It was a good time to be a Sunderland fan in 1999, when Peter Reid’s team was rampant in Division One. Sitting on top of the table by the Easter weekend, the team was looking for ten games without defeat and another step closer to promotion to the Premiership.
We had only lost three games all season, and it was clear to see how exciting things were at Wearside at this time when 41,000 fans turned up to the Stadium of Light for the game against West Brom - who were managed by former Sunderland boss Denis Smith.
From the off, Baggies goalkeeper Phil Whitehead was in for a tough day at the office, where we ramped up the pressure. It only took over twenty minutes for Reid’s men to break the deadlock with two of our key men in Niall Quinn and Kevin Phillips, combining once again.
A diagonal ball from Mickey Gray was knocked down by Quinn towards Phillips, who took one touch and volleyed it into the back of the net from outside the box.
The momentum was with us now, and with West Brom reeling from the concession of this goal, we doubled our lead less than four minutes later.
After Whitehead made a magnificent save from a point-blank Quinn header, a move involving Chris Makin and Phillips saw Lee Clark teed up outside the box where he walloped a shot into the top corner with Whitehead nowhere to be seen.
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With a young Kevin Kilbane along with the country’s top scorer Lee Hughes in West Brom’s ranks, the Baggies tried to create chances of their own but were repelled by a solid Sunderland defence.
Just after half time, we struck a third to put the game out of sight when a cracking cross from Nicky Summerbee found Phillips at the back post whose header had just enough amount of power to get it past Whitehead.
The third killed the game off, and things were looking rosy on Wearside with the victory putting Sunderland twelve points clear at the top of Division One with just seven games of the season remaining.
Two games later, the promotion would be sealed at Bury where Phillips would hit four in a 5-2 win.
Five wins and two draws before the season’s end would see out what was a memorable season for everyone involved, with Sunderland a team to watch with the goalscoring pair of Quinn and Phillips showing the form of their lives.