Michael John Twiss (born 26 December 1977) 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

midfielder 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 ...

. He scored 95 goals in 458 competitive matches in a 15-year career. Beginning his career with Manchester United, he enjoyed a

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

spell with

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

, without ever making a league appearance for the "Red Devils". He signed with

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

in July 2000, moving on to

non-League Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

Leigh RMI Leigh Genesis Football Club, formerly known as Horwich Railway Mechanics Institute F.C. (Horwich RMI) and Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute F.C. (Leigh RMI), is an English amateur association football club that currently plays in the South Lancas ...

a year later. In 2002, he

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies ...

red to Chester City, joining Morecambe two years later. He won

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into the

English 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 Engl ...

with both clubs, helping Chester to the Conference title in 2003–04 and playing for the "Shrimps" in their play-off final success in 2007. After six years with Morecambe, he moved on to

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population ...

via Stalybridge Celtic in 2010.

Career

Manchester United

Born in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, Twiss was signed as a trainee at Manchester United in July 1994, but despite turning professional two years later and being a regular in the

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 ...

from 1997 to 2000, he failed to make the grade at Old Trafford. On 25 February 1998, he made his debut for the first team, coming on as a 79th-minute substitute in the 3–2 defeat to Barnsley in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

fifth round replay at Oakwell. He won the Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year award for the 1997–98 season. Twiss made his first start for United on 13 October 1999, playing 73 minutes in the 3–0 defeat at Aston Villa in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

, before being replaced by

Richie Wellens Richard Paul Wellens (born 26 March 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently head coach of EFL League Two club Leyton Orient. Wellens began his career at Manchester United ...

. This turned out to be his last appearance for the club and, he was released at the end of the 1999–2000 season. He had a trial at

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

in February 2000 after being recommended by Philip Mulryne, but was not offered a

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manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Bruce Rioch Bruce David Rioch (; born 6 September 1947) is a football manager and former player for the Scotland national team. His last managerial post was at AaB in the Danish Superliga in 2008. As a player, he made more than 550 appearances in the Fo ...

despite scoring in his second

trial game. He later had trials at Preston North End and

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

Sheffield United (loan)

He spent most of the 1998–99 season on

with

in the First Division. His first senior goal came on 28 December, scoring a late winner over

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

in a 2–1 victory at Bramall Lane. He returned to Manchester United in March 1999, having only started four games for the Blades, coming on as a substitute 13 times.

Port Vale

In July 2000 he signed a one-month deal with

Brian Horton Brian "Nobby" Horton (born 4 February 1949) is an English former footballer and manager. He spent 16 years as a professional player and 22 years as a manager, making 689 appearances and managing 1,098 matches. In addition to this he spent four ...

, after impressing on trial. A regular at the start of the 2000–01 season, he fell out of favour in October. He played in Vale's

exit Exit(s) may refer to: Architecture and engineering * Door * Portal (architecture), an opening in the walls of a structure * Emergency exit * Overwing exit, a type of emergency exit on an airplane * Exit ramp, a feature of a road interchange ...

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office for National Statistics. ( ...

of the Isthmian League on 28 November, before being put up for sale the next month. With no takers, he was a semi-regular 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, ...

for the rest of the season. He was on the bench for the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

at Millennium Stadium, as the "Valiants" recorded a 2–1 win over Brentford.

Leigh RMI

He joined

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

club

in time for the start of the 2001–02 season. There, Twiss found himself at a more comfortable level and had a successful season at the club, scoring 15 goals in 34 games, becoming the club's top scorer.

Chester City

He joined Conference rivals Chester City for the 2001–02 season. He had a quiet season in 2002–03, but did make 36 appearances in all competitions. He did not play in either leg of the play-off semi-final defeat to

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

. The 2003–04 season saw Chester promoted as champions, Twiss scoring six goals in 31 games despite being absent in manager Mark Wright's first-team plans from October to January. In January 2004 Morecambe offered Chester £5,000 for his services, but the deal did not go through.

Morecambe

Twiss remained in the Conference for the 2004–05 season, signing with Morecambe in May 2004, after rejecting a new contract at Chester. Performing well at Christie Park,

Ian Rush Ian James Rush (born 20 October 1961) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward. At club level Rush played for Liverpool from 1980–1987 and 1988–1996. He is the club's all-time leading goalscorer, having scored a t ...

, now manager of old club Chester, offered Morecambe £50,000 for his return, a bid which was rejected. In March 2005 he was singled out for praise, due to his consistent scoring. Again a solid performer in the 2005–06 season, Morecambe crept into the play-offs, only to be defeated 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 ...

. Twiss scored 11 goals in the 2006–07 season before damaging medial ligaments in February. He did however, make it back in time for the play-offs, and was part of the Morecambe side that won the Conference play-off final 2–1 over

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. A long-term contract signed in December 2006 would keep him signed to Morecambe until June 2010. He helped Morecambe to survive in their first season in

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

, as they finished 11th and reached the semi-final of the Football League Trophy.

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

aimed to achieve his signature in July 2008, but did not get far.

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

attempted to sign him in August 2008, but this ended as Twiss wanted to stay in the

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

area. After gradually falling out of favour he was released by Morecambe in March 2010.

Stalybridge Celtic

Twiss was immediately snapped up by

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Syst ...

side Stalybridge Celtic, managed by ex-Morecambe boss Jim Harvey. Twiss made his debut for Stalybridge in a 1–0 defeat against

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

on 8 March. He went on to make a total of ten appearances for the "Celts" in the remainder of the 2009–10 season, playing in three victories and seven defeats.

Altrincham

In June 2010, Twiss signed a one-year deal with Conference club

. After sixteen starts and sixteen substitute appearances in

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. ...

, he signed a new contract the following summer, despite the club's

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

into the Conference North. He was released at the end of the 2011–12 season by manager

Lee Sinnott Lee Sinnott (born 12 July 1965) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently manager of Gainsborough Trinity. As a player, he was a defender for Walsall, Watford, Bradford City, Crystal Palace, Hudder ...

, after Altrincham failed to reach the play-offs.

Career statistics

Honours

Port Vale *

: 2000–01 Chester City * Conference: 2003–04 Morecambe * Conference National play-offs: 2007 Individual * Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year: 1997–98

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twiss, Michael 1977 births Living people Footballers from Salford English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Manchester United F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Leigh Genesis F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players Stalybridge Celtic F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players