James McFadden said it was about time Birmingham City won a game after their recent good performances earned nothing more than draws.
The 4-1 success over Tottenham Hotspur was the first time the Glasgow-born striker had tasted victory after completing his £5 million move from Everton in January. In fact, it was Birmingham's first win of 2008, their last success having come on Boxing Day against Middlesbrough; now, McFadden is hoping that the result will spark a run of victories to help Blues climb away from the relegation places.
"It was about time we won a game, I think," he said. "It was a superb performance on Saturday. We knew it was going to be tough because they had just won the Carling Cup and were going to be on a high.
"But I think we have done very well over the last few games, even going back to the Derby County game and we threw that one away. [in a 1-1 draw as Blues conceded the equalising goal in the 89th minute]
"In the games against West Ham [1-1] and Arsenal [2-2], we weren't expected to get anything but we ground out a couple of draws and now we have won a game comfortably.
"We have not lost in four games now; we should have won against Derby and could have snatched the win against West Ham. I think we are progressively getting better every week and hopefully we can build on this and start to win a few games from now on.
"Our win has dragged a few teams back into the relegation mix. Now we can't be looking behind us, we have to start looking up. We are a couple of wins away from being in mid-table. We need to be looking forward, to build on this result and recent performances."
The key to success was McFadden's flourishing partnership with Mikael Forssell. The 24-year-old Scottish international set up two of Forssell's three goals and is relishing his role alongside the Finnish international.
"There is a good understanding there and Mikael is a top-class striker," he said. "He is easy to play with and as long as one of us is scoring the goals every week, that's the main thing.
"He gave me a pat on the back for my pass for his third but if he gets three goals and I have played my part in a couple of them, then that is a good partnership. Long may it continue.
"We are shaping up well.
When there are two strikers, you need to play together. Mikael put me in a couple of times and I put him in for his goals. I hope he returns the favour!"
McFadden joined Blues at around the same time as full-back David Murphy arrived from Hibernian for £1.5 million. The Hartlepool-born defender had double reason to celebrate on Saturday as his first taste of victory with Blues coincided with his 24th birthday.
"It was great to get our first win of the year and it meant I could savour it and enjoy my birthday," he said. "We feel we have been getting better and better over the last three games. We have been putting in a lot of hard work in training and that is paying off on the pitch now.
"It is good to get back to winning ways and the four goals will help our goal difference. Mikael has been on fire in training. He thoroughly deserves his starting place and he has shown everyone how good he is. He and McFadden have a good understanding, they are both good footballers. "The only disappointment on Saturday was not getting a clean sheet. Thankfully, we were 4-0 up and not 1-0 up when they scored at the end. I think we showed we wanted the victory more.
"The manager told us at half-time to maintain our concentration, which was key. We were always looking to score more goals; we didn't want to sit back on a one-goal lead."
