Chilling minute of silence for Liam Miller tribute match

Jack O'Toole

Teams of Manchester United and Celtic/Republic of Ireland legends bowed their heads in respect for former Republic of Ireland and Manchester United midfielder Liam Miller.

Miller passed away in February of this year after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He died just four days shy of his 37th birthday and is survived by his wife Clare, his two sons Kory and Leo and his daughter Belle.

A tribute match was arranged to raise funds for Miller’s bereaved family, Marymount Hospice and a fund for GAA charities in the Cork area with both legends teams lining out in Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh to celebrate the life of their former teammate and friend.

Watch from 34:18 for the minute silence.

An impeccably observed minute’s silence for the late, great Liam Miller pic.twitter.com/B8DYBHBu9o

— RedFM Sport (@BigRedBench) February 11, 2018

https://twitter.com/utdxtra/status/1044589029407289344

A host of former Manchester United players paid their respects to Miller with former teammate Alan Smith leading the tributes.

“It brings home reality. I signed for Man United on the same day as Liam. He was such a lovely family guy, just unassuming but so talented in every aspect,” Smith told the Manchester United website.

“It’s such a massive loss to everyone and obviously, we’d far rather not be staging the game at all – it’s so sad to even speak about it – but hopefully this match can be everything that everybody wants it to be.

“Liam’s death has touched the whole of football and now we have the opportunity to give as much adulation as we can to someone who we all lost much too soon.”

Former England international Wes Brown also paid his respects to Miller and said that the turnout for the tribute match was a testament to his character.

“Liam was a top man. When he first came to the club everyone could quickly see that he was a great lad, he got on with all the boys tremendously and when you look at the players playing in this game for him, it shows the respect he earned.

“It’s so sad, what’s happened, but the lads have all come together and we all want to pay a great tribute to him. It needed to be done – there was no other option. It’s one of the saddest things you can think about but we’ve all got together and everyone is going to see the level of respect is that is due to him.”