Gaffers View: Swansea (a)

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish was pleased with the way his players came from behind and won 3-2 at Swansea last night.

Kevin Phillips turned out to be the hero of the night for Blues when he scored two goals in five minutes in the second half to give Birmingham what looked like an unlikely victory.

Jordi Gomez gave the Swans an early lead when he netted inside two minutes of the game starting and it was only poor finishing in the early stages that stopped them from going further ahead.

Marcus Bent levelled things as the game approached half time but then Rahdi Jaidi deflected an Angel Rangel shot into his own net and the Swans went in a goal up.

Phillips came on in the 65th minute and he had only been on the field for eight minutes before he got on the end of a James McFadden cross to level things.

Soon after that he smashed home a 20 yard shot after some poor defending by the home side.

‘It was a victory for team spirit and character,’ said McLeish.

‘We were a bit ragged at the back and the early goal took the stuffing out of us but while we were only one down we were still in the game.

‘There are no words to describe the contribution of Kevin Phillips. His finishes were amazing and it is not the first time he has come off the bench to win games for us.’