[6][7] He played six more games in the starting eleven before losing his place; the arrival of Bob Hatton in October meant he failed to regain it.
[6] Birmingham's promotion to the First Division, and the establishment of Hatton, Bob Latchford and Trevor Francis as the forward line of choice, gave Phillips few opportunities in the first team, though he did score his first goal, in a 4–2 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in February 1974.
[5] In his first full season at Brentford, Phillips finished as the Football League's leading scorer with 32 goals and his partnership with Andrew McCulloch made a major contribution to the club's promotion to the Third Division.
[5] He scored 29 goals from 75 league games in this spell at the club, form which led to his inclusion in the PFA Fourth Division Team of the Year for the 1980–81 season.
The player showed his unhappiness at not being in the starting eleven, to the extent that Waiters threatened to send him home, but when England reached the final against their East German counterparts, Phillips came off the substitutes' bench to score the winning goal.