What Kalvin Phillips did when all his West Ham teammates had gone down the tunnel before Tottenham match

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Kalvin Phillips hit the headlines after West Ham suffered a 4-3 defeat on Tyneside last week.

The England international was introduced by David Moyes as West Ham led Newcastle 3-1 at St James’ Park.

However, the Magpies eventually turned it around to win 4-3 in a comeback that was ignited by Phillips giving away a penalty, to make the scoreline 3-2.

Angry supporters called the Manchester City loanee “useless” as he entered the West Ham bus, which provoked the 28-year-old into responding with an unsightly hand gesture.

Now, there was another interaction between Kalvin Phillips and West Ham fans before Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against Tottenham…

What Kalvin Phillips did before West Ham 1-1 Tottenham

Well, the Yorkshireman was seemingly keen to make amends for his hand gesture.

As other West Ham players returning to the dressing room at the London Stadium after their warm up, Phillips could be seen hanging around to sign autographs and take pictures with supporters.

The moment was also noticed by Darren Fletcher on commentary duty for TNT Sports.

“There is Kalvin Phillips being applauded by the supporters, and he did stop to sign some autographs and have some pictures taken when the others went in. I think it was a bit of a PR exercise based on what happened at the weekend, but full credit to him for staying out and doing that and spending a bit of time with the West Ham supporters.”

In fairness to the £45m man, this was nice to see.

Phillips must have been all over the place after last week’s 4-3 defeat to Newcastle, and surely felt guilty having kickstarted the comeback with that foul on Gordon, which Chris Sutton felt was definitely a penalty.

Footballers are only human, and his reaction to being called “useless” was a natural one.

What matters is that Phillips clearly cares about not wanting to be seen in such a negative light by West Ham fans, and immediately sought to put things right at the London Stadium on Tuesday.

Tough to see

Phillips made just two Premier League starts for Manchester City in the space of 18 months – so it was always going to be a big ask for him to immediately resume the levels he showed at Leeds.

Of course, he could have cut out a few silly mistakes since joining the Hammers, but we feel he is simply shaking off the cobwebs, and there is still a top footballer in there somewhere.

Hopefully, Phillips can show West Ham fans just how good he really is between now and the end of the season.