On This Day (18 October 1999) Phillips catches the eye in controversial Villa clash!

Today at 01:00 AM

Super Kev dominated the talk pre-game, but it was the man in black that was the focus immediately after the match!

The impact Sunderland made on the top-flight early in the 1999-2000 season was pretty incredible, really. After having won the league at a canter the season before, the club invested in the experienced Stefan Schwarz and Steve Bould – but it was Kevin Phillips who was really catching the eye.

The striker had top-scored the previous season with 23 in just 26 league games, having picked up an injury in a League Cup tie that ruled him out for more than three months.

And, after a summer call-up to the England squad, he'd taken to the Premiership with ease, bagging ten goals in ten games – much to the embarrassment of Sky pundit Rodney Marsh, who'd said Phillips would be lucky to score more than one in six.

Kev, however, was keen to continue that form as Aston Villa came to the Stadium of Light for an evening fixture live on Sky, with the ultimate aim of making England's Euro 2000 squad.

Phillips had made his debut for his country as a second-tier player towards the tail end of the championship season, and he said:

It's a great chance for us to show people what we can do.

From my point of view, I want to be scoring goals to give myself a better chance of staying in the England squad, and there's no better shop window for us than in a live televised match.

Sometimes I don't think we have done ourselves justice in Sky games, and we've got to look to put that right.

A lot of people have raised eyebrows at us being so high up in the table but have not really paid too much attention to us. This is our chance to get them to sit up and take notice.

I've never played against Villa before, but I know they're a top-class side. It is up to us, though, to keep up our good work and look to build on our excellent start so far.

The clash against Villa was billed as a battle of the little and large duos – Quinn and Phillips versus Dion Dublin and Julian Joachim – and Reidy was wary of the threat the opposition posed.

Dion Dublin is a handful for anyone, and Julian Joachim is a very quick, very tricky player. They work well together and, on their day, they are as good as anyone.

Coming off the back of six wins and one draw in the last seven games, confidence was high – however, Sunderland got something resembling stage fright and turned in one of their worst performances of the season so far...

It wasn't plain sailing at all – and required the intervention of controversial referee David Elleray to swing the game in favour of the lads.

Despite the pre-game talk of Julian Joachim's threat, the former Leicester striker missed the game through injury, and it was Darius Vassel who partnered Dublin. The striker missed a great first-half chance after his pace left Micky Gray for dead, while Chris Makin was fortunate after bringing down Vassell in the box – only for referee David Elleray to give a free kick on the edge.

Elleray was one of the most controversial – and unpopular – referees around. A house master at the Harrow boys' public school, Elleray refereed in a teacher-ly fashion – and his posh tones, in which infamously admonished Tony Adams when he was mic'd up a few years earlier in a Millwall-Arsenal game, certainly didn't endear him to the average football fan.

A poor first-half showing continued after half-time, and it was Dion Dublin who headed home from an Alan Thompson free kick on 47 to give the visitors the lead.

Sunderland attacked with vigour, but left themselves open at the back, making for an end to end contest – and got back into the game in fortunate circumstances. Pual Butler's long hoof cleared another Villa attack, Niall Quinn attempted to control and the ball hit his arm, before rolling on Mark Delaney's arm, too. Elleray was unsighted, the crowd shouted for handball, and a penalty was the call – much to Villa manager John Gregory's disgust.

Phillips didn't miss.

With 10 minutes left, both teams were going for it and excellent Schwarz brought the ball forward from the left. His cross found Phillips, who headed it home, making it 12 for the season, and seven wins from eight.

While Sunderland were happy enough, Mr Gregory took aim at Elleray.

He made another cock up again. It was an outrageous decision.

It was all going the way we planned but it all went out of the window when the referee took a hand. There was no way it was a penalty. The ball hit Niall Quinn's arm first and there was absolutely no intent from Mark Delaney.

But there's nothing we can do about it. Mr Elleray will get in his car and drive off home and not have anyone to answer to. It's all very frustrating.

However, once the controversy settled, it was Kevin Phillips – rather than David Elleray – that was the name on everyone's lips.