Mick Harford

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Mick Harford
Personal information
Full name	Michael Gordon Harford
Date of birth	12 February 1959 (1959-02-12) (age 49)
Place of birth	Sunderland, England
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Luton Town F.C.
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1977–1980 1980–1981 1981–1982 1982–1984 1984–1990 1990–1991 1991–1992 1992–1993 1993–1993 1993–1994 1994–1998	Lincoln City Newcastle United Bristol City Birmingham City Luton Town Derby County Luton Town Chelsea Sunderland Coventry City Wimbledon	115 (41) 019 0(4) 030 (11) 092 (25) 139 (57) 058 (15) 029 (12) 028 0(9) 011 0(2) 001 0(1) 060 0(9)
National team
1988–1989	England	002 0(0)
Teams managed
2004–2005 2005 2007 2008-	Nottingham Forest (caretaker) Rotherham United Queens Park Rangers (caretaker) Luton Town
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Michael "Mick" Gordon Harford (born 12 February 1959), is an English former player and current manager of League 2 side Luton Town.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Coach and Manager 2.1 Managerial Record 3 References

[edit] Playing career

Born in Sunderland, Mick Harford joined Lincoln City in 1977. He was at Lincoln for just over three years before he moved on to Newcastle United in a £180,000 transfer. After just 19 appearances and eight months at Newcastle, Harford moved on again, this time to Bristol City for £160,000 in August 1981. Seven months later, Harford had impressed enough to gain a move to Birmingham City for £100,000 in March 1982.

Harford continued to impress at Birmingham and in December 1984, then Luton Town manager David Pleat added Harford to his side for a £250,000 fee. In his time at Luton, Harford earned himself two England team caps, making his international debut against Israel in 1988. He also featured against Denmark in the 1989 fixture.

Harford was part of the side that won the Littlewoods Cup in 1988 for Luton against Arsenal. He is often voted the best ever Luton Town player, such is the regard he is held in at Kenilworth Road. He was a key player at Luton until his transfer to Derby County in January 1990 for £450,000. Even after his transfer, Harford managed to help the Hatters in their fight against relegation, as in the last game of the season Derby County played Luton Town, and Luton needed the win to stay up. Harford managed to head the ball from outside his own box, past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, into his own net as Luton won the game and avoided relegation. Harford then rejoined the Hatters in September 1991 for £325,000, despite competition from Manchester United. Harford managed a credible 12 goals from 29 league games as the Hatters were relegated from what was about to become the Premier League.

Following Luton's relegation, Harford moved on again, this time to Chelsea for £300,000 in August 1992, but despite being the top scorer at the club, Harford was surprisingly sold on again in March 1993, to his hometown club Sunderland in a £250,000 transfer deal. He lasted just four months at Sunderland, before moving to Coventry City for £200,000 in July 1993. Despite being at the club for 13 months, Harford only made one league appearance, as a substitute, and despite scoring he never featured for the club again.

In August 1994, Harford made his last move as a footballer. He joined Joe Kinnear's Wimbledon side, for £50,000. Harford would go on to make 60 appearances for the Dons, many in midfield, before he moved into a coaching role at Selhurst Park.

[edit] Coach and Manager

Making his move into coaching with Wimbledon, Harford developed his skills before following his old manager Joe Kinnear, back to Luton Town following Luton's relegation to Division 3. Harford helped master-mind the successful promotion season of 2001–02, as Luton stormed to promotion back to the Second Division. Following the 2002–03 season, the club was sold to a new consortium, and Harford and Kinnear were then sacked. Harford was to be offered his job back, but he refused to work under that board.

After the owners were forced out, Harford returned to the club as Director of Football, as well as being the first-team coach. Harford helped new manager Mike Newell to a 10th place finish, and his value was proved by then Nottingham Forest manager Joe Kinnear's attempts to make him his assistant manager at Forest. Harford initially rejected the move but in November 2004, despite the contrast of fortunes both sides were displaying, with Forest fighting relegation in the Championship and Luton running away with the League One title, Harford moved onto the City Ground.

Kinnear was to last only a few more weeks at the club before the clubs poor form forced him too leave the club. Harford was then appointed care-taker manager, and he performed admirably despite the problems at the club. Gary Megson was then appointed manager full time in January 2005, and Harford left the club.

Out of work for only a short while, Harford teamed up with Andy King at Swindon Town in February 2005, in a deal that was due to run until the end of the 2004–05 season.^[1] In April 2005 however, Harford was appointed the new manager of Rotherham United, whose relegation from the Championship at the end of the 2004–05 season had already been confirmed.^[2] Harford had an impressive start to his managerial career, but was sacked in December after a run of 17 games without a win.^[3] He was replaced by Alan Knill. Harford finished the season at Millwall, coaching the strikers at the club before their relegation from the Championship at the end of the 2005–06 season.

Harford then joined his former Derby County team-mate Geraint Williams at Colchester United in the summer of 2006, becoming the club's assistant manager.^[4] Harford was linked with another return to Kenilworth Road following the sacking of ex-Luton Town manager Mike Newell, but the job instead went to Kevin Blackwell. He left Colchester to become assistant manager at Queens Park Rangers in June 2007,^[5] before becoming caretaker after the departure of John Gregory.^[6] Harford left QPR after the appointment of Luigi De Canio.^[7] In January 2008, Harford was unveiled as the new manager of struggling and cash-strapped Luton Town until the end of the season and looks set to remain for the forthcoming 2008/09 season.

[edit] Managerial Record

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L
Nottingham Forest		December 16, 2004	January 1, 2005	6	2	1	3
Rotherham United		April 7, 2005	December 10, 2005	30	5	9	16
Queens Park Rangers		October 1, 2007	October 29, 2007	5	2	2	1
Luton Town		January 16, 2008	Present	22	2	4	16

[edit] References

v • d • e Nottingham Forest F.C. – Managers Radford (1889–97) • Haslam (1897–1909) • Earp (1909–12) • Masters (1912–25) • Baynes (1925–29) • Hardy (1930–31) • Watson (1931–36) • Wightman (1936–39) • Walker (1939–60) • Beattie (1960–63) • Carey (1963–68) • Gillies (1969–72) • Mackay (1972–73) • Brown (1973–75) • Clough (1975–93) • Clark (1993–96) • Pearce (1996–97) • Bassett (1997–99) • Adams (1999) • Atkinson (1999) • Platt (1999–2001) • Hart (2001–04) • Kinnear (2004) • Harford (2004–05) • Megson (2005–06) • Barlow & McParland (2006) • Calderwood (2006–)

v • d • e Rotherham United F.C. – Managers Heald (1925–29) • Davies (1929–30) • Heald (1930–33) • Freeman (1934–52) • Smailes (1952–58) • Johnston (1958–62) • Williams (1962–65) • Mansell (1965–67) • Docherty (1967–68) • McAnearney (1968–73) • McGuigan (1973–79) • Porterfield (1979–81) • Hughes (1981–83) • Kerr (1983–85) • Hunter (1985–87) • Breckin (1987) • Cusack (1987–88) • McEwan (1988–91) • Henson (1991–94) • Gemmill and McGovern (1994–96) • Bergara (1996–97) • Moore (1997–2005) • Knill (2005) • Harford (2005) • Knill (2005–07) • Robins (2007–)

v • d • e Queens Park Rangers F.C. – Managers Cowan (1913–20) • Howie (1913–20) • Liddell (1920–25) • Hewison (1925–31) • Mitchell (1931–33) • O'Brien (1933–35) • Birrell (1935–39) • Vizard (1939–44) • Mangnall (1944–52) • Taylor (1952–59) • Stock (1959–68) • Dodgin (1968) • Docherty (1968) • Allen (1968–71) • Jago (1971–74) • Sexton (1974–77) • Sibley (1977–78) • Burtenshaw (1978–79) • Docherty (1979–80) • Venables (1980–84) • Mullery (1984) • Sibley (1984–85) • Smith (1985–88) • T. Francis (1988–89) • Howe (1989–91) • G. Francis (1991–1994) • Wilkins (1994–96) • Houston (1996–97) • Hollins (1997) • R. Harford (1997–98) • Dowie (1998) • G. Francis (1998–2001) • Holloway (2001–06) • Waddock (2006) • Gregory (2006–07) • M. Harford (2007) • De Canio (2007–08) Dowie (2008–incumbent)

v • d • e Luton Town F.C. – Managers Green (1901–28) • Thomson (1925) • McCartney (1927–29) • Kay (1929–31) • Wightman (1931–35) • Liddell (1936–38) • McBain (1938–39) • Martin (1939–47) • Duncan (1947–58) • Owen (1959–60) • Bartram (1960–62) • Harvey (1962–64) • Martin (1965–66) • Brown (1966–68) • Stock (1968–72) • Haslam (1972–78) • Pleat (1978–86) • Moore (1986–1987) • R. Harford (1987–1990) • Mancini (1990) • Ryan (1990–91) • Pleat (1991–95) • Westley (1995) • Lawrence (1995–2000) • Hill (2000) • Fuccillo (2000–01) • Kinnear (2001–03) • Newell (2003–07) • Stein (2007) • Blackwell (2007–08) • M. Harford (2008–Present)