Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish hailed hat-trick hero Mikael Forssell after their 4-1 victory over Tottenham.

The Finnish international scored his first hat-trick in England and his first since grabbing a treble for Finland against Macedonia in a World Cup qualifier three years ago.

The 26-year-old has been plagued by injury problems since scoring 19 goals for Blues during the 2003-2004 campaign.

But he rewarded McLeish for bringing him back into the side to leave Spurs with a massive hangover after their Carling Cup victory.

McLeish said: "I'm really pleased for Mikael. I've had him in and out of the team since I came here but the lack of goals in previous weeks meant I had to push his experience back into the team.

"He was merciless in front of goal. He could have had four or five goals but his link-up play was also good. He had a terrific game.

"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 whether he can play 40 games a season but, when he is as hot as that, we have to wrap him in cotton wool."

McLeish praised the overall performance of his side as they gave their hopes of avoiding relegation a massive lift.

He said: "We have deserved more from previous games at St Andrews and this time we got our reward.

"It was worth the wait. It was a fantastic show. The players' work rate in every game cannot be faulted but this time we also added the finishing touch.

"People might make headlines about the fact Tottenham were suffering a hangover from winning the cup but I have played in cup finals and it can go either way.

"Sometimes the following week you feel invincible and sometimes you can get beaten but I just told the players to ignore these theories and play to the standard of previous games.

"They not only did that, but they also gained me another 10% on top which was brilliant."

Midfielder Sebastian Larsson scored Birmingham's other goal and Jermaine Jenas got a late consolation for the visitors.