Mellor, Neil

Neil Mellor is the son of former Manchester City player Ian Mellor . Neil began his career in the Liverpool youth teams and in the 2000/2001 season, he went with the Reds to the England Youth Cup semifinal, scoring 8 goals in four meetings during the tournament. He also often played for the club’s reserves and earned the nickname “Gerd” from his partners for being highly efficient, which at one time was famous for the legendary forward of the German national team Gerd Muller .

Despite the fact that in pre-season matches in 2003 he scored twice for the first team of the club, Gerard Houlier decided to send him on loan to West Ham United , but the injury he received, as well as the coaching leapfrog in the London club, did not allow him play there in full force. Neal returned to Liverpool, but was injured again before the start of the 2004/2005 season. He was able to recover quickly enough from her and took part in the League Cup match against Millwall , and then against Middlesbrough , whose goal Mellor scored two goals. In November, he entered the starting lineup for the match against Monaco as part of the Champions League .

On November 28, 2004, it was his finest hour - in the match between Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield Mellor, in the 90th minute of the meeting, he struck the goal of the guests with a stunning strike from 27 meters and brought his club a 2-1 win. After another 10 days, Neil forever entered his name in the history of the club. In the last match of the group stage of the Champions League against Olympiacos , Liverpool needed to win with a goal difference of two goals, but in the first half Rivaldo kicked the Greek club forward with a free kick. At the beginning of the second half, the substitute Florent Sinama-Pognol equalized, and in the 80th minute Neil Mellor appeared on the field. It took him only two minutes to score a goal, which gave Liverpool a chance for a successful outcome of the meeting. In the last minutes of that match, Stephen Gerrard scored the team’s third goal. The Reds won with a score of 3: 1 and, thus, reached the playoffs. And according to the results of the campaign, they won the Champions Cup for the 5th time in their history. Unfortunately, Mellor was injured shortly after the match with Olympiacos and did not take part in the playoff games.

In January 2006, Mellor was rented by Wigan until the end of the season and in his debut match brought the club a victory over Middlesbrough in extra time. However, he missed the League Cup final against Manchester United due to an injury and soon returned to Liverpool.

On August 30, 2006, Neal moved to Preston North End, but due to frequent injuries he did not play for the team too often.

May 9, 2012 became aware of the early completion of a player’s career. In December 2011, he received a severe knee injury in a duel of his current club against MK Dons. The damage was so serious that we are not talking about continuing a career. "I'm going to stay in touch with Graham Westley (Preston's manager) in case I suddenly stumble upon some magic tool. But if you really look at things, this is the end of my career," the Preston North End website quotes Mellor. .

• Player profile on Liverbird.ru (Russian)
• Player Profile and Statistics on LFCHistory.net
• Player Statistics for Soccerbase.com
• Interview with Neil Mellor on the BBC website
• [1] (Russian)