Birmingham 2 Wolves 1 - match report

Downcast Wolves manager Mick McCarthy believes his side were their own worst enemies in their defeat to Midlands rivals Birmingham.

Blues' 36-year-old super-sub Kevin Phillips grabbed the headlines as he came off the bench to score twice in the final 10 minutes to cancel out Kevin Doyle's opener at St Andrew's.

Phillips came into the action midway through the second period in place of the injured Christian Benitez and netted in the 80th and 85th minutes to leave Wolves rooted in the bottom three of the Barclays Premier League.

It was rough justice for Wolves, who had been a match for Blues for lengthy periods with Doyle a constant threat to the normally solid Blues rearguard.

But, despite his devastation at full-time, McCarthy acknowledges that a failure to defend cost his side the points.

The Wolves boss admitted: "We conceded a couple of poor goals from our point of view but Birmingham, certainly Kevin Phillips, will see them as terrific goals.

"We should have done better in the first 10 minutes of the second half when we were on top and we had a couple of breaks and needed a second goal.

"We didn't get it and brought pressure on ourselves. We gave the ball away a bit too often and invited pressure. In the first 25 minutes of the second half I thought we were the better team and so to lose like that hurts even more."

He added: "I have not been in our dressing room before and seen the lads as disappointed as that after a game."

Doyle put Wolves ahead with his sixth goal of the campaign just before half-time.

There was an element of good fortune as Jarvis' low centre hit Roger Johnson, ricocheted on to a post and fell perfectly for the striker to convert the rebound - but it was no more than the visitors deserved after overcoming a sticky start.

Wolves continued to press in the second half but it was the substitution of Phillips that dramatically turned the game on its head.

With 10 minutes remaining he levelled from close range after Gardner had turned a Fahey centre back across goal.

And Phillips won it in the 85th minute when he chested down Stephen Carr's cross and beat Hahnemann with an angled drive into the corner of the net much to the delight of boss Alex McLeish.

"Kevin will never lose that ability he has got in the box," said the Birmingham manager. "He might lose his teeth, he might go bald, and his legs will go at some stage, but he will always have that magnificent technique and touch of a top player."

By JOHN CURTIS