Kevin Miller (footballer)


Kevin Miller is an English retired football goalkeeper who last played for Bodmin Town in the South West Peninsula League.

Football career

Born in Falmouth, Cornwall, Miller was a product of the Falmouth Town youth scheme playing mostly in midfield before being persuaded to take up goalkeeping in the Combination League team by then manager Keith Rashleigh as a 15 year old. Miller joined Newquay and enjoyed great success including breaking the South Western League goals conceded record under manager Trevor Mewton.
Miller was then signed by Terry Cooper for Exeter City where he was a key figure in their Fourth Division Championship winning team, before following Cooper to Birmingham City, Crystal Palace, Barnsley, Bristol Rovers and Derby County, over an eighteen-year period. During this time he also spent three seasons at Watford, earning the Player of the Season award twice.
His move to Premiership side Crystal Palace from Watford in June 1997 saw the most expensive fee of his career being paid: £1.5million. He had been expected to sign for Nottingham Forest but the East Midlands club failed to agree a fee.
He initially retired from football in August 2005, but in February 2006 he was signed by Southampton manager George Burley, whose side was short on goalkeepers, with Bartosz Białkowski out with an injury, Miller was seen as cover for Paul Smith.
Miller displaced Smith in the first team and played the final seven games of Southampton's 2005–06 season, helping the team to five wins and a draw. This form was appreciated and the club offered him a one-year extension on his contract, which he accepted.
In January 2007, he signed a one-month loan deal with League Two strugglers Torquay United, making his debut on 26 January 2007 in the 4–1 win at home to Grimsby Town, United's first win in 20 league games. He returned to Southampton at the end of the loan spell and was released in May 2007.
Returning to non-league football, Miller joined Bodmin Town in October 2007. He retired from playing at the end of the 2014–15 season, aged 46 then decided to do another season at the club.