Tommy Miller: Profile


By Aston
September 6 2004

Midfielder Tommy Miller is enjoying his second spell at Portman Road after being told he was not needed by the club when he was only 15.

Miller Profile

Midfielder Tommy Miller is enjoying his second spell at Portman Road after being told he was not need by the club when he was only 15.

After leaving Portman Road he joined Hartlepool United where he scored 44 goals in just over 152 appearances, a strike rate of about 1 goal in every 3 and half games, Miller finished as the pool’s top scorer both the 1999/2000 and 2000/01 seasons, before then Town manager George Burley bought him back to Portman road in the summer of 2001 after town’s 5th place premier league finish.

During his first season as a professional at Ipswich Miller made just 7 starts and 6 appearances from the bench, but town’s return to division one 2002 allowed Miller to start games and score goals, making 28 starts and a further 7 appearances from the bench scoring 10 goals, two of which came in the UEFA cup campaign of the 2002/2003 season.

Last season was Miller’s most successful in a town shirt he scored 12 goals and help lift town into the play-offs, but for the third time in his career Miller tasted the bitter taste of play off defeat having tasted it twice while at Hartlepool. That season lead to Miller to the verges of an international call up for Berti Vogts Scotland side and has been named in the squad for two Scotland games, the first was a “futures” squad to play Turkey at the back end of 2003 and the second was to play Wales in February 2004 but injury forced him home early on both occasions.

Miller how ever is not certain that he wants to play for Scotland or if it’s the right thing to do, saying: “I will then have to sit down and make a big decision. It will be a fantastic opportunity for me, there is no doubt about that.


“Matt Holland qualified for the Irish through his grandparents and I don't think he had even been to Ireland before he played for them and look where it took him.


“He's played and scored in the World Cup, becoming a national hero in the process, and has gone on to play against some of the best players in the world.


“I am fully aware of what playing for Scotland could lead to one day, maybe, but in my heart of hearts I have to be 100 per cent sure that it's the right thing for me to do.


“I was brought up in the north east and, while I know I am a million miles away from playing for England, I still have to be sure that nailing my colours to Scotland's mast is right for me.


“At the moment I am totally undecided, but I guess I will have to make a decision very soon.”.

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