Neil Redfearn

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Neil David Redfearn (born 20 June 1965 in Dewsbury, England) is an English footballer and manager. He has played 790 matches in the Football League, the fifth highest total of all-time, and more than a thousand first-team games overall in a career that has spanned 24 years. He is currently the youth-team coach at York City. He was previously the manager of Halifax Town, Scarborough and Northwich Victoria.

[edit] Career

Redfearn began his professional career at Bolton Wanderers in 1982, having previously been on the books of Nottingham Forest's youth team. He later made his name as goalscoring midfielder at lower-division sides Lincoln and Doncaster. In 1987, he was signed by Crystal Palace for £100,000, and he later played for Watford, before moving again in 1991 to Oldham.

Redfearn's last season with Oldham constituted a career highlight as he was an ever-present in the team that won the Second Division title and returned the Latics to the top-flight of English football after a gap of almost 80 years. Redfearn converted the injury time penalty in the final game of the season against Sheffield Wednesday that completed a 3-2 victory (after Oldham had trailed 2-0), and snatched the championship from West Ham, who had prematurely been handed the trophy some 15 minutes earlier.

Despite his contribution to Oldham's promotion, he became surplus to requirements with the re-signing of former club captain Mike Milligan from Everton in the off-season and Redfearn was transferred without playing for Oldham in the top-flight.

In September 1991, Redfearn joined Barnsley, and it was at this club he arguably spent his prime years. In his seven seasons at Oakwell, he hardly missed a single game, and was named club captain and penalty taker. In 1996-97, Redfearn scored 17 goals as Barnsley won promotion to the Premiership for the first time in the club's history.

Redfearn missed only one game, and was Barnsley's top scorer with ten league goals in 1997-98. It wasn't enough to save them from the drop though, as Barnsley were relegated on the final day of the season. However, despite his relatively high age, Redfearn's performances had made him a wanted man in the Premiership, and he was signed by Charlton Athletic for £1,000,000 in the summer of 1998. He left Barnsley having played 338 first-team games, scoring 84 goals.

1998-99, and his family didn't settle in London, and at the end of the season, Redfearn jumped at the chance of returning to his native Yorkshire, when Bradford City paid £250,000 for his services.

Redfearn didn't make much of an impact at Bradford, and joined his 10th team, Wigan Athletic after just nine months in Bradford. Despite a very good goalscoring record, Redfearn never became first-choice at Wigan either, and he dropped down two divisions to join Halifax Town in 2001. At Halifax, he also got his first taste of management, serving two spells as the team's caretaker manager. He left Halifax in the summer of 2002, having been snubbed for the permanent manager's job, and joined Boston United as player-coach.^[1]

Redfearn spent the better part of two years at Boston, before finishing his Football League career at Rochdale in the spring of 2004.^[2] Rochdale did not offer him a new contract at the end of the season, Redfearn dropped down to the Conference, where he became player-coach at Scarborough, managed at the time by his former Oldham teammate Nick Henry. When Henry was sacked in October 2005, Redfearn was named the team's new manager,^[3] while remaining registered as a player.^[4]

Redfearn resigned in June 2006 after it was revealed that Mark Patterson would be brought in as assistant manager.^[5] He subsequently signed with Unibond League side Bradford Park Avenue.^[6]

Redfearn is currently fifth in the all-time list of most Football League appearances. His last league appearance for Rochdale took his total to 790. He made his 1000th competitive appearance on 4 November 2006, when Bradford Park Avenue faced Solihull Borough in the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Trophy.^[7]

Redfearn quit Bradford Park Avenue in March 2007, joining rivals Stocksbridge Park Steels,^[8] but left in June 2007 to become manager of Northwich Victoria.^[9] He left the club in September 2007, after the club only managed one point from their first nine games, leaving them bottom of the Conference National.^[10]

He joined Frickley Athletic in September 2007 as a player.^[11] He left the club a month later to join Bridlington Town.^[12] He left them in January 2008 after the departure of manager Ash Berry.^[13] He was appointed as York City's youth-team coach in February.^[14]

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