Raymond Thomas Harford (1 June 1945 – 9 August 2003) was an English
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
, better known for his successes as a coach and manager than as a player. He is considered to have been one of the top coaches of his generation.
During his playing days he was a
centre-half
In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring.
Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...
, and made 354 league appearances in an eleven-year career in the
Football League. He began at
Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...
as a youth player in 1960, though only managed three league appearances before his departure in 1966, when he joined
Exeter City
Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...
. He then moved on to
Lincoln City, making 161 league appearances for the club before his departure to
Mansfield Town
Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...
. He was bought by
Port Vale
Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...
for a £5,000 fee in December 1971, who then sold him on to
Colchester United
Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...
in February 1973 for £1,750. He helped Colchester to promotion out of the
Fourth Division in 1973–74, before he moved into non-League football with
Romford
Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romfo ...
in 1975, before retiring due to a knee injury.
He was appointed as
Fulham manager in April 1984, though he resigned in June 1986 after a financial crisis led to his team suffering relegation. He took charge at
Luton Town
Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...
in June 1987, and led the club to the final of the
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
in
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...
and
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...
, as Luton won the cup in 1988 before tasting defeat in 1989. Sacked in January 1990, he was appointed
Wimbledon manager in the summer, before he resigned in October 1991. After spending four years as
Kenny Dalglish's assistant, he was promoted to manager at
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
in June 1995, though he resigned in October 1996 following the sale of star striker
Alan Shearer. Taking charge at
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...
in February 1997, he switched clubs to
Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
ten months later. He was sacked in September 1998, and subsequently became a coach at
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...
; he was still on the coaching staff at the club at the time of his death.
Playing career
He was born in
Halifax but grew up in south London.
He started his playing career as a centre-half at
Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...
as an amateur in May 1961, turning professional at
Frank Hill's
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
side in May 1964.
He joined
Exeter City
Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...
for a fee of £750 in January 1966 following a recommendation to the club trainer
Jock Basford, who was at Charlton when Harford joined them from school.
He made his debut in a 5–2 defeat to
Peterborough United
Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...
at
St James Park St James Park and variants may refer to:
Municipalities
* St James Park, New Zealand, a suburb of Hamilton, New Zealand
Football stadiums
* St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
* St James Park (Exeter), Exeter, England
* St James Park, gro ...
and missed just one
Third Division game in the remainder of the
1965–66 season.
He played in 38 league matches throughout the
1966–67 season, scoring one goal against
Bradford Park Avenue.
In July 1967, he signed with
Lincoln City, then in the
Fourth Division and led by
Ron Gray. The "Imps" missed out on promotion by five points in
1968–69 and finished eighth in
1969–70, before dropping down to the re-election zone under
Bert Loxley in
1970–71. Harford had played close to 200 games in four years at
Sincil Bank
Sincil Bank Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as LNER Stadium, is a football stadium in Lincoln, England which has been the home of Lincoln City since 1895. Previously, Lincoln City had played at the nearby John O'Gaunts ground since th ...
. In June 1971, he secured a move to Third Division
Mansfield Town
Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...
, quickly followed by a move to league rivals
Port Vale
Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...
in December 1971, whose manager
Gordon Lee Gordon Lee may refer to:
*Gordon Lee (comic store owner) (1958–2013), American comic book store owner charged with distributing obscene materials
*Gordon Lee (congressman) (1859–1927), U.S. congressman from Georgia
*Gordon Lee (footballer) (193 ...
paid Mansfield £5,000 for his services. He was a regular for the rest of
the season, but fell out of favour in August 1972. In January 1973 he was loaned out to
Jim Smith's
Colchester United
Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...
, before the deal was made permanent the next month for a price of £1,750. The
Layer Road
Layer Road was a Football League stadium in Colchester, England. It was only used for football matches and was the home ground of Colchester United before being replaced by the Colchester Community Stadium. The stadium held spectators and was ...
side finished in the
Football League's re-election zone in
1972–73, with Harford making 21 appearances, scoring one goal.
The "U's" secured promotion in
1973–74 with a third-place finish; Harford was also given the Colchester United Player of the Year award in 1974 for his performances in this 48 games that season.
After another 49 appearances in the
1974–75 campaign, he left the United to play for non-league
Romford
Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romfo ...
. The next year knee troubles ended his playing career,
and he returned to Colchester as youth coach in September 1975.
Managerial career
Fulham
In 1982, Harford was appointed assistant manager at
Fulham under
Malcolm Macdonald
Malcolm Ian Macdonald (born 7 January 1950) is an English former professional footballer, manager and media figure. Nicknamed 'Supermac', Macdonald was a quick, powerfully built prolific goalscorer. He played for Fulham, Luton Town, Newcastle ...
, helping the side finish fourth in the Second Division a year after promotion – one place short of promotion to the First Division.
In April 1984, he was promoted to the position of manager, and his first full season as a manager was reasonably successful, with the club managing a ninth-place finish, nine points off promotion. At the end of the season, however, it emerged that the club had fallen into severe financial difficulties, forcing the sale of most of the first team. Harford was able to cobble together a side for the next season from free transfers and youth players, but it wasn't enough. The side were relegated by a huge margin, and Harford resigned shortly afterwards.
Luton Town
In the summer of 1986,
Luton Town
Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...
manager
David Pleat
David John Pleat (born 15 January 1945) is an English football player turned manager, and sports commentator. Pleat made 185 Football League appearances for five clubs, scoring 26 goals. He had two spells as manager of Luton Town, and four as ...
resigned and was replaced by
John Moore. Harford was signed by Luton as assistant manager and helped the club finish seventh in the old
First Division.
At the end of the
1986–87 season, Moore resigned as manager and Harford was promoted as his replacement. It proved to be an impressive decision. In his first season as Luton manager, Harford guided the
Kenilworth Road
Kenilworth Road is an association football stadium in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. It has been the home ground of Luton Town Football Club since 1905. The stadium has also hosted women's and youth international matches, including the second ...
club to a
3–2 win over
Arsenal in the
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
final – the club's first ever major trophy.
But Luton were forbidden to enter the
1988–89 UEFA Cup
The 1988–89 UEFA Cup was won by Napoli over Stuttgart.
It was the fourth season that English clubs were banned from European competitions. The English league clubs who otherwise would have qualified were Manchester United and Luton Town.
R ...
because the ban on English teams in European competition arising from the 1985
Heysel Stadium disaster
The Heysel Stadium disaster ( it, Strage dell'Heysel ; german: link=no, Katastrophe von Heysel ; french: Drame du Heysel ; nl, Heizeldrama ) was a crowd disaster that occurred on 29 May 1985 when mostly Juventus fans escaping from a breach by L ...
still had two years to run. They also reached the FA Cup semi-finals that year, losing 2–1 to eventual winners
Wimbledon – which made Luton the latest of several clubs to have come close to winning the then elusive domestic cup double.
In
1988–89 Luton again reached the
League Cup final but surrendered their crown after losing 3–1 to
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...
. By the following January, Luton were battling against relegation to the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
and Harford was controversially sacked
– the relegation battle was won by his successor
Jim Ryan who remained in charge until the end of the following season, when he was sacked even though Luton had avoided relegation again.
Wimbledon
Soon after being sacked as manager of Luton, Harford was recruited by
Wimbledon as assistant manager to
Bobby Gould
Robert Hewitt Gould (born 12 June 1946) is an English former footballer and manager.
Early life
Gould was born in Wyken, Coventry, Warwickshire on 12 June 1946. He is the son of Henry Gould and Helen McKellar Gould (née Morton). He spent h ...
, succeeding
Don Howe
Donald Howe (12 October 1935 – 23 December 2015) was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his pla ...
who had been appointed manager of
Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
. The partnership lasted just five months until July 1990, when Gould was sacked from his post and for the third time in his career Harford was promoted from the position of assistant manager to manager.
In
1990–91
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...
, Wimbledon did well to finish seventh in the First Division and there were high hopes that the club could qualify for European competition or win one of the two domestic cups during the
1991–92 season. But Wimbledon made a slow start to the season and Harford resigned in October. He was briefly replaced by
Peter Withe
Peter Withe (born 30 August 1951) is an English former football manager and striker who played between 1971 and 1990. At Nottingham Forest he won the Anglo-Scottish Cup and Second Division promotion in 1976–77, First Division and the Foot ...
, who lasted just three months before being succeeded by
Joe Kinnear
Joseph Patrick Kinnear (born 27 December 1946) is an Irish former football manager and player. Kinnear played as a defender, spending the majority of his career—ten seasons—with Tottenham Hotspur. With Tottenham he won the FA Cup, the EFL ...
.
In the same month that Harford left Wimbledon, the former
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
manager
Kenny Dalglish had been appointed as manager of Second Division
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
who had been out of the top division since 1966. Their benefactor
Jack Walker
Jack Walker (19 May 1929 – 17 August 2000) was a British industrialist and businessman. Walker built his fortune in the steel industry, amassing a personal fortune of £600 million. He then went on to become the owner and benefactor of Black ...
was determined to get the
Ewood Park side into the new
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
, which was due to start in the
1992–93 season. He made Harford an offer to become assistant manager at Blackburn and he accepted it.
Blackburn Rovers
Success as assistant manager
While Harford was assistant manager of Blackburn, he helped Kenny Dalglish in the club's quest for success. In 1992, the club won promotion to the new Premier League via the promotion playoffs. In the new Premier League in 1993, Blackburn finished fourth thanks to a side made up of mostly new players like £3.3 million record signing striker
Alan Shearer, who scored 16 league goals before a serious injury sustained just before the turn of the new year ruled him out for the rest of the season. Blackburn in fact topped the league at several stages that season, but it was eventually won by Manchester United.
The following season Blackburn finished runners-up to
double
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* ...
winners
Manchester United, but a consolation for the disappointment came in the form of a UEFA Cup place. For much of the season it had looked certain that the league title would be remaining at
Old Trafford, but an erratic run of form by United in March meant that Blackburn drew level on points in early April (kept off the top only on goal difference) but in the end United surged to the title.
In
1994–95, Blackburn suffered early exits from the UEFA Cup,
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
and League Cup but their league form was excellent. On the final day of the season, they lost 2–1 to Dalglish's old club
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
but their nearest rivals Manchester United were unable to beat
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
and the English league championship went to Blackburn Rovers for the first time since
1914
This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It als ...
. It was also the first time in Harford's career than he had been associated with a title winning side.
A month after the title success, Kenny Dalglish was promoted to the position of
Director of football
A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...
and the board made an offer to Harford to fill the manager's seat.
On arriving at Ewood Park he had vowed never to make a fourth move from the position of assistant manager to manager but went back on his word and accepted the offer.
Frustrating time as manager
1995–96 was a frustrating season for Harford and Blackburn.
Chris Sutton
Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit and commentator for BT Sport, regularly working on their coverage of Scottish football. He is now also a pundi ...
,
Jason Wilcox
Jason Malcolm Wilcox (born 15 March 1971) is an English football coach, former professional footballer and director of football at EFL Championship side Southampton.
As a player, Wilcox was a left winger from 1989 until 2006, notably in the Pr ...
and
Graeme Le Saux
Graeme Pierre Le Saux ( ; born 17 October 1968) is an English former professional footballer and television pundit.
As a versatile left sided player he played most of his career at left back with two spells at Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers, Southamp ...
missed a lot of games through injury, although Alan Shearer was still brilliant, with 31 Premiership goals. Despite an early exit from the
1995–96 UEFA Champions League, Blackburn improved as the season went on. Although they never looked like regaining their Premiership title, they were in contention for a UEFA Cup place until the last game of the season but lost out to
Arsenal and finished seventh. It wasn't at all a bad finish, though, considering that Blackburn had been in the bottom half of the Premier League for much of the season. During the summer of 1996, Alan Shearer was sold to
Newcastle United for a then
world record fee of £15 million, and Harford failed to adequately replace him. Harford stated that "I'm told we need a big name.
Engelbert Humperdinck is a big name but it doesn't mean he can play football."
The
1996–97 season also started badly for Blackburn.
They failed to win any of their first ten games and were knocked out of the League Cup by Division Two side
Stockport. Harford handed in his resignation on 25 October and was replaced temporarily by coach
Tony Parkes
Anthony Parkes (born 5 May 1949) is an English former professional footballer. After retiring, he became a coach. He was most recently caretaker manager at Blackpool. It was the seventh such role of his coaching career, having performed the rol ...
, who took charge until the end of the season and guided Rovers to 13th in the final table before
Roy Hodgson was appointed as permanent manager.
West Bromwich Albion
In February 1997, Harford was named as
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...
's new manager in place of
Alan Buckley
Alan Peter Buckley (born 20 April 1951) is an English former professional footballer and football manager who now works as a sports co-commentator for BBC Humberside.
As a player, he was a forward from 1967 to 1987 for Nottingham Forest, ...
. Albion were hovering just above the relegation zone in Division One (which had been a familiar pattern since their promotion in 1993) and Harford did much to keep the club clear of relegation. Despite a promising start to
the following season, he said that found it tiring to travel the 100+ miles from his
Berkshire home to the
Midlands on an almost daily basis, and in December 1997 moved to Division One rivals
Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
. His successor,
Denis Smith, claimed that Harford had told him the real reason he decided to leave the club was that an ageing team and a lack of investment from the boardroom meant that the club were "heading for a fall".
QPR
Queens Park Rangers were struggling in Division One, they had slipped from the Premiership in 1996 after 13 consecutive seasons of top division football. Harford was appointed as successor to
Stewart Houston and was hopeful of getting the club back into the Premiership. At the end of the
1997–98 season the
Loftus Road
Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers.
In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...
club avoided relegation at the expense of
Manchester City,
Stoke City and
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
but the club's directors and supporters expected more. And after a poor start to the
1998–99 season, Harford was sacked in September and replaced by
Gerry Francis.
Millwall
In the summer of 1999, Harford made a return to football as first team coach under then
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...
manager
Keith Stevens
Keith Henry Stevens (born 21 June 1964) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender, spending his entire career with Millwall.
Career
Stevens made his debut with Millwall in a Third Division fixture against Oxford Un ...
. Millwall had been in Division Two since 1996 and the club's directors were desperate to win promotion. Stevens was young and inexperienced, and by September 2000 the Millwall board had decided they wanted a more experienced manager so they terminated his contract. Harford was appointed manager on a temporary basis and it seemed possible that he might be given the job permanently. But that fifth promotion from within never happened and
Mark McGhee was given the job instead. Harford remained on the club's coaching staff and was crucial in Millwall's Division Two championship that season which ended a five-year exile from the upper tier of the English league.
In
2001–02, Millwall finished fourth in Division One and qualified for the promotion playoffs. Everyone at the club was hopeful that a second successive promotion could be achieved but those hopes were ended in a semi-final defeat by
eventual winners Birmingham City
Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...
.
Retirement and death
In October 2002, Harford was diagnosed with lung cancer and spent the rest of
the season away from his job at Millwall receiving treatment for his illness.
Early on the morning of 9 August 2003, Ray Harford died whilst he was still officially a member of the Millwall coaching staff under Mark McGhee.
His funeral was held in All Saints Church,
Banstead
Banstead is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It is south of Sutton, south-west of Croydon, south-east of Kingston-upon-Thames, and south of Central London.
On the North Downs, it is on three of the four main ...
, Surrey, with many members of the football community in attendance. He was survived by wife, Maureen, and son
Paul
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
.
Paul also became a professional footballer, and was on the books of
Arsenal and
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
, but did not play a senior game for either side, although he did manage a few senior appearances in subsequent spells with
Wigan Athletic
Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1932, ...
and
Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...
, before a more active career at non-league level.
Career statistics
Playing statistics
Source:
Managerial statistics
Honours
as a player with Colchester United
*
Football League Fourth Division promotion:
1973–74
*Colchester United F.C. Player of the Year:
1974
as manager of Luton Town
*
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
:
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...
; runner-up:
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harford, Ray
1945 births
2003 deaths
Footballers from Halifax, West Yorkshire
English footballers
Association football defenders
Charlton Athletic F.C. players
Exeter City F.C. players
Lincoln City F.C. players
Mansfield Town F.C. players
Port Vale F.C. players
Colchester United F.C. players
Romford F.C. players
English Football League players
Southern Football League players
Colchester United F.C. non-playing staff
Fulham F.C. non-playing staff
English football managers
Fulham F.C. managers
Luton Town F.C. non-playing staff
Luton Town F.C. managers
Wimbledon F.C. non-playing staff
Wimbledon F.C. managers
Blackburn Rovers F.C. non-playing staff
Blackburn Rovers F.C. managers
West Bromwich Albion F.C. managers
Queens Park Rangers F.C. managers
Millwall F.C. non-playing staff
Millwall F.C. managers
Premier League managers
English Football League managers
Association football coaches
Deaths from lung cancer in England