Matthew Phillips (born 13 March 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger, forward or left wing-back for EFL Championship club Oxford United.
Born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, to a Jamaican-born father of Barbadian descent and a Scottish mother, Phillips began his career at Wycombe Wanderers before a move to Blackpool, spending a spell on loan at Sheffield United.
Having progressed through Wycombe's junior sides, he made his first team debut as an 82nd-minute substitute, a month after his seventeenth birthday, on 26 April 2008 in a 1–0 defeat to Notts County, the penultimate game of the 2007–08 season.
[7] Phillips went on to make a massive contribution to the Chairboys promotion from League Two in the 2008–09 season, becoming a regular on either the left or right wing, impressing with his ability to take on defenders and to cut inside.
[9] Phillips signed for Premier League club Blackpool on 31 August 2010 in an original £350,000 deal, rising to £700,000 for achieving specific criteria.
[16] After a successful spell on loan at Sheffield United, Phillips scored a hat-trick in Blackpool's Boxing Day 3–1 victory at Barnsley.
[19] In the week before the start of the 2012–13 season Blackpool rejected a £5 million bid for Phillips from newly promoted Premier League side Southampton.
[20][21] With first-team opportunities proving limited, Phillips agreed a months loan to Sheffield United in October 2011,[22] making his début in the Steel City Derby a few days later.
Phillips had a major impact in his month spell, scoring six goals in six appearances for the South Yorkshire club before returning to Bloomfield Road.
[23] On 23 August 2013, Phillips signed for Queens Park Rangers on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee[24] and was handed the number 7 shirt.
He opened the scoring in the fourth minute and also set up a goal for Albion captain Darren Fletcher, helping the team to establish a 3–0 first half lead,[30] in a game which ended as a 4–0 win.
In May 2010, after initially being named as a standby, Phillips was called into the England under-19 squad for their upcoming European Championship Elite qualifying round matches.
[44] Phillips finally made his Scotland debut in a 5–1 friendly loss to the United States on 26 May 2012 at EverBank Field, Jacksonville, Florida.