Miller has earned his stripes to join Rotherham challenge
AFTER playing for one team in red and white who learned how to defy the odds, Mickel Miller now finds himself at another entrusted with an identical challenge in Rotherham United.
If the former Hamilton Academical winger is as successful in South Yorkshire as he was in South Lanarkshire, then no-one will be complaining and the task of helping his new club consolidate in the Championship certainly sits well on his shoulders.
The 24-year-old was part of Accies side who fought tooth and nail against the big guns in Scottish football to retain their SPL status for the past two seasons to confound the critics.
Picking himself up and proving people wrong is also in the DNA of Miller, who cast aside rejection as a teenager at Millwall and QPR, to earn his first professional move north of the border at Hamilton – after moving six steps up the football pyramid from Isthmian League outfit Carshalton Athletic.
The Croydon-born player admits that the switch to Scotland and having to fend for himself was the making of him.
Miller, who had a spell at Jamie Vardy’s V9 Academy and a trial with Sheffield United before Hamilton offered him a deal in January, 2018, told The Yorkshire Post: “When I was at Carshalton, I went to Millwall, QPR and Sheffield United and they all did not work out.
“When you get knocked down, you just keep going.
“Going up to Scotland changed my life – going so far and at my first club as a pro. I would not change it for anything.
“Hamilton taught me so much about football and it made me into the person I am today. It was not easy and there were ups and downs you have to deal with in football.
“Literally, I was on my own getting on with it. It was hard some days, but you just learn to get on with it.
“The one thing I could say about the club (Hamilton) was that we knew how to dig deep and get some results.
“Rotherham will also be going in as underdogs.”
Miller’s strength of character and the earning of stripes after time on the unglamorous nonleague circuit is something that his manager will have quickly noted. In his playing career, Rotherham chief Paul Warne did the hard yards at Diss Town and Wroxham before moving into the professional realm many miles from home at Wigan and he might just see a bit of a kindred spirit in Miller.
The Arsenal-supporting winger, whose boyhood hero Ian Wright also cut his teeth in nonleague circles before making it big, added: “The manager is a nice guy and the players are all good.
“The manager’s whole passion for his team and players is so nice. I did not know that he came from non-league himself, so he can relate to me a bit. We had a little chat about it.
“My brother is also a big role model in my life. He is a business developer and I took the sports side and he took the academic side. All my family are buzzing for me.”
Asked for a word to describe his playing style, Miller quickly stated the word ‘explosive’.
It is something which will whet the appetite of Rotherham supporters, although his final hot-blooded moment in a Hamilton jersey was one to be glossed over.
His last appearance saw him dismissed in the victory over Kilmarnock. But it was a rare blot on the landscape for Miller, who was the subject of a failed bid from Hibernian in January.
Miller, part of an Accies side who won at Ibrox three days prior to his dismissal, said: “I see myself as an explosive winger who is creative.
“I loved my time in Scotland. I played at Celtic Park and it was crazy – such a good experience. But this is just another experience to see some of the clubs we will be playing next season.
“The move came very suddenly just when we went into lockdown. My agent contacted me and said that Rotherham wanted me. I always had it into my head to come back down south.”