Quinn back to his best

Sixteen games undefeated, the last nine of them with the same 11 players; seven wins in the last eight; 22 shots on target, four goals and three points against promotion rivals; a Sunderland striker scoring in six consecutive games for the first time since Brian Clough in 1962. Things are going so well at the Stadium of Light some Sunderland fans are already worrying about relegation from the Premiership next year.

Unduly confident assumptions and premature fears some might say, but there you go. On this evidence - by common consensus the best 90 minutes in the six-month life span of the new stadium - Sunderland are major contenders in a heavyweight promotion dash. Whether or not they have the strength and depth to survive should they reach the Premiership is debatable but, as Peter Reid said: "There is a long way to go."

Reid has money to spend should events take a turn for the worse, but in the meantime he and long suffering Sunderland fans can wallow in the knowledge that they are currently watching the most attractive side playing north of Blackburn. They are also glorying in the fact that at long last they have a regular goal-scorer again on Wearside.

Kevin Phillips - he of the Clough record - a £350,000 summer signing from Watford, registered his 17th goal in 22 appearances this season. His brace in the last nine minutes ensured Sunderland leapfrogged an impressive Sheffield United to go fourth in the table with a game in hand on their rivals.

Phillips was clearly pleased about that but seems just as happy that both of his strikes were "poacher's goals". This should not be faulted, nor should the manner of Phillips's celebration of his purple patch - a crushed velvet purple suit, a purple shirt and a purple tie. Nice.

"I think we're the best team in the Nationwide League," he said flatly, a statement Reid had resisted making earlier and of his striking partner Niall Quinn, Phillips added: "The big man's different class" - an exemplary Reidism. Now Quinn gets the Guardian delivered, so we have to be careful, but in truth he was at his elastic best here, scoring with a spanking half volley to cancel Dean Saunders's lightning volley, and then holding the ball coolly before setting up the industrious Alex Rae to make it 2-1.

Then Phillips struck, Gareth Taylor pulling it back to 3-2 within the minute, before Phillips finished an enthralling game with a header beyond the heroic but by then injured Alan Kelly. Kelly is a serious doubt for United's FA Cup re-play at Bury tomorrow.

Sunderland: Perez, Holloway, Gray, Clark, Craddock, Williams, Summerbee, Rae, Quinn, Phillips, Johnston. Subs Not Used: Mullin, Smith, Makin. Booked: Rae.

Sheffield United: Kelly, Borbokis, Nilsen, Ford, Lee (Taylor 71), Holdsworth, Saunders, Marker, Stuart, Deane, Hutchison. Subs Not Used: Beard, Fjortoft. Booked: Hutchison.

Referee: P Richards (Preston).