The Sportsman's Road to Wembley journey is now just one game away from the First Round Proper! As South Shields beat Marske United in the last round, we caught up with manager and Premier League legend Kevin Phillips as they prepare to take on Scunthorpe United.
Kevin Phillips has taken a different route into first-team management. After spells on the coaching staff at Derby County, Stoke City and Leicester City, in January this year he took the plunge by taking the manager's job at South Shields, in the seventh tier of English football.
“I know the area very well,” he tells The Sportsman ahead of the tie. “I wouldn't say I knew an awful lot about South Shields, but I knew they are a club on the up. They've got fantastic facilities here, they're fantastic crowds and I knew that it was a club that wanted to progress and move forwards in terms of where they are in the football pyramid. So it really interested me.
“It was an opportunity for me to manage and have the final say. It's been exciting, but it was just the lure of being able to manage and try and progress them through the leagues and trying to ultimately get them into the EFL, which is going to be very difficult. But you know, it's one that I'm really, really enjoying.”
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Now, with a tie against National League side Scunthorpe United at home standing in between them and the First Round Proper, Phillips is on the cusp of making a big impression, just 10 months into the job.
“In terms of the exposure, the game and where it is, and what it is, you would have to say it's probably my biggest game so far. But I'm not going to prepare any differently for this game as I would for Liversedge away on Tuesday night.
“From a financial point of view, it's huge for a football club of our stature but also the exposure. I think we would stand a very, very good chance if we got through to the next round of possibly having it televised, which for some of our players, would be incredible.
“And of course, for my first managerial job it would be great to get these clubs in the first round and possibly potentially be on TV. But as I've said all along my priority, I get judged at the end of the season by promotion.”
Phillips has had quite the schooling, playing and coaching under some terrific managers such as Tony Mowbray, Steve McClaren and Claudio Ranieri. But what has he taken from the gaffers he has worked under over his long and successful career?
“It'd be very naive and silly of me not to take little bits from every manager I played under,” he says. “I played under 20+ managers in my career. I've coached under some great managers like McClaren and Ranieri, Nigel Pearson, so I'd be daft not to just take little bits from them over the career, how they handle certain situations, because I'm getting thrown in at the deep end.
“I've quickly realised in management, it's not about everything you do on the grass, there's loads more that comes with it, because you're dealing with 20+ players every day with different problems - they come from different backgrounds. I've learned that I have to deal with that. But ultimately, you have to have your own managerial style. And, you know, I'd like to think that I have brought that to the football club.”
As a player, Phillips won the Premier League Golden Boot with 30 goals while at Sunderland, but the FA Cup also holds special memories for him as he reached the semi-finals at Wembley with second-tier West Bromwich Albion. That run, and some of the games along the way, rank among the best moments of Phillips' career.
“It’s magical. I don't particularly agree with playing the semi-finals at Wembley. I think the reward should be the final there. But nevertheless, it was a great occasion and it was West Brom.
‘We weren't in the Premier League and to get to the semi-final against the eventual winners in Portsmouth and actually, we should have won the game of the day. We were the better team. It was heartbreaking not to get there. But nevertheless, it was fantastic to experience a full house at Wembley,
“I think just walking out Wembley, you know, holding my child's hand in front of a packed Wembley crowd in an FA Cup semi final hearing the national anthem will just stay with me forever.”
The Sportsman will return for the next edition of Road to Wembley with either South Shields or Scunthorpe United, as we progress to the First Round Proper, where League One and League Two sides join the fun.
