Clyde’s Head Coach, Stuart Millar, might be new to the job but he is certainly not new to the Bully Wee and he is already well known to the Managers in the Third Division as he was a team-mate of five of his peers at various stages of his football career.
Millar played Boys’ Brigade football with Queen’s Park’s Head Coach, Gardner Speirs, progressed to Celtic Boys Club duty alongside Albion Rovers’ Paul Martin, played as a youngster alongside Annan's Harry Cairney, shared a room with Elgin City’s Ross Jack at Dundee and took advantage of Stranraer Manager Keith Knox’s charges up the right wing when they played together for Clyde.
Whilst it is definitely a case of Friends Reunited for Millar when he comes across his old playing colleagues, his friendship with Clyde Director of Football, Neil Watt, is key to the success of the club. However, Millar tested it when he hesitated in becoming the boss at Broadwood and he knew the relationship was being strained when he did not hear from Watt for three days.
After playing with Speirs, Millar was a schoolboy signing, alongside Martin, at Celtic before moving to his local side Airdrieonians, as a 16-year-old and becoming the second youngest ever scorer for the club when he netted on his debut against Dunfermline Athletic at East End Park.
Bobby Watson had signed the player for the Broomfield club with Millar saying, “I had a great time there to begin with and we were a good First Division side. Bobby left and Ally MacLeod came in and we didn’t hit it off and I asked to get away.”
Millar moved to Blackpool on loan alongside Pat McGinlay and Martin Clark and after a short spell at Bloomfield Road, he received a phone call from Archie Knox asking if he wanted to join Dundee and play against Celtic at the weekend.
The move was not quite what Millar was expecting as he explains, “I did play against Celtic at the weekend but it was for Dundee Reserves at Parkhead. I never made a breakthrough there where ironically, the last three Managers of Clyde, Colin Hendry, John Brown and John McCormack, were all players as was Tosh McKinlay who was about Celtic the same time as me.”
“Ross Jack was there as well after joining us from Lincoln City and I shared digs with him.”
Millar moved to Montrose and was their top goalscorer thanks to help for his travelling companion Doug Somner who provided the transport to the Gable Endies’ games. Both players trained at Clyde during the week and the training sessions led to a move to the Bully Wee where he was Craig Brown’s last signing for the club.
“Clyde paid in the region of £15,000 to £20,000 for me,” joked Millar, before adding, “and the Board thought Craig had made such a mistake that he had to go!”
In reality, Brown was moving on to Scotland duty however, he took time out to write to Millar to explain what had happened. Millar said, “Craig explained he knew that he was leaving but that I would be a good signing for the club.”
The winger played over 100 games for Clyde, who were then plying their trade at their rented Firhill home with Millar saying, “Keith Knox was there with us during those gypsy years and we used to train at Strathclyde Park. The facilities the club has now at Broadwood is night and day compared to that.”
After three seasons at Clyde Millar, moved to Cyprus where he scored in the UEFA Cup for Evagoras Paphosand with typical candour he admits, “It was the best goal in seven as Steaua Bucharest’s six goals were pretty jammy!”
After one year on the sunshine island, Millar came back and played for Alloa Athletic before winning the Second Division Championship with Dumbarton where Martin was the captain and he played his final senior game at Stair Park.
Millar then turned Junior and he took over at Carluke Rovers in the summer of 1995 at the behest of the club’s great supporter Mrs Clara Kay.
He said, “She was a lady that just loved her football and she asked me to take over and I did without realising they had just finished bottom of the lowest League in the Juniors.”
Promotion was secured in three seasons and he then brought success to Cumbernauld United Juniors that were again languishing by taking them through three promotions in four seasons. Defender Alex Keddie, who Millar would work with again at Stranraer and Ross County, was the captain of the successful Guy’s Meadow team.
In 2003 a phone call came from an unexpected source when Watt, then General Manager of Maryhill Juniors and another former Celtic schoolboy, got in touch to say he had been offered the Stranraer Manager’s job. Millar said, “I knew Neil from my Celtic days, although as I always say he is older than me. However, we had met at a few Junior games but we were not great friends at that time.
“We took over at Stranraer who were in the Third Division with only one signed player. We managed to re-sign Allan Jenkins, Michael Moore and Fraser Wright and we brought in David Graham after he had been released by Stenhousemuir. We knew him from his Junior days at Dunipace so we were assembling a good squad.”
Stranraer raced away with the title and set a new points record of which Millar is still very proud of despite it being broken the following year by Gretna. He advised, “We spent about £120,000 winning the Third Division…….Gretna spent over £1.5 Million!”
The following season it got even better when back to back promotions were secured with The Blues securing second place behind Brechin City and promotion to the Third Division. Millar was glad to see the promotion in more ways than one saying, “With a dozen games to go, I required immediate surgery after an infection and I missed six games in a row. It could have been fatal, but here I am five years later and four stone lighter and I still do everything at one hundred percent.”
The following season at Stranraer was a struggle as Gretna swept in and took Jenkins and Graham, Wright moved to Kilmarnock with Watt and Millar announcing they would be leaving at the end of the season regardless of the outcome of their relegation dogfight. When the season ended, Stranraer sat above Brechin and ran Partick Thistle close in the Play-Off Semi-Final before the dreaded drop occurred.
The duo took a break from the game for almost ten months when Ayr United came calling and they marched back into action winning four of their last six League games to ensure Second Division safety. It was a club in transition and Millar never felt settled.
He said, “We inherited a talented group of players that were not gelling. The club was moving from a full-time to a part-time basis and there was resentment about that. We brought in four players that had secured two promotions with Stranraer however, that was probably too many as the Ayr fans were not convinced that these guys were good enough and coming from local rivals did not help.”
Millar continued, “We should have left at the end of the two month spell when we kept them up and I remember discussing that with Neil as things just did not feel right for us. Ross County were full-time in the League as were Airdrie United however, the expectations were that we would deliver promotion.
“We left in the October, although when we did the team were only one point away from a Play-Off place and we had also been in The ALBA Challenge Cup Semi-Final against Dunfermline.
“We were in charge for 21 games that season winning 9, drawing 6 and losing 6 so it is not exactly the disappointing record people may have thought it was.”
There was no ten month break this time with George Adams quickly on the phone asking Millar to help out the newly appointed Ross County boss, his son Derek. He said, “I have a good job outside of football and I was not going to turn full-time and move up to Dingwall but I agreed a role as their Chief Scout and Match Assessor.”
The information Millar was providing via e-mails and twice weekly chats with Adams Junior worked as the club secured the Second Division title with Millar given a medal for his part in the campaign. The second season the club reached the Final of The ALBA Challenge Cup and stayed safe in the First Division and of course, last season the club enjoyed a tremendous run in the Scottish Cup including beating SPL opponents, Hibernian and Celtic, to play in the Final against Dundee United.
Millar was made to feel part of the family in Dingwall saying, “My own illness did not affect me as much as the death of my brother did last year. We lost him to Motor Neurone disease aged just 42 and that affected me mentally and I was glad to have my work with Ross County at that time.
“I thought of stopping it at times but George and Derek along with big Craig Brewster helped me deal with things.”
A reunion with Watt was being rumoured last summer as soon as Watt took over the Director of Football role at Clyde and again last winter when John Brown left the club. However, Millar believes he would not be in the job now if the club had not slipped into the Third Division.
He advised, “Once it was known the club were being relegated, the Clyde thing cropped up again, but at first I was reluctant. I was enjoying my role at Ross County and I needed time to think things over.
“That is when Neil never spoke to me for three days, which is very unusual when you consider we both work for the same company, and to make matters worse, it is his company.”
“I had been looking in for a while and the job did not appeal when it was available last winter but it was slightly more appealing this summer. I eventually decided that I wanted back to the coal face and with a heavy heart, I decided to leave Ross County.
“I spoke to Neil to see if he wanted to be Manager again and I would assist him but there was so much needing done at Broadwood that it made sense for me to be Head Coach and for Neil to manage the affairs of the club and things have settled down that way.”
With the partnership in tandem again, Clyde have been installed as one of the favourites for the Third Division title which Millar feels is an unfair tag to place on his side.
He explained, “I can understand it because people will assume Neil and I know what to do because we have won promotion out of this division before but I think it is unrealistic.”
“There are 11 new players at this club, a club that has been in decline for years and budget wise, we are one of the lowest in the division. We have a great stadium, great pitch and location but we have lost potential targets to other clubs because of the wages we are paying.
“We are a big club that was close to the SPL a few years ago but we are paying the price for chasing that dream and it has to be said, we should never have been a full-time club.”
There is a strategy in place to change things with what Millar describes as ‘young and hungry’ players being targeted. He explained, “We have brought in Stuart Mills, Graham Girvan, JC Hutchinson, Iain Gray and Haydn Cochrane who have all got a point to prove after being released by full-time clubs. Ross McMillan is 27 but I class him as young and hungry as well as he has never been given the chance to play SFL football before.”
“I read recently that I was a rookie boss with rookie players which made me chuckle. The players may be inexperienced but I have had thirty years in the game, 15 as a player and 15 in managing and coaching so I don’t think I am that naive.”
Millar and Watt are a partnership that works because it is based on a culture of honesty according to Millar who said, “Neil will tell you that he is in charge and I will tell you I am the funnier of the two, but we are both as honest as each other. If you are honest in life you have a chance.
“Neil has been great for me, he is the most intelligent person I know and I have the greatest respect for him. He wanted to leave Ayr and I had a two and a half year contract with them but I followed him.”
“I am at Clyde because I wanted to work with Neil again and there was also a bit of an emotional tie because I played for Clyde. There are more people than Neil and I in this as we have a great coach in Gordon Wylde, who is a guy that stays in the background and coaches the players magnificently well. Rab Sneddon is here to be our Chief Scout and Match Assessor and also because he knows the Junior scene really well.”
Millar was asked what success would be for the team this season and he said, “Success for Clyde this season is to be competitive. The club have only won 18 League games out of 72 in the past two seasons and were knocked out of the three cup competitions at the first attempt last season. That is why defeating Cowdenbeath in The Co-operative Insurance Cup was so important a couple of weeks ago.”
“We are looking for a bit of pace in our play this year, a lot of passion and we need to give the fans something to cheer about. In saying that, I am extremely competitive and want to win everything I enter and I am like that even with my two children.”
Millar finished by saying, “This might not be our season but if success comes along, we will take it.”
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