BLUES 3-2 Watford

Another 3-2 thriller at St Andrews earns McLeish's men their third successive home victory against Watford to move within three points of table-topping Wolves.

Blues didn't have it all their own way early on as the visitors toke the lead through Tamas Priskin after the Blues defence were left wanting after only seven minutes.

Kevin Phillips hit back however one minute later with a trade mark header from 12 yards out and it was a superb strike from Marcus Bent on 18 to complete the quick fire come back and earn his first goal at St Andrews this season.

McLeish had made three changes to the side that drew at Wolves last weekend. Liam Ridgwell (virus) and James McFadden (groin) were unavailable for selection and saw Martin Taylor and Quincy come in to replace them. The other change saw Sebastian Larsson come back into the starting 11 in place of David Murphy having missed the trip to the Molineux for personal reasons.

Blues took a well deserved 2-1 lead into half time after an early scare bought the home side alive. After the break Watford came out the better side as they went in search of an equaliser and on the hour mark Blues did have the woodwork to thank for retaining their advantage when a 35 yard free kick from Leigh Bromby hit the bar and went over.

On 73, Bent made way for Cameron Jerome who received a deserved standing ovation for his efforts and on 85 Jerome looked to have sealed the points when he went through into the box on the left hand side and curled a Beckham-esque attempt against the Tilton Road End to the relief of the Blues faithful.

With only a minute of normal time remaining Blues made it difficult for themselves again as the hosts failed to clear an in-swinging corner that fell loose and saw Ross Jenkins smash the ball home past Maik Taylor to give Blues fans a nervy four minutes of injury time.

Blues held on despite the late efforts of the visitors and with Wolves going down in London 1-0 at QPR, McLeish's men move within three points of their promotion rivals.