Kevin Phillips believes he still has a future in the top flight after coming off the bench to earn a dramatic 2-1 win for Birmingham City over Wolves.

Striker Phillips, 36, has had only a bit part to play during the first half of the campaign and had offers to move clubs in the January transfer window.

"I think I've shown that I can still do it," he said. "Only last season I was still knocking goals in for fun.

"People forget about you when you are not playing week in and week out."

Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has promised Phillips, whose current contract runs out in the summer, that he will appear more regularly during the remainder of the season.

And the deadly finishing of Phillips, who scored more than 100 goals for Sunderland between 1997 and 2003, was demonstrated as he struck twice in five minutes to give Blues victory after Kevin Doyle's goal had looked set to lift Wolves out of the bottom three.

606: DEBATE Credit to Kevin Phillips, one of the most underrated strikers English football has had SkintChampions

"I believe, as I did at the start of the season, that I can still do a job in this league," added Phillips. "It was just great to be on the pitch to be honest.

"I've not had much game time recently. I've said to myself I knew I was going to have to be patient this season.

"I knew I would get my chance. The gaffer said to me after the transfer window had shut 'we've not brought a forward in, if we had it would have been disrespectful to you' and that I was going to get more game time."

"People write you off when you get past the 30 mark and I'm 36 now. You have to be mentally strong and have to keep believing you are going to get your chance.

"It is a short career and I'm not that many years away from retiring and I want to try and play as long as I can at the highest level I possibly can. Moments like this make me want to play for even longer."

Phillips has a fine record against Wolves, having now hit 10 goals of his 252 career goals against them - in 11 starts.

He has now scored against Wolves for five different clubs, starting with Watford and Sunderland.

He then scored twice for Southampton at Molineux in 2003 and four in two games for local rivals West Brom during the 2006-2007 season.

"My record is pretty good against them," he said.

"They are probably fed up of me as you heard when I came on. Their fans booed me quite a bit.

"Players have teams you tend to score against in your career and, unfortunately for Wolves, it is them in my case."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version