Kevin Phillips will forever be known as one of Molineux’s biggest foes.
One of the days football fans look forward to more than any other in the calendar year is when their rivals come to town. The atmosphere, the intensity and the importance of those games outweigh anything throughout the rest of the year – and in Wolverhampton Wanderers’ case, they have had an additional foil across those clashes on more than one occasion.
Kevin Phillips is known for being one of the most underrated English strikers of the last few decades, but beyond that, he holds a special place in the heart of Wolves fans around the world – because they hate him.
Phillips has played for many high profile clubs throughout his time as a professional footballer, but three stick out above the rest: Birmingham City, Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion. From that piece of information alone, you can understand why Wolves supporters are not exactly fond of the Midlands specialist who also enjoyed tenures with East Midlands’ own Leicester City, and now, Derby County as a coach.
Simply playing for those clubs would not be so much of an issue, but Phillips seemed to score on every other occasion either at Molineux or at home. He was like the pantomime villain who could not stop popping up and ruining their day, with two particular examples standing out above the rest.
The first came over the course of Wolves’ play-off semi-final against the Baggies back in 2007, when Phillips’ three goals across the two legs helped West Brom to a 4-2 aggregate win which sent them to Wembley. If that does not turn you off the play off system as a Wolves fan, then nothing will.
The second was classic Phillips, as he came on towards the end of the second half of the Wolves vs Birmingham game back in 2010. Mick McCarthy’s men were leading 1-0 and looked relatively comfortable, only for the former Sunderland man to score a brace in the final 10 minutes, at the age of 36, to condemn Wolves to defeat.
Even now Phillips can’t resist poking his nose in their business, indicating that it was his initial idea to bring the in-form Benik Afobe to Pride Park.
If football had more player vs team battles such as this, then it would only help the excitement of the game in becoming stronger and stronger.
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