mills made his manchester city debut in the opening fixture of the 2004–05 season, a 1–1 draw against fulham at the city of manchester stadium. he started the majority of matches in his first season at manchester city, but was dropped from the first team when stuart pearce replaced kevin keegan as manager in march 2005. he regained his place for the start of the 2005–06 season, and on 2 october 2005, he scored his first and only goal for manchester city, a powerful shot from against everton. one month later, he sustained a shin injury which resulted in a fifteen-game absence. the injury coincided with the emergence of micah richards who deposed him as first choice right-back; after richards made his debut, mills made only five further first team appearances in the remainder of the season.