Name: Michael Gordon Harford
Seasons Played: 1977/78-1980/81
Position: Centre-forward
Date of Birth: 12.02.1959
Birthplace: Sunderland
League Debut: 10.12.1977, Gillingham (h), Div 3
League Games: 109+6
League Goals: 41
Career: Lambton Street Boys Club (Sunderland), LCFC, Newcastle United, Bristol City, Birmingham City, Luton Town, Derby County, Luton Town, Chelsea, Sunderland, Coventry City, Wimbledon.

Born in Sunderland on February 1959, Mick Harford joined the Imps from his local side, Lambton Street Boys Club, along with Mick Smith, Keith Laybourne and Alan Eden as a teenager in July 1977 and made his debut for the Imps coming on as a substitute for Eden during the 2-0 home defeat by Gillingham on December 10th 1977. His first goal came along on New Year's Eve of the same year as City drew 2-2 at Chester.

After starting his career as a midfielder, it wasn't long before 'Big Mick' was pushed forward and he soon became one of the best and most feared centre-forwards in the lower leagues and after finishing the 1979/80 season as City's leading scorer with 16 goals from 35 games it was only a matter of time before he departed for a bigger club.

The beginning of the 1980/81 season could hardly have been better for Harford who followed up his tremendous hat-trick against Hull City in the League Cup with two more in the second leg as City registered a 7-0 aggregate win over the Tigers. After scoring three times in the season's first two league matches the scouts were turning up in numbers to watch the then 21-year-old in action.

Harford's final goals in a Lincoln shirt came in the form of another hat-trick, this time in the 5-0 win over Torquay United on November 12th 1980. He missed the next two games due to suspension before playing his final game at Sincil Bank on December 20th, three years after his debut. In total he played 127 times in League and cup for City, scoring 46 times.

Newcastle United were the club who tempted Harford away from Sincil Bank for a then club record fee of £180,000 but he never really made an impact at St James' Park and was sold eight months later to Bristol City for £150,000.

Seven months on he joined Birmingham City where he stayed for three seasons scoring 25 times. He then moved on to Luton Town where he had his most successful time of his career. He netted 57 times for the Hatters helping them to success in the League Cup in 1988.

His career hit its peak in February of the same year when he came on as substitute for Clive Allen during England's friendly in Israel becoming one of the few City products to win full international honours. One more cap followed - at Wembley Stadium against Denmark the following year.

Harford's next move was to Derby County who he joined for £450,000. He stayed at the Baseball Ground for 18 months before rejoining Luton. He played a further 29 games for the Kenilworth Road side before joining Chelsea. Further moves followed taking him to Sunderland, Coventry City and Wimbledon.

With a career record of 583 appearances and 186 goals Harford finally hung up his boots in 1998 to concentrate on coaching.

After a spell as first-team coach at Wimbledon, he returned to Luton and teamed up with Joe Kinnear prior to the start of the 2001/02 season. The duo performed wonders at Kenilworth Road and the Hatters were promoted back to Division Two at the first attempt - the club's first promotion-winning campaign for 20 years.

At the end of the following season, Luton chairman Mike Watson-Challis retired and struck a deal that brought a new, unnamed consortium to Kenilworth Road and just two days after taking control of the Hatters, the new consortium amazingly sacked both Harford and manager Kinnear - much to the disgust of the Luton supporters.

Harford was then offered his job back by John Gurney, the man heading the new consortium but he decided to decline the offer, stating that he felt he couldn't work under the new owners. But, in August 2003, Harford returned to Luton as Director of Football and First Team Coach - just over two months after he had been dismissed.

He left Luton to team up with Kinnear at Nottingham Forest and five weeks after linking up with his new club, Harford was in the national spotlight after being placed in charge on a caretaker basis following Kinnear's resignation.

Harford spent six matches in charge of Forest before being shown the door following the appointment of Gary Megson as their new boss whilst his next job in football saw him link up take up a coaching role at Swindon Town.

It wasn't long though before Harford was back in a managerial role and in April 2005 he took over the reins at Rotherham United who had just been relegated into the third tier of English football and ultimately heading towards administration.

He had an impressive start to his managerial career, but after a run of 17 games without a win, he was replaced by Alan Knill. He finished the season coaching the strikers at Millwall before joining his former Derby County team-mate Geraint Williams at Championship outfit Colchester United in the summer of 2006.

Harford is currently the assistant manager of the U's, who are enjoying a more than useful first season at Championship level.