Player Of The Decade #4: Tommy Miller

Our countdown of the top 10 players of the past decade continues, remember you can leave your comments and favourite moments in the comment box at the bottom of this article.

4. Tommy Miller

Another product of Pools successful youth system, Tommy Miller broke into the first team end of the 1997/98 season and would soon establish himself as a first team regular.

Miller was a key source of goals at the start of the decade as Pools reached the play-offs in 2000 and 2001, finishing both seasons as top scorer. He was selected in the PFA Team of the Year in both these seasons and was soon attracting interest from a whole host of clubs in the top two divisions.

Premier League side Ipswich Town placed a bid for Miller and he made the switch to Portman Road for a club record £750,000. He would spend four seasons at Ipswich, playing in the UEFA Cup during his first two seasons, before returning to the North East to join Sunderland.

He spent two seasons at the Stadium of Light before rejoining the Tractor Boys in the summer of 2007. He ended another two-year stint with Ipswich with nearly 200 appearances and 47 goals to his name. He’d make the move to Sheffield Wednesday in the summer of 2009.

Since his departure from Hartlepool he’s yet to return to play at Victoria Park, the closet came in the summer of 2009 as his new club Sheffield Wednesday came to Pools for a friendly, however Miller missed the game through injury. A great midfielder with an eye for goal, many Pools fans hold the belief that Miller will end up back at the club at some point in the future.

Our Favourite Moment
After narrowly avoiding relegation at the end of the 1998/99 season Pools would turn the league on its head with a run towards the play-offs in the following season. Miller played a key role in the successful team with crucial goals against Peterborough and Barnet.

Click here for our Player Of The Decade page where you can find out more about the other players in our countdown