Neil Mellor

Preston North End In August 2006, Mellor signed a three-year contract with Football League Championship club Preston North End for an undisclosed fee, thought to be in the region of £1.5m. Manager Paul Simpson said, "Neil is a goalscorer and hopefully that will continue to be the case. He is a tremendous signing. He has had his injury problems but we are happy he is over those and it's just a case now of building up his fitness levels."

Despite the promising pre-season and Mellor being a favourite amongst sections of the Deepdale crowd, indifferent form led to him losing his place to new signing Jon Parkin. Mellor regained his place in the team in time to score in Preston's 3–1 victory away at local rivals Blackpool, but another injury saw him miss a number of games. He regained fitness for a match against former club Liverpool in the FA Cup 3rd round, which Preston lost 2–0.

On 2 July 2010, Mellor rejoined former manager Alan Irvine at Football League One side Sheffield Wednesday on a season long loan. Mellor played his first league game for The Owls on 7 August 2010 against Dagenham & Redbridge, coming on as a substitute in place of Clinton Morrison. He scored his first professional career hat-trick for Sheffield Wednesday on 10 November 2010 in a 4–1 win at Hillsborough over Hartlepool United in the Football League Trophy. He then repeated this feat just 10 days later in another 4–1 win, this time away against MK Dons in the league. After he sustained a minor injury against Carlisle United, Mellor struggled to regain form, and rarely started games. Mellor was eventually recalled to first team action against Colchester United in a game where he scored two goals in a 2–1 victory for the Owls. A few days later, he started another home match, this time against Tranmere Rovers setting up two first half goals, before winning a penalty, of which Owls captain Tommy Miller duly converted. Mellor scored the final goal of the match from a tight angle at the 90-minute mark.

Mellor scored his first goal for Preston North End since March 2010 on the opening day of the 2011–12 season, scoring their first goal in a 4–2 defeat to Colchester United at Deepdale. In the December of that season, Mellor picked up a knee injury in the 1–0 win over Milton Keynes and was ruled out for three months. After an injury-plagued season at Preston, Mellor announced his retirement on 9 May 2012.

After football After his retirement from professional football, Mellor returned to Liverpool to do media and commentary work with their in-house television company LFC TV.

Career statistics