The Sentinel

I would love us to double up if it was in fashion, says Phillips

KEVIN PHILLIPS IS KEEN ON WATCHING STRIKERS HUNT IN PAIRS , ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE ON THE END OF SOME FINE DELIVERIES. MARTIN SPINKS REPORTS ...

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KEVIN Phillips would be more than tempted to go with two strikers at Nottingham Forest if someone kidnapped Gary Rowett and left his forward coach to pick the team.

Phillips admits he might be a bit biased towards the strikers, of course, and certainly longs for the days when a twin strike force was the norm.

He and Niall Quinn exemplifie­d the value of a prolific double act at Sunderland once-upon-a-time and he refelcts: “Yes, I managed to strike a great partnershi­p with Quinny, and with Crouchy for one season at Southampto­n.

“We worked really well together, but that little-man-big-man partnershi­p is very rare now, isn’t it?

“I’m not sure I would have lasted as long in the game nowadays if I’d been playing up front on my own. It is extremely tough.

“I’d love to see two strikers on the pitch and my thinking is ‘why wouldn’t you put two goalscorer­s on the pitch and try and find a place for them?’

“So yes, it’s a shame, but then again it might be one of those cycles and in five or 10 years you might see them come back into the game.”

Two strikers would certainly lick their lips at some of the crosses young right-back Tom Edwards has been delivering since his return to the first team.

He surely plays again at Forest today and Phillips says they have been working on the quality of those deliveries.

“He gets into some great areas. Sometimes he over crosses it and hits it too hard, which he understand­s, and it’s something he’s working on.

“I spoke to him about the Kieran Trippier cross at the weekend (Spurs v Wolves) when he just guided it into an area. Those are the sort of crosses we are looking from him.

“But there’s always a time and a place for the hard, low, whipped one as well.

“From day one his attitude has been fantastic. You talk to him and he wants to learn. You know when you talk to a player whether it’s going in and staying in, or going in one ear and out the other. With him it certainly goes in and stays in.

“He’s been given an opportunit­y and he’s taken it - and that’s all you can ask for from a young kid. I think Cuco Martina has done very well since he’s come, but he misses a game and Tom steps in, the gaffer has left him in and it’s a credit to him.”

Phillips is hoping this week’s instructio­ns to the rest of the squad have gone in one ear and not come out of the other as they prepare for Forest at the City Ground.

“Forest will want to press us, being the home team, and we’ve got to find a way to deal with that.

“We’ve been working on that this week, so come Saturday we will be prepared.

“It’s always a great place to go, Forest, great atmosphere, especially with Gaz going back with his Derby connection­s and me with mine, so we get a bit of banter on the sidelines.

“Our away performanc­es this year, I wouldn’t say they have been brilliant, but they have been solid, most of them, and we will be looking for another at the weekend.

“The Championsh­ip is relentless. When I look at the league, and having got promoted five times and worked in it for four years as a coach, I know it inside out.

“We are not a million miles away. We are nine points off top spot, but that can quickly change within the space of a week and games come thick and fast after the internatio­nal break.

“Saturday is a big game for us because you don’t want to lose too much ground on those top six, seven, eight teams, so a lot to play for.

“At some point it has to click for us, but there has been an improvemen­t and now it’s a completely different squad.

“I’ve been relegated out of the Premier League three times, so I know there is a transition, especially with a new manager, with a different intensity of training and a different style.

“You can see them now taking things on board a lot quicker.

■ ECCLESHALL Football Club is co-ordinating an appeal to send kit to a Ugandan Orphan team. If anyone has any strips, boots (preferably youth size) etc please email: paraby49@aol.com

STOKE CITY LIVE

 ??  ?? Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn struck up a potent strike partnershi­p during their time at Sunderland (when Quinn wasn’t busy dealing with Gerry Taggart).
Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn struck up a potent strike partnershi­p during their time at Sunderland (when Quinn wasn’t busy dealing with Gerry Taggart).

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