such players as Mohamed Sissoko and Nigel Clough. After his retirement from professional football, Mellor returned to Liverpool to do media and commentary work with their in-house television company LFC TV. 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." Another knee injury suffered in a pre-season friendly against Bolton Wanderers required more surgery and delayed Mellor's debut for Preston. Mellor finally got his first goal for Preston in the 3–1 victory over Southampton in March 2007. Out of favour under the Paul Simpson managerial era, Mellor had to prove himself over again to new P.N.E boss Alan Irvine. Under Irvine, Mellor finally got going and scored nine goals under him after Christmas 2007. Mellor again showed his panache for the 30-yard volley on 30 July 2008 by scoring in similar fashion for Preston North End in their friendly against Motherwell at Fir Park, which earned a 1–1 draw for Preston. During pre-season 2008–09 Mellor scored eight goals. 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. 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. Sheffield Wednesday On 2 July 2010, Mellor rejoined former manager Alan Irvine at Football League One side Sheffield Wednesday on a