Gary Mills

Gary Roland Mills (born 11 November 1961) is an English football manager and former professional player.

He played in the Premier League and Football League for Nottingham Forest, Derby County, Notts County and Leicester City and managed in the Football League with Notts County and York City.

He was recently the manager of club Corby Town.

Mills, who played as a right-back and as a midfielder, started his career with First Division club Nottingham Forest.

He became the club's youngest league player after making his first-team debut at the age of 16 in 1978.

He started his senior career at Forest under the management of Brian Clough, making his first-team debut in a 2–1 victory at home to Arsenal in the First Division on 9 September 1978, and in doing so became Forest's youngest league player at the age of 16 years and 203 days.

Mills signed a professional contract with Forest on 13 November 1978, two days after his 17th birthday, after serving his apprenticeship He scored his first goal for Forest with the opening goal of a 2–1 win away to Leeds United on 15 May 1979.

He finished the 1978–79 season, in which Forest were First Division runners-up, with six appearances and one goal.

Despite not participating in the 1979 European Cup Final at the Olympiastadion, in which Forest beat Malmö FF 1–0, Mills became the youngest player to win the European Cup at the age of 17 years and 201 days on the virtue of having made one appearance in the competition that season.

Mills played more frequently in 1979–80, making 20 appearances and scoring 1 goal, as Forest finished fifth in the league.

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

Due to an injury to Trevor Francis he started in the 1–0 victory over Hamburger SV in the 1980 European Cup Final, staged at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, and being aged 18 meant he became the youngest player to appear in a European Cup final.

He played in the 2–1 home win over Valencia in the first leg of the 1980 European Super Cup, but was not selected for the second leg which the Spanish club won 1–0; this meant Valencia became the first team to win the competition on the away goals rule.

Mills missed only one league match for Forest from February 1981 to the end of 1980–81, and finished the season with 34 appearances and 7 goals, with Forest placed seventh in the First Division.

He appeared more sporadically in 1981–82, making 17 appearances and scoring 1 goal, not playing more than seven league matches in succession.

Mills left Forest shortly before the end of 1981–82 to join the Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League in March 1982.

He joined the Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League in 1982 and played for them for one season, which culminated in a loss to the New York Cosmos in Soccer Bowl '82.

While with them Mills had a loan at Derby County, making 23 appearances for the Second Division club.

He returned to Forest in 1983, and made 168 appearances over two spells at the club.

He left for their rivals, Notts County of the Third Division, in 1987.

Mills then joined Leicester City in 1989, and after two unsuccessful forays into the First Division play-offs he helped them win promotion to the Premier League in 1994.

He soon returned to County, by this time playing in the First Division, after 232 appearances for Leicester.

Here Mills earned the last honour of his playing career, winning the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1995.

He retired from professional football in 1996 due to an injury, having made 159 appearances for County over two spells.

Mills started his managerial career as player-manager with Grantham Town in 1996.

He left the club after leading them to the Southern League Midland Division title in his second season.

He then served as player-manager at Southern League Premier Division club 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 Conference Premier 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.

Mills was born in Northampton, Northamptonshire to Roly, also a footballer, and Jean (née Frost).

As a youngster Mills displayed talent in multiple sports, being capped for England schools in both football and rugby union, and showed promise as a sprinter, running 100 metres in 11 seconds as an English Schools' Athletics Championships finalist.

Mills played for a local village team before being spotted by a Nottingham Forest scout at the age of 11.

Aged 14 he broke into Forest's reserve team, which played in the Central League.

Mills also played for Long Buckby's youth team, and was part of the team that won a national under-16 competition.