Phil Church was a trainee with the Canaries at the beginning of the 1990s but had to share the youth team's goalkeeping spot with Nick Brown and then Andy Marshall . Born in Bridgend, Phil began his footballing career with Portsmouth but came to Norwich's attention playing for City Rangers in his home town of Southampton. Norwich offered him a trial but he opted to join Southampton instead. Released after a season with the Saints, Phil contacted Norwich for another trial and soon signed YTS forms. Whilst at Carrow Road, the Welsh FA made enquiries as to his availability to play for them

Phil didn't make the grade at Carrow Road and trialled for Stockport County in a pre-season friendly against Hallam on 30th July 1991. He then disappeared for a number of seasons until he resurfaced at West Ham working as a coach in their "club in the community scheme" for Tower Gateway. He later signed for St Albans City as cover for their injured goalkeepers but is no longer with the Martyrs. He then worked with West Ham delivering their football in the community schemes in Tower Gateway.

He spent some time as a regional coach for the Professional Footballers Associaton before joining Norwich as Head of Coaching for their academy.

Church was one of a number of departures, including Gregg Broughton and Darren Huckerby, from the Academy coaching structure in October 2018. Sporting Director Stuart Webber said of the Academy review: "When we reviewed it, it was obvious to me there was an issue with the discipline of players. A lot of these lads maybe don’t come from fantastic backgrounds, so we have to give them manners, where they might not have had a role model or a parent to look up to. We have to make them rounded individuals and from that the football builds. Players generally fail because, mentally, they are not in the right place. They all have the same physical and tactical capabilities. I believe we can teach players to be good professionals.You look at how the academy is measured and audited nationally and in terms of producing players we are not good enough. The facts are there. There are reasons for that. When you are in the Premier League it is not easy to blood young players, because the priority is to stay up. The same applies when you are in the Championship and going for promotion. It is a bit of vicious circle, hence perhaps why I am here now and able to look beyond Saturday to Saturday.”