Phillips' golden oldies warning

The Albion evergreen reckons rivals Birmingham City have stolen a march in the battle to reach the Premiership by recruiting his old England pal Andy Cole.

Cole, at 35, joins 34-year-old Phillips and 35-year-old Dwight Yorke at Sunderland in the group of ex-Premiership veterans bidding for one more shot of glory in the fascinating Championship battle for promotion.

And Phillips, hoping for a recall to Albion's front-line for tomorrow's trip to QPR, is hoping he can join an "old boys celebration" come the end of the season.

"Birmingham have made a fantastic signing in Andy Cole," he says, "and that could be the difference between them clinching promotion and missing out. It's a great bit of business for them. Sunderland have gone down that route too and it's also paid off for them.

"I want to achieve the same for West Brom. If we do manage to do it we can hold our hands up for the older players union!

"It's been tight for the last six weeks and now there's no more breaks and we know what we have to do. There can be no more excuses.

"We need maximum points if we are to stand any chance of automatic promotion. There will be many twists and turns along the way and we need to find some consistency.

"Conceding that equaliser to Birmingham hurt us and yes, we should have beaten Wolves and shouldn't have lost to Sunderland.

"We've gone through a sticky patch and maybe this break came at a good time. It's now time to put a run together.

"But I''d still love one last crack at the Premiership. I could have stayed there this year but not played an awful lot. That's not in my make up.

"Ideally I'd like to be the one who helps get us there by playing and scoring the goals to do it. It would be great. Whether I play an awful lot i don't know but to be on the scene would be good for me.

"That's what makes these seven games so important - not just for us, but for all the players and fans. We can't let our hard work go to waste at this stage of the season."

With the Baggies reporting no fresh injury problems from the players' international adventures, Phillips is waiting to see if boss Tony Mowbray restores him to the starting line.

He was upset at being left out for the Birmingham game now that Nathan Ellington is back on the scene but old enough and wise enough to roll with the punches.

But another physical battle with a QPR side desperate for survival points is guaranteed tomorrow and Phillips is taking nothing for granted,

"The manager has a lot of choices,"adds Phillips. "I was very disappointed not to play against Birmingham after scoring against Palace but that's the manager's decision.

"Diomansy Kamara and myself have scored something like 37 goals between us and I want to play as many games between now and the end of the season. If I don't then I'll be disapointed but all that matters is promotion.

"I'm not stupid - I know I can't play every game especially in this league because it's so physically demanding. I'm in good shape but we have enough players to be able to rotate, especially up front.

"I accept being left out. I've played many games this year and there's been times when I should have been left out and wasn't. I'm hoping to play a big part."

And despite the presence of veteran strikers in the promotion front-line, Phillips does not rule out the prospect of a rookie stealing the headlines - with 20-year-old team mate Sherjill Macdonald a case in point.

"He's still young, still naive but he's shown glimpses of what he can do," Phillips says of the Dutch Under 21 prospect. "There's seven games left and it'll be a tricky one for the manager about whether to play him, rather than experience and trusted players."