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Kevin Phillips’ first impressions of Sunderland came as a young Watford player in the mid 90s, traveling to the club’s old ground Roker Park.
Located just a few hundred yards from the North Sea coast, there wasn’t much protection from the icy winds off the water in the winter (and sometimes summer!).
The presence of a biting, salt-crusted gale meant the air around the stadium was often damp and misty. Combined with cold wind, temperatures inside Roker Park often defied thermometer readings.
The Roker Roar
Famously landlocked on all four sides by tight, red-brick Victorian terraced streets, on matchdays back alleys were crowded with fans seeking shortcuts, and corner shops and chippies would do a week’s worth of business in three hours.
Legendary pre-match spots like The Wheatsheaf, The New Derby, and The Roker Hotel were packed to the rafters and were the genesis of the ‘Roker Roar’.
“I was a young lad, and I'd never been further than the Watford Gap, let alone come all the way up to Sunderland,” recalls Phillips, speaking to FourFourTwo a stone's throw from the Stadium of Light, where the club has played for almost 30 years now.
“I remember coming on the bus through the old streets of Roker. I used to watch Coronation Street when I was younger, and it looked like Coronation Street! I was thinking. ‘God, I’d hate to live up here'.
“It was one of those where we just wanted to play the game, get home. So my initial impression was ‘I’m not sure,’ but once I did come up and sign and realise what beautiful place the area is, not just Sunderland, the whole of the Northumberland Coast, there are some great places.”
“People here are generally friendlier compared to people down south – I shouldn't say that cause I’m a southerner, but that is the truth. They just made us feel welcome, and it made us settle in really quickly.”
Phillips settled almost immediately, netting 35 times in all competitions during the 1997-96 season, building an incredible partnership with Niall Quinn.
“People always ask, ‘What did you use to do on the training pitch?’ and if you ask Quinny or Reidy, we didn't do an awful lot. We did more tactical work in the pub! With the beer glasses and the salt and pepper pots around.
“The biggest bit of advice, he and Reidy used to give me was they both said don't ever be more than 10-15 yards away from Quinny. That just stuck with me.
"Wherever the ball looked like it was going to Niall, I just got around him. It was just one of those partnerships that just worked."
Phillips admits that the death of the ‘strike partnership’ in the mid 2000s, a move away from traditional formations like 4-4-2, wouldn’t have complemented his fox-in-the-box style. “I think I would’ve struggled.
"Towards the end of my career, I was asked to play up front on my own a fair few times. I didn't enjoy it if I’m being honest because I was always sniffing around another striker, always looking to pull on the shoulder, and as a loan striker, you're more of a link player to let the wide boys run in behind.
“So I found it very, very difficult [towards the end]. I ended up running here, there and everywhere, and tiring myself out. It was a shame that two strikers and 4-4-2 died out a little bit. I would definitely struggle paying up top on my own nowadays.”
But that doesn’t matter to Sunderland fans because, when the time came for Phillips to leave the club in 2003, he had scored 130 goals for them across six seasons. That included 30 Premier League goals in the 1999-00 season, which not only secured him the Golden Boot but also won him Europe’s Golden Shoe which is awarded to the top goalscorer across all European domestic leagues.
“I've spent a lot of time here,” reflects Phillips. “I felt I had a connection with these fans from the moment I drove up here. You could sense the passion the fans showed for their football club and the area.
“It’s a hard-working area, and every football club, every set of fans loves a goalscorer. I think it makes it easy for you to settle in somewhere when you come somewhere, you do well, and you score lots of times.
“They're just great fans and so passionate about the football club, as is the North East in general. So I think for me it's important I come back as much as I possibly can.”
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