillips had also netted when Birmingham hosted Bolton in the FA Cup quarter-final three weeks earlier after being named in the first XI and he now has four goals in four starts in all competitions this term.
Asked about the former England front man, McLeish said: “We did speak in January about more minutes for him and maybe I can look back and say, ‘could I have used him more in the first half of the season?’.
“We did it for the right reasons, maybe I could have. But he’s a just a genius in the box.
“You just wonder about the legs but he has shown that it wasn’t a problem.’’
Birmingham went 2-0 up just before the hour mark when Craig Gardner crashed a shot in off the post.
Johan Elmander’s volleyed reply for Bolton with 20 minutes remaining set up a tense finale, but the hosts hung on for three vital points.
The midlands outfit have put a two-point gap between themselves and the drop zone with eight games to play and McLeish knows his team are embroiled in an epic battle for survival.
“I never said when we were 12th or whatever that we were safe and no team can say that, up to about 11th position,” he said.
“We’ve only been looking at our own position, in terms of what we need to do, but certainly this will give us a lot of confidence.”
The victory was Birmingham’s first of any kind since their Carling Cup triumph at Wembley in February and Bolton manager Owen Coyle has stressed that his players must not be distracted by the prospect of their FA Cup semi-final at the same venue in a fortnight’s time.
“People had alluded to the fact that we have the semi-final coming up but I have said to the players that having worked hard for nine-and-a-half or 10 months up to this point, we want to make sure we have a big finish to the season,’’ Coyle said.
“To do that we have to perform well.’’
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