Mick Harford is a legend at both Lincoln City and Luton Town. 41 goals in 115 appearances were enough for the Imps fans to vote him as the 8^th. He joined the Imps as part of a quartet of players from Lambton Street Boys club, the others being Mick Smith, Keith Laybourne and Alan Eden. He replaced Eden as substitute in his first ever match for City, a defeat by Gillingham in the 1997/8 season.

A 2-2 draw with Chester saw his first goal, it was the first of forty-one goals he scored whilst at Sincil Bank. That included ended the 1979/80 season as the leading goalscorer, hitting the net 16 times in 35 games. He left soon into the next season, ending his City career with a hat-trick against Torquay United in his penultimate appearance. He joined Newcastle for £180,000, a then club record for the Imps and still one of our highest ever transfer fees received.

Just four goals in nineteen appearances at St James' Park saw one of the very few unsuccessful spells during Mick's career. He was soon shipped out to Bristol City and enjoyed a similar time to his spell at Sincil Bank, scoring a goal under every three games....just. 11 goals in 30 appearances for Bristol City was enough to convince Birmingham City to take a punt.

Although he averaged a goal under every four games, he was allowed to make his first move to Luton Town. A record of a goal every 2.5 games saw easily his best ever goals:games ratio in his career, scoring 57 goals in 139 appearances. That included helping the Hatters to success in the League Cup in 1988.

An England appearance followed, replacing Clive Allen in a friendly against Israel. Only one more cap followed and that was a year later against Denmark.

He left behind Kenilworth Road and joined Derby County for a whopping £450,000, a lot of money in those days, especially considering the transfer record was only in the low millions at this point. 58 appearances and 15 goals later saw a return to Luton Town and he played a further 29 games for them, scoring 12 goals before joining Chelsea.

This was back in the day when Chelsea were a bit crap. He spent one season at Stamford Bridge during the first ever Premiership season. His 9 goals were one of the reasons when Chelsea hovered above the drop zone rather than going into it. Eleven games and two goals at Sunderland were followed by a single goal in a single appearance for Coventry.

His final side were Wimbledon, again in the Premiership. Part of the crazy gang, Mick just nine goals during the sixty appearances he made at Selhurst Park.

186 goals and 583 appearances in his career means that he is a true meaning of the word legend. Maybe he won't go down as one of the greatest ever players this country has ever produced and maybe very few people at Newcastle or Coventry remember him playing for them, but he'll always be a playing legend at Sincil Bank and Kenilworth Road.

However, his career in football certainly didn't end there and he took up a coaching role Wimbledon. He followed Joe Kinnear back to Luton in time for their successful 2001/2 season in what was then known as Division 3. The Hatters finished as runners up to Plymouth Argyle, that with an unusually high points total for the team finishing second.

However, Harford soon left Luton due to non-footballing reaches but he did quickly return as Director of Football and later First Team Coach. This didn't last long though as he again joined up with Kinnear at Nottingham Forest. He was eventually put in charge of the Tricky Trees after Kinnear left the City Ground. Two wins in six games wasn't enough to convince the board at Forest and he was sacked from his position, replaced by Gary Megson.

A coaching role at Swindon followed by Mick was given the manager's job at Rotherham United. Just five wins in thirty games and the impending threat of administration meant that his time at Millmoor ended. He finished the 2006/7 season coaching the strikers at Millwall before joining Colchester in a coaching role.

He was taken to Loftus Road by John Gregory before being appointed as manager of Luton Town again earlier this summer.

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