Kevin Phillips

In the remainder of the season, Phillips set or equalled club records by scoring in seven consecutive matches and in nine consecutive home matches, became the first Sunderland player since Brian Clough in 1961–62 to score 30 goals in a season, and finished the campaign with 35 goals in all competitions, the most by any Sunderland player in one season since the Second World War.

His tally included a four-goal haul in the third round of the FA Cup at Rotherham United and two goals in the play-off campaign.

After scoring Sunderland's second goal in the play-off final, Phillips was substituted after 73 minutes with an injury, so missed the remainder of the 4–4 draw with Charlton Athletic which Sunderland lost 7–6 on penalties.

Phillips later described the final as his "most disappointing day in football", but also as the best match he had ever played in.

Kevin Mark Phillips (born 25 July 1973) is an English former professional footballer who is currently manager of National League club Hartlepool United.

He started his footballing career as a trainee with Southampton, where he spent six years, four as a schoolboy, before being taken on as an apprentice in 1989.

As a youth, Phillips was considered to be too small to play up front and was played at right back, in which position he made two reserve team appearances in 1990.

He failed to make the grade at Southampton and was released by manager Chris Nicholl, and returned to Hertfordshire where he signed for non-League semi-professional side Baldock Town in the summer of 1991.

At Baldock Town, he was initially played as a defender until an injury crisis resulted in manager Ian Allinson playing Phillips as a striker, scoring twice in his first match in his new role.

He was signed by Watford in December 1994 for an initial £10,000, plus four additional payments of £5,000.

Phillips established himself in the squad during the second half of the 1994–95 season, and played regularly before suffering a foot injury in March 1996, initially diagnosed as a hairline fracture and later discovered to be a hole in a ligament in his foot, that kept him out for a year.

Watford were relegated from Division One in 1995–96, and by the time Phillips returned to the team, they were in the top half of Division Two, and went on to finish 13th.

In July 1997, Phillips signed for Sunderland for a fee of £325,000, potentially rising to more than £600,000.

Phillips signed for Sunderland just after their relegation from the Premiership.

Fifteen matches into the Division One season, the club were in mid-table and Phillips had four goals.

Phillips scored eight goals in the opening weeks of the 1998–99 season as Sunderland reached the top of the Division One table.

A broken toe sustained in a League Cup tie against Chester City in mid-September kept him out for nearly four months, but his goalscoring resumed immediately upon his return, with a "screaming volley" away to Queens Park Rangers.

Promotion was confirmed in April as Phillips scored four of Sunderland's five goals in an away game against Bury, and he ended the season with 23 goals from only 26 league games, and 25 goals in all competitions.

His form earned him an international call-up for England, and he made his debut in the starting eleven in a friendly against Hungary.

A striker, Phillips was the Premier League top scorer in the 1999–2000 season with 30 goals for Sunderland, a tally which won him the European Golden Shoe.

He remains the only Englishman to win the trophy.

He also had spells at Watford, Southampton, Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City, Blackpool, Crystal Palace, and Leicester City.

He made eight appearances for England.

Phillips was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

In the run-up to the start of the 1999–2000 FA Premier League season, pundit Rodney Marsh predicted that Phillips would struggle to get more than five or six goals at the higher level.

Forming a potent "little and large" strike pairing with veteran target-man Niall Quinn, Phillips scored his sixth goal on 18 September – the first of a hat-trick against Derby County – and was named Premier League Player of the Month for October.

His goal tally was 20 by mid-January and 30 by the season's end, a total that earned him not only the Premier League Golden Boot but also the European Golden Shoe award –, he remains the only Englishman to have won the latter – and with a 14-goal return from Quinn contributed to Sunderland's seventh-place finish, just missing out on a UEFA Cup place.

In January 2001, Phillips scored his 104th goal for Sunderland, breaking the club's post-war goalscoring record.

As the season wore on, Phillips suffered both a lack of form and disciplinary problems: he scored only once between mid-January and May, and came in for criticism from fans and local press.

He finished the season with 18 goals in all competitions, 14 in the league, as Sunderland again finished seventh and missed out on UEFA Cup qualification.

Phillips' goals contribution to Sunderland's 2001–02 season fell to 13, of which 11 came in the league.

He played the last months of the campaign despite a groin problem which required surgery over the 2002 close season.

Amid interest from clubs including Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, Phillips "pledged his future" to Sunderland ahead of the 2002–03 season, though he later confirmed he had submitted a transfer request in August.

Manager Peter Reid brought in strikers Tore André Flo and Marcus Stewart, and warned Phillips he was no longer an automatic first choice.

Phillips in fact started 32 of the 38 league matches, but scored only 6 goals as the club were relegated with just four wins and what were then Premier League record lows of 19 points and 21 goals.

A second transfer request was rejected in January, but at the end of the season Phillips confirmed that the club's need to reduce its expenditure in light of relegation meant that he would be leaving.

He had played in 235 matches for Sunderland, and scored 130 goals at an average of better than a goal every two games.

In August 2003, following Sunderland's relegation from the Premier League, Phillips moved to the south coast to join Southampton for a fee of £3.25 million, with Phillips signing a four-year contract, while taking a substantial cut in his salary.

He made his debut on 16 August, coming on as a substitute away to Leicester City and scoring with a long-range strike in a 2–2 draw.

He relinquished his penalty-taking duties, after three consecutive spot-kicks were saved, but his goal on the final day of the season, in a 1–1 draw with Derby County, was enough to ensure 17th place and Premier League survival.