44 today, you probably wouldn’t be surprised if you heard that Kevin Philips has landed one last contract. One final chance to showcase that awareness, intelligence and technique that served him so well from his days at Baldock Town, right up until his swan song with Leicester. At the age of forty.
It is a remarkable feat. Too small? A striker at 5ft 7 was always going to have his doubters. It was just that Philips wasn’t one of them. What is height when your positional sense can leave defenders wide-eyed?
Playing for Baldock Town on the eighth rung of English football's ladder, working in a bakery and then in his twenties, it may have appeared his opportunity had eluded him. After all, he had been given an opportunity as a trainee at Southampton. Too diminutive to be taken seriously as a striker, a turn at fullback did little to endear. And so to North Hertfordshire, the non-league pyramid and a career producing and selling flour-based products.
But even at Baldock, he wasn’t a centre-forward. However, when injury arose to a teammate, so did opportunity. Phillips proposed a cameo up front. Role granted and opportunity taken. Two goals, and as he said himself, he “never looked back.”
Having made an impression as a player-coach at Gillingham, Glenn Roeder took the reins at Watford in 1993. What Phillips was doing 75 miles away was enough for Roeder to convince the Watford board to part with £10,000. Possibly one of the soundest investments the club ever made. Three years later he turned the club a profit 60 times that.
And so to Sunderland. Irish international Niall Quinn was enjoying a revival of an Indian summer to his career. The two didn’t merely gel; Quinn and Phillips complimented each other. Little and large, sure. But there was so much that worked. Quinn had worked tirelessly on his touch throughout his career, and by the time he joined Sunderland he had a considerable arsenal of nuances in his placed headers and understated touches and flicks.
Many happy returns to @MrJodyCraddock and Kevin Phillips! 🎁
Such was the dexterity that Phillips intelligence of movement fitted perfectly. And Phillips had a repertoire. He had range. Placed shots, laced with balance and adroit precision, and guided missiles out of reach of frantic shot-stoppers.
The two combined and overcame disappointment. Particularly the 1998 Championship Play-off final. Both players scored in normal time – Quinn twice – but ultimately lost 7-6 to a Mark Kinsella driven Charlton side.
But the following season there was no such drama. Phillips and Quinn continued their prowess, scoring not necessarily at will, but as part of a collective team effort that Peter Reid had instilled. Reid’s side reflected his drive. His forward line reflected what can be built on top of that. Phillips had scored 60 goals in 78 games, over 2 seasons.
But the Premier League would be different. So thought the likes of Rodney Marsh, who said Phillip’s would struggle to score 5 or 6 goals. But promotion didn’t loosen Phillips of his instinct. What he had was innate and not reflective of Championship or Premier League football.
Phillips led an unlikely push for European qualification, scoring 30 goals and securing both the domestic and European Golden Boot awards. The 1999-2000 season was a zenith for Phillips, who would eventually leave following regulation in 2003. Phillips himself felt he had gone “a bit stale” in his final season when he scored six times.
But there is nothing sour of the footprint he secured in Sunderland history. After Phillips joined in 1997, during a training session on the beach, his new teammates let loose with unrestrained laughter, when he admitted he didn’t realise his new club was by the sea.
Now, he’s so ingrained in the history of Sunderland, that he is synonymous with the North-East club.
