“I’m built to be on the grass.”

Kenny Miller has never been one to shy away from a challenge and his latest coaching job at Huddersfield Town is another in a long career list.

The former Rangers striker was appointed as assistant coach to Terriers boss Mark Fotheringham at the end of November.

The West Yorkshire club, in the English Premier League not so long ago, find themselves at the wrong end of the Championship table.

It’s Miller’s first coaching job since departing Falkirk at the end of the 2020/21 season and despite impressing on the small screen as a pundit in the meantime, he admits it doesn’t quite compare to being back involved in the game.

“I’m loving it,” he told the Rangers Review. “I’ve been here about two months now and it’s been great. It’s been a frustrating period there as much as I’ve loved doing the media work and things I’m built to be on the grass. I love being in a group with players and working away towards a Saturday.

“You still get the buzz for the game on a Saturday. If anything it’s actually a bit different because you can’t affect it. Where you affect it is Monday to Friday. You’re trying to get the team prepared for the game that’s coming and trying to help players improve. It’s something I’ve tried to do more towards the end of my career as well when you’re a senior player in a dressing room.

“It’s a top level as well. The Championship’s a real tough league, it’s really competitive but it’s been really good to get back in.”

Miller knows more than most just how demanding the league can be. As a player, he scored in the play-off final to help Wolves defeat Sheffield United 3-0 back in 2003.

Fast forward almost 20 years and Miller finds himself trying to beat the drop at a Huddersfield side who are fighting for their lives. For Miller, the aim this season is clear - and that’s survival.

“It’s arguably one of the most competitive leagues in the world,” he said. “I’ve spent a good few years as a player in it so I know all about it. I know the demands of the schedule and I know the benefits of putting winning runs together and gaining momentum.

“And vice versa when it’s on the other side sometimes it’s hard to get out of these losing runs and you need a wee break, you need a bit of luck and a bit of fortune in keeping your key players fit over the course of a season.

“Survival and maintaining our Championship status is going to be the main objective. It’s not just us, there are another six or seven teams down there that I’m sure are having the same conversations but we’re only concerned about us. I think we’ve made big strides over the last few months in relation to the work the manager has put in to make us hard to beat and drilled defensively.

“He found himself in a real tough situation when he first came in. It’s not ideal coming in mid to the end of September when your transfer window’s just done and you’ve got three months until the next transfer window before you can be doing anything but he also found himself on the end of a real tough injury list. It’s not just any old injuries, it’s injuries to real key players.

“He had to find a way of setting the team up to get results and he's done it. The manager and I spend every waking minute together and we’re constantly talking about it. The challenges are great, they’re only going to help you moving forward to become a better coach or a better manager but they’re challenges that we love.

“We’re absolutely loving the role, we’re at a really good club, we’ve got a brilliant support network and we’ve got a great group of players who are giving us absolutely everything they’ve got. You couldn’t ask for much more. I think we’re heading in the right direction at the moment.

“We’ve managed to get back into a good position right in amongst it with quite a lot of teams. It’s in our hands, we don’t have to rely on other teams getting results. If we can handle our business then we’ll be fine and that’s all you can ask for.

“We’ve added a few players already like Matty Lowton who’s been a top performer over his career at Championship and Premier League level, same as Anthony Knockaert. We’ve brought Martyn Waghorn in who, since he left Rangers, has been a solid performer at Championship level with Ipswich, Derby and Coventry.

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“Waggy is one of a number who will provide competition to the lads that are already there in that area of the pitch. We’ve got Jordan Rhodes, another experienced striker, Danny Ward and we’ve signed Florian Kamberi. We’ve got a younger player who played at Swindon last year, Tyreece Simpson so we’re all fighting. We’ve got some good options up there now. Everybody brings something a little bit different. Waggy, in terms of the experience that he’s had. By playing with him I know him really well as a player but since he left he’s developed into a real solid performer at this level.”

Huddersfield’s appointment of Fotheringham was met with a few raised eyebrows given it was his first-ever managerial role.

After leaving Cowdenbeath as player-assistant manager in 2019, the former Celtic and Norwich City midfielder has coached in Germany with spells at FC Ingolstadt and more recently Hertha Berlin where he worked under ex-Fulham boss Felix Magath.

Miller says despite hailing from Dundee, Fotheringham’s coaching style is unique to those he’s worked with before.

“I’ve known Mark for a number of years,” he said. “He was an absolute top player and our paths crossed two or three times through our playing careers. He came into clubs that I was at to do a bit of training and you could see he was very good.

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“He’s a really demanding individual which I liked. He always put demands on himself and the guys that he’s playing alongside even when he was in on a trial period so I really liked the way he went about his business. We really got to know each other on the pro license. We spent a bit of time together over the last two and a half years and we were away in the summer at the Under 19s Euros and it just snowballed from there.

“He asked me if he was ever to get a job in the UK or even back over in Germany if I would be interested in teaming up with him and it was a no-brainer. We’re pretty similar in how we see the game. We both want to win. We both want to play the game in a similar fashion and we have similar mentalities as well about how we want to go about our business.

“It’s worked well and it’s been great to work with him. It’s been good to see a different way to actually train and coach because he’s very much had an education in Germany which has been invaluable for him.

“Obviously, he’s been a player in the UK for a number of years. He’s been brought up in a Celtic school in how to play the game but he has this German flavour not only as a player but as a coach and as an assistant manager as well.

“He’s got a bit of a different way to training. He sees the game maybe a little bit differently from a lot of the coaches that I’ve worked with as a player and a coach so it’s been great to see that side of it as well.

“He’s top level and he will be, I’ve absolutely no doubt about it. It’s been great to work alongside him in the last few months.”

Miller, too, has been on a unique coaching journey himself. Having spent time in Australia in between stints at Falkirk, Partick Thistle and Livingston.

Rangers Review: Kenny Miller in action during his time as Assistant Manager at Falkirk Kenny Miller in action during his time as Assistant Manager at Falkirk (Image: SNS)

His move to the John Smith’s Stadium represents another rung on his coaching ladder and it's one he’s relishing.

“I’ve been really fortunate with the guys that I’ve worked with,” he said. “When I took that role with Livingston back in 2018, there is no doubt I believed I could do it and things were going really well. I still wanted to play and focus a little bit more on that than taking a wee bit more of a relaxed position as a manager but I really enjoyed that.

“As much as I felt I was ready, you fast forward five years now I’ve been to Australia and worked with a really good guy and good friend of mine, Carl Robinson. It was great to work with him because he’s had a really good managerial career and coaching career in the MLS that expands about 11 or 12 years.

“You were always learning, working with him and in a different league as well. Then coming back to Scotland at the end of 2021, I got the chance to work with Martin Rennie at Falkirk who actually took me out to the MLS initially. Again, another wonderful club who have fallen on hard times over the last six or seven years but it was good to work with Martin.

“I’ve had good experiences, there’s been a lot of good things and some hard times as well but through the hard times you’re always learning. It’s never going to be plain sailing as a player or particularly coaching or managing. You’re going to face a lot of challenges, there’s going to be a lot of things that you’re going to have to deal with and it’s about how you can adapt and be flexible in your approach to actually find the best way to helping a team to win games of football.

“These are all the challenges that you face but do you know what, there’s not a better job in the world.”