The Seasiders booked their place in the npower Championship play-off final against West Ham, to be played on May 19, after coming through a pulsating semi-final second leg with Birmingham last night.

Chairman Karl Oyston has pledged the windfall to be shared among the club's players should they triumph at Wembley, a repeat of the jackpot handed out two years ago when Blackpool beat Cardiff in the showpiece final.

The deal was agreed before the start of this season, with Blackpool's players on a lower basic wage compared to other sides in the Championship.

But winger Phillips, 21, has stressed the financial gains are an extra bonus to the main prize.

"It's always extra incentive but the lads want to be in the Premier League," he said. "With the bonus as well, it's an added incentive.

"Definitely (the Premier League means more). We've got a great squad here and players who can go and play in the Premier League.

"We're looking forward to it, we'll go and play at Wembley and we'll go and put a good fight in against West Ham."

Phillips, named in the PFA Championship team of the year, played a crucial part in Blackpool's triumph.

Leading 1-0 from Friday night's first leg, Stephen Dobbie found the net at St Andrew's before Phillips put Blackpool into what appeared a comfortable 3-0 aggregate lead.

But goals from Nikola Zigic and Curtis Davies set up a nervous finale, which the visitors survived to set up a meeting with West Ham, who are already final favourites.

Phillips said: "We've been written off ever since we went up to the Premier League two seasons ago, it won't faze us.

"We'll go into it knowing we can win, knowing we can score goals, and we've been keeping clean sheets for fun recently."

For Birmingham, it was a heartbreaking conclusion to a 62-game season which exceeded all expectations from last summer.

An overhaul of the club's squad following relegation from the Premier League, a change in management, well-documented cash-flow problems and a Europa League campaign left supporters hoping for, rather than expecting, promotion.

And the ovation given by fans to the club's players and popular boss Chris Hughton at the full-time whistle last night showed how much they recognised the efforts of the side having come up just short.

Birmingham captain Davies said: "It would have been easy for them at two-nil to go home but they stuck behind us and they were nearly treated to something special, unfortunately on the night it just didn't fall right for us.

"For them to stay until the end, all 28,000 of them, and clap us off the pitch was amazing. We're gutted for them as much as ourselves.

"I don't think the fans have judged us on this game alone, they've seen the bigger picture. We've had a 62-game season and, for me, the main thing is the fans, the manager, the coaching staff, the players, we've all been together through this whole season.

"That's a big thing for this club, to basically get back in the right direction after the summer we had.

"I would rather it have ended on a high but I might look back on this in two or three weeks and say it hasn't been a bad season."