GORDON STRACHAN praised the world class performance of Christophe Dugarry - but also insisted referee Steve Bennett had allowed the Birmingham striker to run yesterday's game.

World Cup winner Dugarry turned in a top class performance to score two goals as Birmingham came from behind to beat Saints 3-2 at St Andrew's.

Saints had twice gone ahead through Anders Svensson and then Brett Ormerod before The Blues mounted their second-half fight-back.

Strachan did not blame the referee for his side's defeat or for any of Birmingham's goals.

But he insisted Dugarry had been a stronger personality than Bennett - the same referee who sent the Saints boss to the stands against Everton earlier in the season.

Strachan, who was restrained by stewards when he tried to speak to Bennett after the final whistle, said: "I thought Dugarry's ability and personality were over-powering for everybody on the pitch - and I mean everybody.

"There were some strange things. The tone was set with one of the funniest things I've seen in football for a long time which told me who was going to be the boss mentally.

"The referee has called for Dugarry to come 20 yards, Dugarry refused to go, so the referee went to see him.

"Don't get me wrong, the goals have won the game, but his personality was the strongest and mentally the strongest personality should be the referee.

"It affected the power of the game."

Dugarry's first came from a free-kick when, after asking for the wall to be moved the full ten yards, he tried to take the kick quickly.

It hit the wall but Bennett allowed Dugarry to take it again and this time he curled in a 25-yard equaliser past Paul Jones.

Although obviously disappointed, Strachan was generous in his praise of Dugarry and also the general excitement of Saints' second five-goal thriller in the space of three days.

"We accept Dugarry was the best footballer on the pitch," he said. "He has been winning world medals and the rest of it and he is a fantastic footballer.

"It was a lovely game of football. We took positives and negatives out of the game. It was a good game to watch with some great performances.

"First half hour they started fantastically well, we scored against the run of play and then had chances to make it 2-0.

"The goalkeeper has made a couple of good saves and then it swung back and forward.

"There was some great things in the game, James Beattie didn't go down when he could have dived - that was good - and you had everything great about the Premiership."

Birmingham manager Steve Bruce played down Strachan's claims surrounding Dugarry's influence on the referee, saying: "Only Gordon could come out and say something like that.

"I don't think Christophe influenced the ref, I think he influenced the game."

Bruce added: "We are not quite over the finishing line but it would be like a Devon Lock situation if we didn't stay up now."