Mills, Gary – Town manager had been Forest’s youngest player

Gary Mills (b1961)

GARY Roland Mills started his football career with Nottingham Forest and became the club’s youngest league player after making his first team debut at the age of 16 in 1978.

Born in Northampton, he played for a local village team before being spotted by a Nottingham Forest scout at the age of 11 and by 14 he had broken into their reserve team

He played in the victorious 1980 European Cup Final, which made him the youngest finalist in European Cup history.

He left the club in 1982 to join American team the Seattle Sounders and during his period with the club he had a loan at Derby County.

He returned to Forest in 1983 and left for rivals Notts County in 1987 having made over 130 league appearances over his two spells at the club. Mills then joined Leicester City in 1989, with whom he made 200 league appearances and helped win promotion to the FA Premier League in 1994.

He subsequently returned to County and after leaving in 1996 he had made over 120 league appearances for the club over two spells.

He started his managerial career as player-manager with Grantham Town in 1996 and after leading the team to the Southern Football League Midland Division title in his second season He resigned a week later in May 1998 as the club’s takeover by local businessman Reg Brearley included introducing his own manager, Danny Bergera.

He subsequently had a spell as player-manager at King’s Lynn from 1998 to 2000, which was brought to an end after he resigned.

He was appointed player-manager of Southern League Premier Division club Tamworth in 2001, before leaving to join the coaching staff at Coventry City in 2002. Mills was handed his first managerial role in the Football League with Notts County in 2004, but was dismissed several months after the club was relegated to League Two. He managed Alfreton Town of the Conference North from 2005 to 2007 when he returned to Tamworth. The club was relegated from the Conference National before Mills led them to the Conference North title in 2009. He left Tamworth in 2010 to become manager of their  rivals York City. Mills oversaw York’s victories in the FA Trophy and Conference Premier play-offs in 2012, the latter resulting in promotion to League Two. He was dismissed by York in 2013 before taking over at Gateshead, and after leading them to the Conference Premier play-offs in 2014 he was named the Non-League Manager of the Year. Mills took over as manager of their National League rivals Wrexham in 2015, but was dismissed the following year.