Brian O'Neil

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Brian O'Neil
Personal information
Full name	Brian O'Neil
Date of birth	September 6, 1972 (age 34)
Place of birth	Paisley, Scotland
Height	6ft 1in
Playing position	Defensive Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Retired
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1991-1997 1997 1997-1998 1998-2000 2000-2003 2003-2006	Celtic Nottingham Forest (loan) Aberdeen VfL Wolfsburg Derby County Preston North End	118 (8) 5 (0) 29 (1) - (-) 17 (0) 112 (5)
National team2
1996-2005	Scotland	7 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18/11/2006. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 18/11/2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Brian O'Neil (born 6 September 1972 in Paisley) is a former Scottish professional football defensive midfielder. O'Neil was forced to retire from the playing staff of Preston North End in October 2006, due to long standing injury problems.

O'Neil has enjoyed a decorated playing career starting at Celtic where he emassed 115 games scoring only eight times which signalled an end in Scotland and moved to Nottingham Forest on a loan period in 1997, it ended through injury, thus, he was sent back to Celtic. However, he moved to Aberdeen to get his failing career back on track, he scored twice in 29 league games.

He joined German club VfL Wolfsburg for £350,000 but didn't spend long there and moved to England signing for Derby County in 2000. A three year stint 18 matches without a goal meant he was released to Preston. In his 110 games and only five goals he did well with them helping them reach the Play-off Final in 2005 only to lose to West Ham United F.C.. His final game for Preston was the Play-off semi final defeat against Leeds United at the end of the 2005/2006 season before injury called time on his career. He is worshipped by many sections of Deepdale.

O'Neil played for his country seven times in all. He won a recall to the squad after 5 years away for Walter Smith's Scotland Squads in the early part of 2005. He won his last cap against Austria in a 2-2 draw in August 2005.