Sammy McMillan

Name: Samuel Thomas McMillan
Born: 20 September 1941, Belfast
Height: 5.09 ft
Weight: 11.08 st
Position: Inside-Forward

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 2 Caps (1962), 1 Under-23 Cap (1964).

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup
Boyland Youth Club			Youth
Manchester Utd	61/62-62/63	Nov-59	Youth	15(0)/ 6
Wrexham	63/64-67/68	Dec-63	£8,000	149(0)/52	5(0)/3	5(0)/0
Southend Utd	67/68-69/70	Sep-67	£6,000	76(4)/ 5	5(0)/1	7(0)/5
Chester	69/70	Dec-69	£2,000	16(2)/ 0
Stockport Co.	70/71-71/72	Jul-70	Free	74(0)/29	3(0)/2	3(0)/0
Oswestry Town			Free	(Cheshire County League)
TOTALS			£16,000	330(6)/92	13(0)/6	15(0)/5

Biography:
A product of the famous Boyland club, Sammy McMillan joined the staff at Manchester United as a promising 16 year-old, signing his first professional contract in November 1959. Although he showed immense promise in his early days, he had to wait until November 1961 for his debut. Though his first appearance resulted in a 3-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, McMillan soon hit form. Switching between his favoured inside-forward role, outside-left and centre-forward, he used his pace to great effect and found the net six times in his first eleven games.

Capped twice while with Manchester United, firstly as stand-in for Derek Dougan at centre-forward, then at inside-right in the autumn of 1962. Both matches ended in heavy Home Nations defeats by England and Scotland and proved to be his only Full international recognition. After his initial impact at Old Trafford McMillan fell behind a slew of other talented forwards, and on Christmas Eve 1963 he moved to Wrexham in an £8,000 deal.

In his first season at the Racecourse McMillan scored seven League goals from twenty appearances, just could not enough to stave off relegation to Division Four. Small consolation was gained with an appearance for the Northern Ireland Under-23 team in a 3-3 draw with Wales in February 1964. Although his goalscoring form showed over the following few seasons – he finished with a career best 18 in 1967 – Wrexham never seemed likely to regain their Third Division status, and suffered the ultimate ignominy of finishing rock bottom of the Football League in 1966.

In September 1967 McMillan joined another Division Four side, Southend United, for £6,000. He was deployed in a deeper, more modern, midfield position at Roots Hall. He made a cut-price £2,000 move to Chester City in December 1969, but he lasted just six months before he was released to sign for Stockport County. At Edgeley Park McMillan again found himself employed as a goalscorer but a back injury forced his retirement from the professional game in 1972.

Northern Ireland Cap Details:
20-10-1962 England. H L 1-3 BC
07-11-1962 Scotland A L 1-5 BC

Summary: 2/0. Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 2.

Northern Ireland Under-23 Cap Details:
05-02-1964 Wales... H D 3-3 FR

Summary: 1/0. Won 0, Drew 1, Lost 0.