Quinn and Phillips: the Sunderland partnership that terrified the Premier League

Sunderland came up in 1999 as Championship winners with 105 points, and most people had them going straight back down. Then Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips scored 44 Premier League goals between them, and the Stadium of Light stopped being a nice new ground and started being a fortress.

The partnership

It was the oldest trick in the book, done better than anyone else was doing it. Quinn, six foot four, won everything in the air and laid it off. Phillips, a foot shorter, ran onto it and finished. Thirty goals for Phillips that season, the European Golden Shoe, and the only Englishman to have won it to this day. Fourteen for Quinn, most of them with his head, plus a stack of assists.

Sunderland finished seventh. Seventh, in their first season back, with a squad that had cost about nothing. They did it again the year after, too.

Why it's still the one

Sunderland fans have had a rough couple of decades since, which is probably why 1999-2000 gets talked about so much. It was the last time the club felt like it belonged at the top table without apology. Quinn and Phillips were the reason, and they still get sung about at the Stadium of Light.

The design

The Legends in Thread Quinn and Phillips design puts the two of them side by side, the big man and the small man, embroidered on the chest. No crest, no badge, no sponsor. Just the pair that every Mackem over thirty can name in their sleep.

It's one of my favourite designs on the site because it's about a partnership rather than a goal. Two outlines, one story.

Get one

It's available as an organic cotton tee, a hoodie, a sweatshirt and a cap, all made to order in the UK.

You'll find Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn on their own pages too, alongside the rest of the Sunderland collection.

Chris