Although Wolves still have a vital league match against Fulham before returning to FA Cup hostilities, fans can be forgiven for dreaming once again of Wembley. For Lee Mills, who has played for both Wolves and Coventry and is now working for Wolves Foundation, it’s a competition that launched his career 30 years ago this week.
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Lee Mills enjoyed his finest moment in a Wolves shirt by firing home a thunderbolt in a giant-killing FA Cup win at Ipswich.
But it would ultimately end up costing him his lift home on the team coach.
The powerful striker and Andy Thompson had notched the first half goals which ultimately proved enough to secure a 2-1 victory for Wolves in the fifth round replay at Portman Road.
“It was only my third start for Wolves, and one of the others had been in the Anglo-Italian Cup, so it was definitely the biggest match of my career,” Mills recalls.
“I had scored in that Anglo-Italian game against Birmingham, but this one felt proper, and it didn’t get much better than that!
“It really was the moment which kick-started my career.
“Ipswich were in the Premier League at the time so it was a big upset, and I never thought I’d be involved in a game like that let alone score a goal.
“I was brand new to it all at the time, and after the game I was doing a media interview, and the coach went without me!
“I didn’t really know the protocol, a journalist asked me for an interview and so I just started talking to him.
“A phone call came back to the club from the gaffer (Graham Turner), asking where the hell I was, as they were well on their way back!
“He told me I had to get a taxi back but I think the fact I had scored meant I didn’t get into much trouble!
“And it was a goal which set me on the road to a decent career.”
It was quite a scalp for Turner’s Wolves at the time.
Then in the Championship, it was Wolves’ first win over top-flight opposition in a major cup competition since defeating Middlesbrough in the FA Cup quarter finals 13 years earlier.
The impressive performance and result also came just four days after a disappointing local derby defeat at home to West Bromwich Albion.
It was a special cup night, but also a little reminder, as the current Wolves crop approach a big tie of their own against a team from a division below a week on Saturday, that accidents can happen!
Whilst focus from head coach Gary O’Neill and his staff and players will currently be completely zoned in on Fulham in the Premier League, fans are already daring to dream of a return to Wembley, possibly twice, if they overcome Coventry – another of Mills’ former clubs – in the last eight at Molineux.
For the man himself, that night 30 years ago last weekend provided one of just four goals he would score for Wolves, and was certainly the one with the highest profile and significance.
His career would blossom later – he would go on to play in the Premier League and Europe – but how he originally broke through, and joined Wolves in the first place, remains a story all on its own.
Born in Mexborough in South Yorkshire, Mills initially made his name in semi-professional football with some prolific goalscoring exploits with Stocksbridge Park Steels.
This was combined with an apprenticeship with his local council during which he was also studying accountancy on a day release, and it looked like a desk job was where his future lay.
But one of his team-mates, winger Simon Howe, was attending a trial game at Walsall and the Saddlers needed a striker to make up the numbers, and so Mills went along as well.
He scored a hat trick for Walsall reserves against Wrexham, then returned home to notch four for Stocksbridge on the Saturday, and the scouts were circling.
“It was a strange time because everything happened so quickly,” Mills recalls.
“I had Wolves, Walsall and Coventry all interested in me after scoring all those goals, but it was probably a bit different to players now in that I wasn’t completely desperate for it to happen.
“I’d been quite happy planning my career in accountancy and doing well at non-league level, so I had to think a bit more than most as being a professional footballer wasn’t something I was actively pursuing.
“I remember speaking to my parents about it and my Dad said, ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’, which is advice I have used quite a lot since.
“’Go and try and become a professional footballer’, he told me, ‘and if it doesn’t work, go back home and start again’.
“And so it was, that on the one Wednesday I was sat behind a desk dunking my Kit Kat in a cup of tea, and five days later I had signed for Wolves.”
Opting to take his chances with Wolves, he couldn’t move immediately, as he needed to work a month’s notice with his previous employer. The sort of thing that happens in real life away from football!
“I did pretty much nothing for a month,” he admits. And who can blame him?!
That was in December 1992, and Mills was 22. Arriving into a Wolves striking department already featuring Steve Bull, Andy Mutch, Darren Roberts and Colin Taylor, he knew he would need to wait for his chance.
He did well for the reserves, finding the net at regular intervals, including one very early on against Aston Villa at Molineux in front of watching manager Ron Atkinson, who complimented him on his performance.
“Big Ron was obviously a massive figure in football – he ended up having two spells with Sheffield Wednesday from the area where I’m from – and I couldn’t quite believe he was coming up to shake my hand!” says Mills.
“All of that was really new to me given I had come into the professional game quite late – I think I ended up asking him for his autograph!”
It was into that 93/94 season that Mills enjoyed his first taste of senior football at Wolves, initially with substitute league appearances either side of that Anglo Italian Cup tie with Blues, a start in a League Cup win against Swindon and then that explosive performance at Portman Road.
He did enjoy a few starts towards the end of the season alongside the on-loan Guy Whittingham, and grabbed his first league goal in a 2-1 win against Tranmere.
By this time the manager who had signed him, Graham Turner, had been replaced by another, Graham Taylor, and the following campaign proved to be Mills’ last at Molineux as new faces arrived and his opportunities became limited.
But given Wolves were very much a learning curve for Mills, he looks back with gratitude at how much he learned from his double dose of GT!
“Graham Turner was the manager who took me to Wolves and gave me my first chance and you don’t forget those sorts of things,” he reflects.
“It’s funny because he was also my last manager when I went into non-league and finished my career with Hereford when he was in charge there.
“He taught me a lot about the way to play at a professional level.
“And then Graham Taylor came in who was probably one of the biggest influences of my career.
“Going to Wolves from non-league, I was still doing a lot of stuff ‘ad-hoc’, there was no rhyme or reason to how I played and the runs I was making.
“Graham Taylor simplified things for me, telling me where I needed to be when the ball was in certain positions.
“He must have seen something in me because he took me away for pre-season in Sweden, and did a lot of work on my runs, making sure I didn’t waste any energy – he was brilliant for me.
“It was about five years later when I was at Bradford that we played Watford when Graham was in charge there, and I scored as we beat them 2-0.
“I was doing an interview and he walked past me and told me that all the things he had taught me had come back to haunt him!
“I stopped and thanked him there and then, because if it wasn’t for him then everything I achieved after Wolves probably wouldn’t have happened.”
It was with Bradford that those successes came along, particularly on one occasion to the detriment of his former Molineux home.
Leaving Wolves for Derby, it was at Port Vale where Mills hit the goalscoring trail on a regular basis to earn a move to the Bantams, becoming the first ever £1million signing in their history.
He plundered 24 goals in his first season, helping the club secure promotion to the Premier League, forming a deadly partnership with Robbie Blake.
And he had already scored against Wolves at Valley Parade before the final fixture of the regular season, returning to Molineux with Bradford needing a win to secure their promotion, and Wolves a result to cling onto sixth place and the play-offs.
Bradford ran out 3-2 winners to achieve their Holy Grail, whilst Wolves were agonisingly pushed into seventh and another season of Championship purgatory.
Mills grabbed Bradford’s second goal, in front of the North Bank.
“I often get asked about that game and yes, it was obviously one of the pinnacles of my career,” he admits.
“But it wasn’t about trying to rub it in, or prove a point, that certainly wasn’t the case.
“It was bittersweet really because I was going back to my old club and I was desperate to get promoted but I still had an affinity with Wolves and looked out for their results.
“It was a hell of a game, and I was on edge for a lot of it, but to score a goal back at Molineux where it all started for me, and help Bradford win promotion, well that was pretty perfect.”
And so, from Stocksbridge Steels to the Premier League, Mills’ dream journey was complete.
He added another five goals in the Premier League, and then played – and scored – in European competition in the Intertoto Cup. It had been an incredible story.
There was still time to represent some big and high-profile clubs – Manchester City, Portsmouth, Coventry and Stoke – and then in non-league with Telford and Hereford before, at 35, hanging up his boots.
And now, if you talk about his career going full circle in starting and finishing under Turner, there is an additional layer with him having a base back at Molineux, working for Wolves Foundation, the club’s official charity.
After wrapping up playing, he initially launched a business away from football, before completing his coaching badges and managing back in non-league with Bridgnorth Town and Ellesmere Rangers.
A focus on helping young talent to develop their skills then saw him take up a post at Dudley College, with links where he could recommend talented players to Stourbridge, before, 18 months ago, he arrived at the Foundation.
Mills works as a Football & Education coach within the charity’s Football & Education Academy, working with students on the BTEC Sport programme run in partnership with the City of Wolverhampton College.
This includes the team playing regular fixtures against other clubs following the same programme, and, last year, Mills’ team and another from the Foundation both won their respective leagues, receiving the trophy whilst attending the Championship play-off final between Luton and Coventry at Wembley.
“I think back to when I came through and someone gave me a chance and being able to coach young players is an opportunity I really enjoy,” he admits.
“I am out there working on the grass most of the time which is great – when you have been involved in football that is all you want to do, trying to pass on your knowledge and experience.
“It was great to win that league last year but results haven’t quite been the same this season – we’ve got eight or so games left and probably need to win all of them!
“But I’m still enjoying it, and enjoying being back at Wolves.
“The club now is very different to how it was when I was here before with how the facilities have developed and the number of staff.”
Office chat has already turned to the forthcoming FA Cup tie which is a tricky conversation for Mills because he has fond memories of both clubs, Wolves for launching his career and Coventry for the overall experience when the game was changing and players were doing more work off the pitch to be prepared for a matchday.
He probably can’t lose whatever happens a week on Saturday, although the location of his workplace probably demands the hope and expectation that someone in gold and black can follow his example of three decades ago at Portman Road.
“When I first came to Wolves as a player it was all new to me, and I got up every morning and looked at it as an adventure,” he reflects.
“Playing football every day, travelling to away games, staying in hotels where I would take pictures as I didn’t quite think it was for real? Amazing.
“Now many years later I am back again in a very different role and I couldn’t have written the script better if I had tried – it’s been brilliant.”
Main picture courtesy Wolves Foundation
