Steve Phillips says solid defence left him with little to do in show piece final

Steve Phillips says winning at Wembley again feels just as good as the first time for him. Phillips, 34, kept a clean-sheet at the home of football to help Crewe lift the Football League Trophy for the first time in the club’s history.

Phillips was called upon on a few occasions to keep Southend at bay, but praised the work rate of his team-mates, as Crewe left Wembley with a deserved 2-0 win.

The Crewe number one told the club’s official web-site: “It feels massively good to win anytime at Wembley and we deserved it. What a performance it was from our boys. When we needed to defend we did and I hardly had anything to do if I’m honest with you.

“It reminded me of the area final against Coventry when we had to stand up to some pressure and the two centre-half’s were outstanding for us. The two lads were in midfield were awesomely good and if Chuks played like that every week he would be playing in the Premier League.

“Chuks showed how special he can be and it is just about him finding that real consistency in his game.

“They were difficult at corners and I thought I should have had some help from the referee at times because they had one standing on you, who had no intention of playing the ball.

He added: “Sometimes it was impossible to get around him but there you are, you have to deal with that. We knew that they would try and get it into our box and look for a set play, but we knew that if we stood up and defended as well as we did that there would only be one winner.”