Gary Christopher Phillips (born 20 September 1961) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He is the head of academy goalkeeping at

Watford Football Club Watford Football Club is a professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. The club competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The team played at several grounds in their early history, includi ...

. Phillips started his career as a schoolboy at

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

in 1976. He played at the senior level from 1978 to 2000 at various teams including Barnet, Brentford, and Reading. Philips was voted as Player of the Year for Barnet in 1982, 1984 and 1993 and helped them gain promotion to the Football League in 1991. Philips was also player-manager at Barnet Aylesbury United, and Hemel Hempstead Town. His coaching career included spells at numerous clubs including

Grays Athletic Grays Athletic Football Club is a football club based in Grays, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Chadfields in nearby Tilbury. History The club was established as Grays Juniors in 1890, before merging with former ...

, Hemel Hempstead Town, and

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

, as well as multiple returns to Barnet. Philips joined

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

as academy head of goalkeeping for the start of the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season.

Playing career

Early career

Phillips started his footballing life as a

centre forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

until the age of 13 when he played as

for his school team. He represented the South East Schools football team and was invited to join

on trial. In 1976, he signed schoolboy terms with

, where he played for two years. He then moved on to play for

Chalfont St Peter Chalfont St Peter is a large village and civil parish in southeastern Buckinghamshire, England. It is in a group of villages called The Chalfonts which also includes Chalfont St Giles and Little Chalfont. The villages lie between High Wycombe a ...

non-League Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

, before signing non-contract terms with

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

in early 1978 where he stayed for eight months.

Club career

On his 17th birthday, he signed for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

, failing to make an appearance, though he worked for the club as a member of the

ground staff In all forms of aviation, ground crew (also known as ground operations in civilian aviation) are personnel that service aircraft while on the ground, during routine turn-around; as opposed to aircrew, who operate all aspects of an aircraft whil ...

. Phillips moved to non-League Barnet at the start of 1981. He was voted as Player of the Year for Barnet in 1982 and 1984. He was transfer listed due to financial troubles at Barnet, and therefore sold to

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

for £5,000 in 1984. During his time with Brentford, Phillips was a runner-up in the Associate Members' Cup when

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

defeated Brentford 3–1 at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. Phillips then had a spell at

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, before rejoining Barnet on

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

in 1988 to provide cover for injured goalkeepers Steve Humphries and Andy Lomas. He then joined

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

on loan in 1989, making six League appearances before signing for Barnet on a permanent basis. During the 1990–91 season, Barnet won the

Football Conference The National League of English Football Clubs is a professional Association football, football league in England that consists of 72 teams, divided equally between the National League (division), National League North and National League South ...

and Phillips was an integral part of the team that won promotion into

The Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

. Barnet gained promotion during the 1992–93 season, after they finished third in the Third Division, in which Phillips won the Player of the Year for the third season. He retired after letting in a penalty to Jon Seager

Managerial and coaching career

Following the departure of manager Barry Fry to

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

, Phillps was appointed as player-manager by new chairman Ricky George, at the start of the 1993–94 season. He was replaced by

Ray Clemence Raymond Neal Clemence (5 August 1948 – 15 November 2020) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he is one of the few players to have made over 1,000 career ...

in January 1994 who was bought in as "general manager", whilst Phillips retained his title of "manager". On 21 March 1996, Phillips joined Aylesbury United as player-manager, taking over from Steve Ketteridge. He left Aylesbury in November 1997, and had a spell at

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spr ...

. He returned to Aylesbury United as player-manager in October 1999, making a total of 43 appearances in all competitions before leaving in October 2000. In the summer of 2001, he was appointed manager of Hemel Hempstead Town, before quitting 17 games later in November 2001. He has since been on to coach at

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

, Southend United and Barnet, as well as managing their reserve side. Phillips arrived at Grays as a coach, before being promoted to assistant manager in September 2008. He took over from Wayne Burnett as

manager in January 2009, until the end of the 2008–09 season, when he helped Grays to avoid relegation. He was replaced by Craig Edwards for the following 2009–10 season, but remained at Grays as a coach. He was then appointed manager again following Edwards sacking at the start of the next season, taking charge from Grays' first game of the new season. Phillips was placed on

gardening leave Garden leave (also known as gardening leave) is the practice whereby an employee leaving a job – having resigned or otherwise had their employment terminated – is instructed to stay away from work during the notice period, while still remaini ...

on 10 September, after the club announced its intent to appoint a new manager a few days prior. Hemel Hempstead Town announced Phillips had been appointed as manager after former manager Dennis Grenne stepped down. After a poor run of results and leaving Hemel Hempstead Town second from bottom in the

Southern Football League The Southern League is a football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from East Anglia, the South and Midlands of England, and South Wales. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven a ...

, in the relegation zone, Phillips was sacked from his post as manager. In March 2011, Phillips rejoined Barnet as a goalkeeping coach to aid manager

Martin Allen Martin James Allen (born 14 August 1965) is an English football manager and former player. He played more than 100 games as a midfielder for both Queens Park Rangers and West Ham United before finishing his playing career with Portsmouth and ...

and the club's battle against relegation back to the

Conference National The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National League (English football), National Le ...

. Phillips joined League One side

as the club's goalkeeping coach in February 2012. Phillips had previously been assistant manager at Stevenage, having served as Wayne Turner's assistant during Turner's brief spell in-charge of the club in 2002. The move reunited him with manager Gary Smith and assistant Mark Newson, who Phillips had previously managed at Aylesbury United. He left the club when Smith was sacked in March 2013. Phillips was previously a Youth Development Phase Goalkeeping Coach at

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

. He joined

as academy head of goalkeeping for the start of the

season.

Personal life

Phillips was born in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, where he was still living in 2006. He is married with three daughters. His father was a policeman.

Honours

;Barnet *

: 1990–91 * Third Division: third place (promoted) – 1992–93

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Gary Living people 1961 births Men's association football goalkeepers English Football League players Southampton F.C. players Chalfont St Peter A.F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Reading F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Aylesbury United F.C. players Aldershot Town F.C. players England men's semi-pro international footballers Barnet F.C. managers Grays Athletic F.C. managers National League (English football) managers West Bromwich Albion F.C. non-playing staff Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff Watford F.C. non-playing staff Footballers from St Albans English football managers English men's footballers Association football goalkeeping coaches