Rowan Lee Mills (born 10 July 1970) is an English former
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
who played as a
striker.
In a career spanning fourteen years he made 293 appearances in the
Football League, scoring 86 goals. He played for numerous clubs and was transferred for some big money moves; totalling around £2 million. Arguably his most successful period came at
Port Vale and
Bradford City
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes.
...
in the late 1990s. He helped Vale to their highest post-war finish in the league, whilst he helped Bradford win promotion into the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
.
Playing career
Born in
Mexborough
Mexborough is a town in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. Situated between Manvers and Denaby Main, it lies on the River Don close to where it joins the River Dearne, and the A6023 road runs through the town. It is contiguo ...
, Mills started his career with
Stocksbridge Park Steels before being brought to the
Football League with
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
, and
Derby County
Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group.
Founded in 188 ...
.
In July 1995, he joined
John Rudge
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
's
Port Vale as Derby paid £475,000 plus Mills in exchange for
Robin van der Laan.
He made his debut for the "Valiants" as a
substitute on 13 August 1995, in a goalless draw with Derby at
The Baseball Ground.
At the end of
the season Derby were
promoted, but Vale finished in twelfth spot. On 13 October 1996, he came off the bench at the
Victoria Ground
The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League.
History ...
to score a last minute equaliser in a
Potteries derby
In English football, the Potteries derby is the local derby between the two major clubs in the city of Stoke-on-Trent – Port Vale and Stoke City, first contested in 1882. Port Vale play at Vale Park whilse Stoke play at the bet365 Stadium, the ...
game with
Stoke City. He finished the
1996–97 season with fifteen goals and was handed the club's
player of the year
Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award.
Association football
In association football, this award is he ...
award as the club posted their
highest post-war finish – eighth place in the First Division.
During the
1997–98 season Mills was the
club's top scorer with 16 goals, as Vale narrowly avoiding relegation.
Mills became
Bradford City
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes.
...
's
first £1 million player when
Paul Jewell
Paul Jewell (born 28 September 1964) is an English football manager and former player, who was most recently director of football at Swindon Town.
Jewell began his playing career with Liverpool, continued at Wigan Athletic and concluded in a ...
purchased him in preparation for the
1998–99 season. Mills made a large contribution to Bradford's promotion to the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
, becoming the
club's top scorer with 24 goals. He also scored on his return to
Vale Park
Vale Park is a football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It has been the home ground of Port Vale F.C. since 1950.
The ground has seen its capacity go up and down, its peak being 42,000 in 1954 against Blackpool, although a club record 49, ...
, perhaps with a point to prove after a Vale programme article described him as "poor" and his touch as "frequently awful". The
1999–2000 season was a poor one for Mills, scoring just six goals as he was troubled with injury and had a falling out with manager
Paul Jewell
Paul Jewell (born 28 September 1964) is an English football manager and former player, who was most recently director of football at Swindon Town.
Jewell began his playing career with Liverpool, continued at Wigan Athletic and concluded in a ...
. He spent March 2000 on loan with First Division
Manchester City. His poor form left him labelled as a "forgotten man" when he scored twice in the
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
UEFA Intertoto Cup against
Lithuanian side
FK Atlantas
FK Atlantas was a Lithuanian football team from the port city of Klaipėda.
The club's name has changed several times. It was established in 1962 as ''Granitas'', and became ''PSK Aras'' in 1993. Since 1996, when FK Sirijus Klaipėda was ab ...
. New manager
Chris Hutchings put Mills on a list of seven "underachievers", with a warning that a continuation of poor form would see those players released. Hutchings' reign lasted only a further four months. However, in that time Hutchings had sold Mills to
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
for a club-record £1.25 million, to make way for
Ashley Ward. Pompey later struggled to pay the fee and were put on a transfer embargo by the
FA.
He scored five goals in 27 games during the
2000–01 season. He played just two games
the following season before a one-month loan to
Coventry City
Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...
in December 2001 soon turned into a £250,000 move at the end of the year. He aimed to fire the "Sky Blues" to the
play-offs
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
, though
the season ended with Coventry occupying 11th spot. By some measure of
irony he played at
Fratton Park in a Portsmouth shirt,
Graham Barber having deemed both Coventry strips were too similar to Pompey's home strip forced the side to borrow Portsmouth's orange away strip.
In July 2001 he
broke his arm in a "freak" training ground incident, this came after recently recovering from a potentially career threatening knee injury. He came back later in
the season with "a bang", Mills saying: "I've come in and done OK and let's hope that continues." He was soon battling with an ankle injury, choosing to take injections to avoid time on the sidelines. In February 2003, following a one-month loan with
Tony Pulis
Anthony Richard Pulis (; born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday.
Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 21 – making him on ...
'
Stoke City, where John Rudge was now Director of Football, he signed for the "Potters" on a permanent basis. The next month he was involved in a traffic collision on the
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at ...
and escaped with only minor injuries.
In July 2003 he signed with
Telford United. Manager
Mick Jones was clearly delighted with the capture, stating: "I don't want to put too much pressure on Lee but I am hopeful he might have the same kind of impact as
Alan Shearer had when he moved from
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
to
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
". After eleven goals in thirty games, Mills tore his ankle ligaments during a training accident, keeping him out of action for three months.
Following the collapse of Telford United there was a race to Mills' signature, which was eventually won by
Hereford United
Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...
.
Graham Turner
Graham John Turner (born 5 October 1947) is an English former footballer who became a manager. His son Mark was also a professional footballer. He is third behind only Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger in terms of most games managed.
After a ...
having signed Mills,
Mark Robinson and
Jonathan Gould
Jonathan Alan Gould (born 18 July 1968) is a football coach and former professional player who is a goalkeeping coach for Stoke City.
As a player, he was a goalkeeper from 1989 until 2009 playing for numerous clubs, notably in the Premier Le ...
, looked to improve upon
2003–04's second-place finish, which saw the "Bulls" agonizingly close to automatic promotion to the Football League. Nine league goals from Mills in the
2004–05 season could not help United catch runaway champions
Barnet, for a second consecutive season they crashed out in the play-off semi-finals. Four of his goals had come in the first two months, despite starting just five matches. Mills was released after the semi-final defeat, as was fellow veteran
Graham Hyde
Graham Hyde (born 10 November 1970) is an English football manager and former professional player.
As a player, he was a midfielder from 1988 to 2008. He spent seven top-flight seasons with Sheffield Wednesday (six in the Premier League) and pl ...
.
Managerial career
In December 2009, Mills was linked to the management position at
Midland Football Alliance
The Midland Football Alliance was an English association football league for semi-professional teams. It covered Leicestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and also southern parts of Derbyshire and Not ...
club
Rocester.
In May 2010 he was confirmed as new manager of Midland Football Alliance club
Bridgnorth Town. However at the end of the 2010–11 season, Mills and his assistant
Tony Dinning resigned from their posts at Bridgnorth Town, citing a wish to move on to a new challenge.
After missing out on the vacant management position at
Stafford Rangers, Mills was instead appointed as assistant manager at Bridgnorth's league rivals
Ellesmere Rangers. He quit the club in January 2012, due to other commitments. He coached at
Dudley College and was appointed as Academy team manager at
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The ...
in May 2018.
Career statistics
Honours
Individual
*
Port Vale F.C. Player of the Year
The Port Vale Player of the Year award is voted for annually by Port Vale's supporters in recognition of the best overall performance by an individual player throughout the football season. Towards the end of each season, fans are invited t ...
:
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
Bradford City
*
Football League First Division second-place promotion:
1998–99
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Lee
1970 births
Living people
People from Mexborough
Footballers from Doncaster
English footballers
Men's association football forwards
Port Vale F.C. players
Bradford City A.F.C. players
Coventry City F.C. players
Derby County F.C. players
Hereford United F.C. players
Manchester City F.C. players
Portsmouth F.C. players
Stoke City F.C. players
Telford United F.C. players
Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players
Stocksbridge Park Steels F.C. players
Premier League players
English Football League players
National League (English football) players
English football managers
A.F.C. Bridgnorth managers