Sam Phillips: The 2014 Victory Shield winner hoping for play-off glory in Spain
From Victory Shield glory with Wales and a spell in Sweden, Sam Phillips’ career so far has been an unconventional one.
This Sunday he is hoping for further glory as he vies for promotion with Spanish side CD Almuñecar City.
Prior to a move to Spain, Phillips’ career began not that far from his last stomping ground in the UK, Newtown.
The 21-year-old winger’s career at Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he spent ten years working his way up through the ranks.
“It was a really good experience. I was there from a relatively young age and progressed through the club all the way up to my scholarship and youth days,” said Phillips.
“It was brilliant to train full-time there when I was 15-16 years old, so I had a good three to four years there as a full-time player.”
“It was really good for me to learn from some really good players, lads who were my age and lads in the first team. It was humble beginnings for me really.”
Embed from Getty ImagesIt was during his time at Wolves that Phillips was a part of the 2014 Welsh Victory Shield winning squad that included the likes of Ethan Ampadu and Tyler Roberts, who are now both full internationals.
Despite having an underdog status, Wales’ Victory Shield triumph under the coaching of Osian Roberts was their first since 1948.
Achieving success with Wales at such a young age was an experience Phillips “can only speak highly of.”
“Going into the Victory Shield there wasn’t much expected of us. England would win it most years and Scotland might win it one year and for us to go and win it, it was brilliant to be a part of that and play with some brilliant players.”
“The likes of Ben Woodburn and Tyler Roberts, to play with them as a young lad was something that was going to make me better.”
“It’s the little things that they do, the extras after training and don’t get me wrong, we all do them, but it’s the way they do them, with that extra bit of quality that they’ve got, it takes them apart from other lads really.”
Phillips believes the standard of Wales’ coaching staff was paramount to their success.
“Osian was brilliant., he made everyone feel a part of the programme. Whether it’s your first call up or your third, fourth or fifth time being called up, you still get that big smile off him and he was brilliant for all the lads.
“He always made you feel a part of it, it was a really tight-knit coaching staff”
Despite the ecstasy of winning the Victory Shield, a set-back was to come for Phillips at club-level, as he departed Wolverhampton Wanderers after a ten year affiliation with the club.
“At the time I knew it was probably coming, I hadn’t featured much as a scholar, I didn’t really get much of a chance so I sort of prepared myself for it.”
“I had a few months to come to terms with it, whereas some lads when they get called for a meeting on their future, it’s sort of there and then, they’re tossed aside and have that first five to ten minutes to deal with it and they’ve got to get on.
“I had a bit more time to come to terms with it, so it was probably a bit easier for me than some lads found it.”
Embed from Getty ImagesWhat followed was a spell with Haughmond of the Midlands Premier League, before a move abroad to Sweden, signing for IFK Ostersund.
Phillips relished the opportunity to get back into full-time football.
“At the time, I didn’t really know where I was with my football, I was just playing in non-league and the chance came up to go out there for a few months and play for Ostersund and looking back, it was a brilliant learning curve for me getting back into full-time football and training every day.
“You do miss being full-time when you’ve got to clock in for work in the morning then go to a game in the evening, it does take a bit out of you.”
“To fully be able to concentrate on football, it’s what I needed at the time. I learned a lot out there, it was something I look back on as being a really good experience.”
Embed from Getty ImagesHaving moved back home from Sweden, Phillips’ next destination was Cymru Premier side Newtown.
Playing for the Robins was a positive learning curve says the winger, with aspects of his game being influenced by the senior players at Latham Park.
“Chris (Hughes) probably tried to get me in a couple of times before I ended up deciding to go there. I only lived twenty minutes down the road so it suited me down to the ground when I came back from Sweden.”
“Everyone was brilliant and really took me in as a local lad. I didn’t really play as much as I wanted to but I can honestly say looking back that I learned an awful lot.
“Especially from all the senior players that we had there at the time, the likes of Steve Leslie, who’s played hundreds of games in the Football League and Craig Williams who’s played for Newtown for most of his life.”
“You learn little things off them and you can take it and add it to your own game. You look back and see that they stand you in good stead for where I am today really.”
When asked about the Cymru Premier, Phillips believes Wales’ top-flight is a league with “real quality”.
“From the outside looking in, you’ve got TNS, when I was there, they were the only professional team and you think how other teams can compete when they’ve got to go to work during the week and then try and play on the weekend against them.”
“When you look at it it gives you that hunger to want to beat them, which adds to the league because there are a lot of good players and you look at some lads who have gone over to the English system to play, there is some real quality there. It just depends if you can get seen really.”
A move from the Cymru Premier to regional football in Granada isn’t one that is commonly seen, but Phillips recalls the day he signed for CD Almuñecar City.
“It was a strange one really, I was just at work one day and got a buzz off my phone and it was George, the director out here at Almuñecar.
“He said we’ve seen you and like the look of you, what would you think about coming out here for a few months until the end of the season and it developed from there really.”
“I thought I’m not really anywhere with my football at the moment. I always want to do better for myself and the opportunity came up so I took it with both hands and grasped it.”
Since the club’s formation in 2017, Almuñecar have found success with a diverse and multicultural squad that have achieved three promotions in successive seasons.
Phillips has hailed the “tight-knit” feeling around a club which has been welcoming from the offset.
“You’ve got lads from all over the world, South Africa, America, literally everywhere so when you come into the team you’re thinking there might be a bit of a language barrier with lads from different places but honestly everyone’s brilliant.”
“We’re all a tight-knit group and we all get along and it helps. For me personally, all the training sessions are in English and all the coaches can speak brilliant English so things like that have helped me settle in personally. So, it’s been really good.”
Having already achieved three successive promotions, CD Almuñecar City will be hoping to make it four in the play-off final against Vandalia de Peligros this weekend, after beating Churriana CF 3-0 in the semi-final last Sunday.
“We’re all really excited. We’ve had a few weeks now together as a team and we’ve obviously won the semi-final 3-0 against Churriana, which was really good for the team’s morale. It’s given us a really good boost. We’re all excited ahead of tomorrow.”
“It’s a huge game, it’s probably the biggest game in the club’s history so far.
“We’ve had three back-to-back promotions before this season so if we can go and get promoted again, that’d be really good and the highest the club’s ever been.”
“But we’re not just looking to get up and consolidate, keep our place in the league, we want to keep pushing every season and really push the boundaries for a club like ourselves who want to progress up the leagues and hopefully, we can go as far as we can.”
(Featured Image: Will Cheshire)
