Birmingham 4-1 Tottenham

Mar 2 2008

ALEX McLEISH begged Mikael Forssell to end Birmingham's scoring blues - and the striker repaid him with a superb hat-trick.

Sebastian Larsson was also on target for Brum with a free-kick while Jermaine Jenas netted a late consolation for Spurs.

Forssell has been plagued by injury problems for the past three years and his manager was delighted to have the Finn back to his old self.

McLeish said: "I'm really pleased for him. He's been in and out of the team since I came here but our lack of goals of late meant I had to bring him back.

"He was merciless in front of goal. He's had a lot of injury problems and when they are of that magnitude it is going to have some effect.

"It is a case of if he can play 40 games a season but when he is as hot as that we must wrap him in cotton wool."

Spurs boss Juande Ramos says his team's Carling Cup celebrations were not to blame for this defeat.

He said: "When a team achieves a big victory like last week, then they deserve a big party to celebrate.

"They had sufficient time after that to have made a full recovery and I am not using that as an excuse."