Steve Bruce admits that he feared the worst when Blues old boy Robbie Savage came up with his late equaliser last night. But he also believed his side were full value for their last-ditch victory.

"It seemed like the ultimate kick in the teeth when that one went in, especially as he miskicked it," said Bruce.

"And we do always seem to make life difficult for ourselves.

"But we got what we deserved in the end. And I'm delighted for Mikael Forssell to have scored a goal like that. We've waited a long time for him to get back to his best and he was the only player on the pitch who could have scored that goal.

"The last six months have not been so very good for us. But the one thing we haven't done over the few weeks is give up on anything. We owed it the supporters to get some pride back and our fate is now in our own hands."

The one downside for Bruce was that defeat came at the cost of injuries to Jermaine Pennant, who struggled in after injuring his groin in the first 30 seconds, and Emile Heskey (ankle).