Paul William Millar (born 16 November 1966) is a Northern Irish former footballer, who was a former assistant manager to Mick McDermott at

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

club Glentoran. As a player, he played in

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

and attack. He started at Glentoran, moving on to

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

, before signing with Port Vale in 1988. Three years later he transferred to Cardiff City, and helped the Welsh club to top the Third Division in

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

. In 1995, he left the Football League to return to Ireland, signing with Linfield and later returned to Wales to play for Bangor. He won youth caps for his country, and also earned a Northern Ireland B cap. As a manager, he was appointed manager of Bangor, before moving on to Ballymena United. In 2005, he was made manager of Newry City, moving on to Glentoran the next season, and then returning to the management position at Bangor in 2007. In 2008, he was appointed manager at

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid ...

, before he left the club in April 2012.

Playing career

Millar started his career with Glentoran, after scoring 15 goals in 28 appearances, he moved to

. The young forward was selected as the Irish Young Footballer of the Year in 1986, and scored the winning goal in the final of the

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

. He joined Port Vale in the English Third Division for £20,000 in December 1988. After playing just one

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

game he seriously damaged his knee ligaments in training and after recovering finally made his debut at

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, ...

in a 1–1 draw with

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on 30 October 1989, coming on as a substitute. With Vale now competing in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

he struggled to gain a place in the first team and was loaned to Fourth Division side Hereford United in October 1990, returning to Vale the next month after two goals in five games at Edgar Street. Overall, he made 44 appearances for

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 "Valiants", though most of these were as a substitute. He was sold to Cardiff City for £60,000 in August 1991. He made over 100 appearances in four years under "Bluebirds" manager Eddie May. Cardiff missed out on the play-offs by three points in 1991–92, before winning promotion to the

as Third Division champions in

. Avoiding relegation by two points in 1993–94, Cardiff were relegated in 1994–95 after finishing twelve points short of safety. At this point Millar returned to Northern Ireland, signing with Linfield and then

. He later became a

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

, increasingly focussing on the management side of the game.

Management career

Millar had

roles at Bangor, Ballymena and Brantwood, where he gained his European A Coaching Licence. He took up a full-time managerial position at

IFA Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

side Newry City in November 2005, getting the club into the top six in his first season. Following the resignation of Roy Coyle, he was appointed as the manager of Glentoran in February 2006. Manager of the month in March 2006, he picked up the award for a second successive month after "Glens" secured second place in the league. The 2006–07 season started with Millar's side clear at the top, but a slump in the second half of the season saw them runners-up in the league for the second successive season. He was sacked in May 2007 after just 16 months in the job, he claimed he could "leave with his head held high" after securing a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

spot. A week later he returned to Bangor, but quit that post in May 2008 after claiming an eight-match suspension handed to him by the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

hindered his ability to manage the club. He was appointed as manager of IFA Championship side

in December 2008. He led the

Inver Park Inver Park is a football stadium in Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Larne F.C. The land was acquired by Larne in 1918 and has been in continuous use as a stadium ever since. In 2010 the official capacity was se ...

club to eighth and ninth-place finishes in 2008–09, 2009–10 and

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

. On 16 January 2010, fighting broke about between Larne and Newry City players and coaching staff, and Millar was sent off. An IFA Commission was set up to investigate the brawl, and Millar was handed a four-game ban, whilst the club were fined £1,200 and Larne player Anthony Lagan was suspended for the rest of the season. Newry chairman Paul McKenna condemned the lenient punishments, stating that the commission "bottled it", though the IFA ruled that they "acted fully in line with regulations and procedures". The fixture was abandoned and Newry were awarded a 2–1 victory. Larne finished tenth in 2011–12, and Millar resigned in April 2012 to take up the position as Gary Hamilton's assistant at Glenavon. After seven years at the club, Millar departed Glenavon on 2 April 2019 and returned to Glentoran as new manager Mick McDermott's assistant. In January 2023 he was no longer assistant manager as Mick McDermott stepped down from being manager at Glentoran FC.

Personal life

His son, Philip, died from a drugs overdose in 2017.

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

as a Player

Individual *Irish Young Footballer of the Year: 1986 Glentoran *

: 1986 Cardiff City *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following th ...

as a Manager

Individual *Northern Ireland Football Writers' Manager of the Month: March 2006, April 2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Millar, Paul Living people 1966 births Association footballers from Belfast Association football midfielders Association football forwards Association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland under-21 international footballers Northern Ireland youth international footballers Northern Ireland B international footballers Glentoran F.C. players Portadown F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Linfield F.C. players Bangor F.C. players Ards F.C. players Ballymena United F.C. players Brantwood F.C. players NIFL Premiership players English Football League players Association football coaches Association football player-managers Football managers from Northern Ireland Bangor F.C. managers Ballymena United F.C. managers Newry Town F.C. managers Glentoran F.C. managers Larne F.C. managers