I have got permission to start reproducing Blues News articles after our home games.

So here we go, here is the article about Kevin Phillips that was in the Everton programme.

Blues striker Kevin Phillips has urged his team mates to turn ‘a good season into a fantastic season’ by becoming the most successful Birmingham City side in Barclays Premier League history.

There was a sombre mood around Wast Hills training ground on Monday morning as players and staff alike reflected on a big opportunity lost following the team’s FA Cup defeat to Portsmouth two days earlier. The chance to become the first Blues team since 1956 to play at Wembley in a major cup competition had fallen by the wayside after the quarter-final exit to a Pompey side determined to make something of their traumatic campaign. But Alex McLeish and his charges can still come close to emulating the Blues heroes of yesteryear by securing the club’s highest league finish in the top division for over half a century. Arthur Turner’s side sealed sixth spot in the old First Division in the same season they played under the old Twin Towers in the FA Cup final. Three years later, in 1959, Blues came ninth in the top flight but, since those heady days, a St. Andrew’s team have failed to finish any higher than tenth. That was the position that Steve Bruce’s side achieved in 2004/05 when they racked up 50 Premier League points – and to beat that total and rightly stake a claim to being the best Blues side of modern times is all the motivation needed to end the season on a high.

Phillips revealed to Blues News: “The manager sat us down before training on Monday morning and highlighted the importance of not letting the season peter out. Yes, we are out of the cup and we’re all disappointed but there is still a lot to play for. It has been a fantastic season so far and let’s not let it dwindle away and take our foot off the gas.

“Let’s go on and make it a memorable season and finished as high as we possibly can. And then people can look back in years to come and say ‘that Birmingham side in 2009/10 was the best Birmingham team that have played together for a long, long time’. That’s the aim for us from now until the end of the season – 51 points is definitely within our reach. We’ve got ten games left, and five of those are at home, so we’ve got a fantastic opportunity to make a good season into a fantastic season.”

Phillips was part of the West Brom side that lost to Portsmouth at the semi-final stage of the FA Cup two years ago but he at least had the experience of playing 90 minutes at Wembley. Last weekend he could only sit and watch from the bench as his hopes of a return to the national stadium went up in smoke after Frederic Piquionne’s quick-fire brace midway though the second half. Super Kev was eventually introduced to the action late on as McLeish looked to rescue the situation by throwing on his experienced marksman but unfortunately it wasn’t to be – although there could have been a dramatic twist if Liam Ridgewell’s perfectly legitimate goal had been allowed to stand. It opened the debate again for goal line technology and Phillips agrees that it’s an area that needs to be rectified.

He insisted: “I am 100 per cent behind goal line technology. In such big games like that it highlights it even more and I can’t understand why we can’t look into it or do something about it because it takes seconds just to look at a replay. It’s done in so many other sports I think it’s high time now that it’s definitely experimented with. It was a blatant goal last Saturday and if it had counted then with ten minutes to go Portsmouth would have had their backs to the wall, we’d have been pressing and, who knows, it could have been a different story.”

Super Kev

The predatory Hitchin-born marksman admits that it is frustrating to watch the action unfold from the sidelines and be powerless to help out his team mates. But the striker has proved a powerful weapon for McLeish to have in reserve, as shown by his two-goal blast as a sub against Wolves last month. “When I come on everyone’s expecting me to make the impact that I did against Wolves, and unfortunately that doesn’t happen too often,” he adds with a wry smile. “Of course I want to play as much football as I possibly can – I’ve been saying that all season. When you do come on you like to try and make a bit of an impact. It was a difficult time to come on last Saturday when we were 2-0 down. If it’s 1-0 then it’s a little bit easier. It’s obviously frustrating but I’ve done that for most of this season and I’ve dealt with it. From now until the end of the season I would like to try and make a few more impacts like I did against Wolves.”

With his current Blues contract set to expire in the summer, the former England international has more reason than most to impress in the remaining weeks of the season. He would relish the opportunity to earn another 12-month deal at St. Andrew’s. He reveals: “I would love to see my career out here at Birmingham but at the end of the day that’s the manager’s decision and the board’s decision. From now until the end of the season with the team being safe from relegation you’ll see more changes so that the manager can look at the players that he may have an eye on keeping here next season, or to get a taster for the players like Michel and Craig Gardner who have recently come into the squad.”

Phillips missed Tuesday’s night league win over Portsmouth due to a hamstring niggle but is hopeful of being fit to come back into consideration for today’s visit of Everton. The Toffees have lost just twice in their previous 14 league fixtures and hammered five goals past struggling Hull City last time out. “It will be a very hard game because they’ve hit some form,” concedes the popular Blues striker. “We all knew at the beginning of the season that with the injuries they had Everton didn’t deserve to be where they were in the league. Now they’ve got the majority of their players back, if not virtually all of them, they are showing what a fantastic footballing team they are.

“A major plus for them is the return of Mikel Arteta – he is an excellent ball player, Steven Pienaar is another fantastic midfielder and they have the goal threat of Louis Saha, Yakubu and Tim Cahill. I can keep reeling the names off. David Moyes has done an excellent job there and he gets the best out of his players so we’ve got to be on top of our game. But we’ve put in two great performances against them so far this season so we’ve nothing to fear. We’re the home team and we’ll be going all out to try and get three points.”

Phillips, who grabbed a brace against the Toffees for Sunderland at Goodison Park on the final day of the 2000/01 season, believes that Everton are the type of club that Blues should be looking to emulate as we aim to build on a highly encouraging first season back in the elite league of English football. He says: “They have had their relegation scares over the years but David Moyes has brought major stability into the club, he’s brought class there and what he has done is build the club up to attract top players and I think that’s what we’ve got to look to do here – make Birmingham a team where players want to come. We’re based in the Second City and if we can get it right on the pitch then it can attract the world class players.”

Kev Scores Again!

Phillips returns to his old Sunderland stomping ground next weekend with the Black Cats still looking nervously over their shoulder towards the bottom of the table despite recording their first league win in 15 attempts last Tuesday night against Bolton. Super Kev admits: “I have been very surprised to see them struggling with the money they’ve invested over the summer and the manager they’ve got there. I still think they’ll be okay with the players that they’ve got. It’s the old cliché that they deserve to be where they are because they haven’t got the results. It’s up them now to try and get themselves out of it.”

If this does prove to be Phillips’s last season at Blues then he says he will leave with many happy memories of his two years at St. Andrew’s. “I have achieved exactly what I wanted to when I first signed,” he concludes. “I stated that I wanted to help the club gain promotion and then I wanted to have a season in the Premier League and help them consolidate in the top division and, all-bar a miracle, it looks like that’s going to happen. So, in terms of my overall career, my time at Birmingham will be right up there with the two years I had at West Brom and the six years at Sunderland.”