Sunderland legend KEVIN PHILLIPS: ‘You cannot escape the Tyne-Wear derby… I’ve been chased out of a Chinese restaurant, known as a “Mackem t**t” within the streets, abused by outdated girls – however they can not take away my aim within the rain’

This week, more than most, Kevin Phillips is unable to escape it. Whether he’s at a restaurant, down the pub near his partner’s house in Durham, or on the golf course, it’s all anyone wants to talk about. It’s derby day in the North East.

‘You can’t get away from it,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘It’s in your face 24/7. I can walk down the street and someone will shout “Phillips, you’re a legend!” and 10 seconds later I’ll get: “Phillips, you little Mackem t**t!”’

You get used to such welcomes when you’ve been at the heart of some of the most iconic moments in the history of the rivalry between Sunderland and Newcastle. When you scored that winner for the Black Cats in the pouring rain at St James’ Park more than a quarter of a century ago, that tends to follow you around these parts.

‘It’s not until you live in the area, or play in the derby, that you appreciate the hatred between the fans,’ he adds. ‘I hear it all the time but when derby day comes around, they almost turn into different people. You know what it means to the area and the bragging rights to come out on top.’

Phillips was offered the chance to go to St James’ Park on Sunday, as Sunderland make their first Premier League visit to their arch rivals in a decade, but opted against it. He’ll watch the game instead from the clubhouse at his local golf course. ‘I just thought I’d be able to watch it in comfort, without any grief,’ he says with a laugh. ‘Come Monday morning, if Sunderland don’t get a result, I’ll be keeping my head down.’

Former Sunderland striker Kevin Phillips was at the heart of some of the most iconic moments in the history of the Tyne-Wear derby

Now 52, Phillips is planning to watch Sunday’s derby from his golf club, not St James’ Park. ‘I just thought I’d be able to watch it without any grief,’ he laughs

None of this is new for former striker Phillips, now 52, who knew as soon as he stepped foot in Sunderland – a place he once thought looked like Coronation Street – how much it meant to the people of both cities.

‘We had a culture back then where we would socialise quite a lot as a team,’ he says. ‘I remember one Sunday afternoon we were in Gibside in Newcastle. About six lads came walking in to the pub and within, I would say, two minutes they were chasing us out. We had to leg it. Luckily one of the lads had his car there. We got to it just before they grabbed hold of us.

‘I’ve been chased out of a Chinese restaurant before! These two lads made it very clear that if I didn’t leave now, I wouldn’t be leaving at all. I didn’t even get to the table. I literally just walked in the door, turned around, and walked straight back out again.’

Phillips regales all his tales with a smile. He’s keen to point out, too, that it’s not always like this. There were many times, too, when the Sunderland squad would have their nights out in Newcastle and enjoy the city’s hospitality.

Even now, 27 years on, he relives that famous goal with a clarity that makes you feel like he’s right back there again. He remembers every detail. He remembers the deafening whistles around St James’ Park before the game, the loudest he’d ever heard.

He remembers how the ball fell to Gavin McCann on the right, how the ball stopped dead in a puddle as Phillips attempted his first shot, how Tommy Wright raced out to save it, how Niall Quinn called for Phillips to cross the rebound to him and how, instead, he hit ‘the sweetest chip I’d probably ever hit in my career’ and how he watched it looped over Wright and Warren Barton and the ‘unreal’ emotions that filled him. He remembers the ‘deadly silence’.

He certainly remembers the rain. ‘We found out afterwards that their bench at 2-1 was trying to get the game called off,’ he says.

He remembers the build-up, too. The 200 fans that lined the streets outside Sunderland’s hotel to wish them well. The police escort that made him feel like he was playing for England. The bombshell team news. 

‘We got wind on the bus that Alan Shearer and Duncan Ferguson were potentially going to be on the bench and Ruud Gullit was going to lose his job if we won. The atmosphere on the bus changed. Peter Reid was never a big team-talker but he came into the dressing room and pinned the team sheet on the board and went: “I don’t need to say anything, lads, just look at that!”

Phillips and Alex Rae celebrate their famous win at St James’ Park in 1999, thanks to Phillips’ winner. He describes the emotion as ‘unreal’

Sunderland fans pause by a mural of Phillips at the Stadium of Light earlier this season

‘We got to the ground, glass bottles were lobbed at the bus. Kevin Ball looked out the window and saw this old lady, so Kev waved at her just to be polite. She turned around and stuck two fingers up at him!’

It wasn’t just hard man Ball who had his frosty encounters with his elders. The day after Phillips scored the ‘goal in the rain’, as it’s now known, he thought it would be a good idea to go shopping in Newcastle city centre. He was hungry so stopped off at Greggs.

‘I was in the queue, minding my own business, when I get a tap on the shoulder,’ says Phillips ‘I thought, “Oh, here we go!”. I turned around and it was a little old lady. She just looked at me, shaking her head, and said: “What the f*** are you doing in here?” I was like “I’m sorry, what do you mean?” and she replied: “After what you did last night, you shouldn’t be here.”‘

Like the current crop, that Sunderland side in 1999-00 had just been promoted too. Phillips ended the season on 30 Premier League goals, including another two in the reverse fixture against Newcastle as Sunderland came from 2-0 down to earn a 2-2 draw, which earned him the Golden Boot and the European Golden Shoe, becoming the first and only Englishman to win it before Harry Kane joined him two years ago.

‘Let’s not forget as well, Harry’s in the Bundesliga, so it doesn’t count,’ grins Phillips.

Phillips only found out about his European crown when the club phoned him on holiday. He didn’t even attend the ceremony because Sunderland had a match that night.

For a player who started his career at right back and was long told he was too small to make it at the top level, he admits he didn’t do too bad. He proved some people wrong along the way, few more so than former England forward-turned-pundit Rodney Marsh who predicted Phillips, while prolific in the lower leagues, would struggle to get past five or six goals in the top flight.

‘People that know me will tell you it takes a lot for me to get wound up or annoyed,’ says Phillips. ‘For some reason, what Rodney Marsh said really spurred me on.

‘I also remember Shearer coming out, I think he’d done it a few seasons before, saying he didn’t think anybody would get 30 goals in the Premier League again.’

Phillips can see that football is changing. You don’t see the old ‘big man, little man’ combinations like his famous partnership with Quinn. The art of the striker is not quite what it once was either.

Phillips ended the 1999-2000 season with the Premier League Golden Boot – a feat that no Englishman matched until Harry Kane 16 years later

‘It almost feels like people are more interested in what they can do aside from scoring goals: their link play, their distance covered, their sprints,’ says Phillips. ‘Can you play up top on your own? Can you play out wide if needed? Can you drop into the pocket? It’s crazy, really. A striker? How many goals can you score?’

Phillips has dipped his toe into management, winning the Northern Premier League title with South Shields – an achievement he puts up there with his winning goal in the derby – before stints at Hartlepool and AFC Fylde. After leaving Fylde last year, he says he’s in no rush to return to the dugout but wouldn’t reject any calls from interested chairmen.

He’s impressed by the job Regis Le Bris has done with his old club and how he’s moulded a new group of players so quickly. One of those players has the chance on Sunday to write their name, like Phillips nearly three decades ago, into Sunderland folklore.

‘You don’t really become part of the furniture until you score a winning goal in a derby,’ he says. ‘You take your standing to a different level. I was only at Aston Villa for a year and I didn’t play too many games. But what I did do that season was score the winning goal against Birmingham City at St Andrews. Whenever I bump into Villa fans, that’s all they ever remind me about.

‘This Sunday is a chance for someone to become a legend.’