Samuel Thomas McMillan (born 20 September 1941) is a Northern Irish ex-

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 le ...

who played as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for various

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

clubs in the 1960s and early 1970s, including

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

and

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional association football, football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they wer ...

. Born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, McMillan started his football career with the Boyland Youth Club in Northern Ireland before being picked up by Manchester United at the age of 16. He signed his first professional contract with the club in November 1959, but it was not until 4 November 1961 that he made his first team debut. The game ended up as a 3–1 defeat by

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

, but McMillan was not disheartened and went on to score six goals that season, in which he played in 11 matches. McMillan's first season at Old Trafford led to him being picked for the Northern Ireland national team in the autumn of 1962. He played in two matches, against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in the 1963 British Home Championship, but failed to get on the scoresheet and only played for his country on one further occasion – an Under-23 international in 1964. With Manchester United, a similar story to his international career followed for McMillan in 1962–63. He only made four appearances during the entire season, all of which came before Christmas, and he was unable to add to the six goals he had scored in his first season. The same happened at the start of the 1963–64 season, and although United manager

Matt Busby Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager, who managed Manchester United F.C., Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 197 ...

offered to extend McMillan's contract by a year, the Ulsterman was desperate for first team football and he was sold to Wrexham for £8,000 on Christmas Eve 1963. McMillan scored a commendable seven goals from 20 appearances in his first season with Wrexham, but it was not enough to prevent the Welsh side from being relegated to the Fourth Division. In five seasons with Wrexham, McMillan scored a total of 52 goals, including a season's best of 18 in 1966–67, and was just one appearance short of 150 for the Red Dragons before being sold to Southend United for £6,000 in 1967. At Southend, McMillan was deployed in a more withdrawn midfield role than he had been with Manchester United and Wrexham, and so he scored just five goals in nearly 80 appearances for the Shrimpers. After just over two seasons with Southend, a £2,000 move to Wrexham's local rivals

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

followed, but he was released to sign for Stockport County at the end of the 1969–70 season. At Stockport, McMillan reverted to his old position in the forward line and amassed a total of 29 league goals in 74 appearances before a back injury forced his retirement in 1972.

External links

Profile
at Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats

at StretfordEnd.co.uk

at MUFCInfo.com {{DEFAULTSORT:McMillan, Sammy 1941 births Living people Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Manchester United F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players English Football League players People educated at Ashfield Boys' High School