KEVIN PHILLIPS summed up the disputed decision which led to Aston Villa's penalty in one word: "crazy".

The in-form Saints striker, who one national newspaper this morning reported to be the subject of a £3m bid from Celtic, couldn't believe it when Howard Webb pointed to the penalty spot shortly before half-time, following the slightest contact between Danny Higginbotham and Liam Ridgewell as players jostled for a corner.

"It was crazy. I don't know what he has seen," said Phillips.

"When things like that happen, you can say things and get yourself into trouble. But the ref knows he has made a terrible mistake.

"His quote was 'I've seen a push but I don't know who did it' but he's given a penalty. That is crazy."

Yet Phillips, who Celtic are said to be seeking to replace Henrik Larsson, was the beneficiary of another disputed decision just minutes later as he fired Saints level despite replays showing he was offside.

"Whether it was offside doesn't matter, it made up for the terrible decision," he said. "We could have just let our heads go down. The team battled away and we got back into the game.

"We've had chances. I've had another one, Beatts has had one, so on chances we could have won.

"But it was a fair result, they have had some good chances as well."

Phillips' strike was his 11th in the last 15 games to continue a late push for consideration in Sven-Goran Eriksson's Euro 2004 squad.

He said: "I'm feeling confident on the pitch and it was important we got that goal before half-time.

"The pitch was magnificent and the weather helped as well. We were able to zip the ball around and that is the perfect conditions for me. Our main aim is to get the ball into me and Beatts. To get crosses in because, with the aerial ability we have got, we haven't scored too many from crosses. We set ourselves a target for crosses and we weren't far from that on Saturday."

Following two successive defeats, Phillips felt it was important for the team to get back to form ahead of Newcastle's trip to St Mary's on Wednesday.

He added: "It is important we don't go back to a Chelsea or Bolton performance.

"We have worked very hard this week, we've not had a day off and it's paid off.

"We obviously would have liked to win, but it was a good performance and a good result considering we had lost the last two games.

"We have come back in good fashion. We will take a lot of heart from the game and look to Wednesday.

"We needed to regroup and get back to basics and work our socks off.

"There was plenty of aggression out there, we worked our socks off and there was some good performances. It was a good entertaining game."

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