Exeter City: Overlooked figure deserves credit for Crystal Palace, Aston Villa success | OneFootball

Kevin Miller has been vital in identifying great keepers for Exeter City and he's proven to be worth his weight in gold since rejoining.

It’s fair to say that Kevin Miller is an Exeter City legend in his own right.

The former keeper racked up over 200 appearances for the Grecians in two spells, making his name in the title-winning 1989/90 team and signing off for the second time with final-day relegation from the Football League in 2003.

In-between that 14-year rise and fall of Exeter City, the Cornish keeper went on to make hundreds of appearances across the football league for the likes of Birmingham City and Watford, as well as playing all 38 games in the 1997/98 Premier League with Crystal Palace.

Given his obvious qualities, there was a feeling that Miller was doing us a favour by playing in that 2002/03 season.

After all, he had just spent the season before trying to keep Barnsley from being relegated from the old Division 1, just 12 months after he was named their player of the season.

He was clearly too good for City’s level, but not even he could stop the Grecians from being the first 23rd-placed team to drop into non-league because of the newly-introduced two up two down between the Conference and Division 3.

It seemed that was the end of Miller’s journey with the Grecians, but from nowhere he was plucked from managing South West Peninsula League side Okehampton Argyle to join Gary Caldwell’s newly-assembled coaching staff following keeper coach Scott Brown’s departure to join Matt Taylor at Rotherham United in November 2022.

Not only was it a popular move with the Grecian faithful, but it’s proven to be an absolute stroke of genius from Caldwell, who clearly identified his talents while he was helping out as cover following the Rotherham exodus.

Kevin Miller finds Exeter's goalkeepers

Caldwell has admitted he knows nothing about goalkeepers and leaves their scouting, training, development and recruitment to Miller.

The former City keeper has been smashing it out of the park in the latter department, and he’s been credited with the signing of Viljami Sinisalo on loan from Aston Villa last season and now Joe Whitworth this time around.

Whitworth, borrowed from Crystal Palace for this campaign, has been in stunning form and Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to Reading was the first League One game in six that he’s conceded in, and he’s prevented almost six goals this year – the most in the division.

The 20-year-old has been vital to City’s early-season success and his arrival is almost completely down to Miller.

"We've got a good goalie," Caldwell said on Sky Sports after City's 2-0 win over Shrewsbury last week. "Kev Miller deserves a lot of credit for not only finding him but working with him.

"He's a brilliant goalie coach, a great character, and has a brilliant environment with the goalkeepers. It's not just Joe but Shaun MacDonald is a big part of what we do as well within the club."

Kevin Miller's impact at Exeter

Miller is clearly worth his weight in gold to City in both the scouting and development department.

He has a growing reputation in the game and Sinisalo, who secured a big permanent move to Celtic in the summer, spoke in glowing terms of his coach at the end of his loan last season.

With anyone at Exeter City, the hope is that the good ones don’t get pinched by someone higher up the pyramid, but it feels like Miller would be happy to stay in his native West Country.

City have now had three loan goalkeepers in the last four seasons and all of them have been wildly popular at St James' Park.

The Holy Grail for Miller and City seems to be finding a quality keeper who they can convince to join permanently.

Maybe Caldwell and co have decided that having a different quality keeper on loan every year is better than a decent one that they can afford to keep for a longer period.

Whatever the reasons for the loanees, it’s clearly working and Miller should get huge praise for his role in spotting and signing these excellent keepers who are destined for big things in the game.

While he's already a legend for his exploits between the sticks for City, the job he's doing off the pitch could propel him to God-like status if he keeps working wonders with the club's keepers.