Asa Hartford

Asa Hartford

Personal information
Full name	Richard Hartford
Date of birth	24 October 1950
Place of birth	Clydebank, Scotland
Height	5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Norwich City (Scout)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1967–1974	West Bromwich Albion	214	(18)
1974–1979	Manchester City	185	(22)
1979	Nottingham Forest	3	(0)
1979–1981	Everton	81	(6)
1981–1984	Manchester City	75	(7)
1984	Fort Lauderdale Sun	?	(?)
1984–1985	Norwich City	28	(2)
1985–1987	Bolton Wanderers	81	(8)
1987–1989	Stockport County	45	(0)
1989	Oldham Athletic	7	(0)
1989–1991	Shrewsbury Town	25	(0)
Total		744	(63)
National team
1972–1982	Scotland	50	(5)
Teams managed
1985–1987	Bolton Wanderers (player-coach)
1987–1989	Stockport County (player-coach)
1989–1991	Shrewsbury Town
1991	Boston United
1993	Stoke City (caretaker manager)
1996–2005	Manchester City (assistant/caretaker manager)
2007–2008	Macclesfield Town (assistant manager)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Richard "Asa" Hartford (born 24 October 1950) is a retired Scottish international midfielder and footballer who became famous for failing a medical examination due to the discovery of a heart condition which put paid to a high-profile transfer to Leeds United in November 1971.

Career

He first played for Drumchapel Amateurs in Glasgow, but began his professional career at West Bromwich Albion in 1967. During his time with West Brom, the team won the FA Cup Final in 1968 (although he did not play in the final), were beaten semi-finalists in 1969 and reached the League Cup final in 1970.

Given his role in the team it was no surprise that he would attract interest from the top clubs but in November 1971 a high-profile transfer to Don Revie's Leeds United was cancelled when a suspected hole in-the-heart condition was found during a pre-transfer medical examination.^[1] He was eventually transfer listed by then West Brom coach Don Howe alongside favourites Len Cantello and Jeff Astle in April 1974 and his subsequent career made nonsense of the fears occasioned by Leeds' doubting staff. Hartford moved on to Manchester City for £210,000 making his debut in a 4–0 victory over West Ham United, coming to prominence as a strong, talented midfielder helping City win the 1976 League Cup Final, as well as a regular Scottish international.

At the beginning of the 1979–80 season he was transferred to Brian Clough's European Champions at Nottingham Forest (to replace Archie Gemmill) for £500,000 only to be smartly packed off to Everton for £400,000 after 3 games. In October 1981 John Bond brought him back to Maine Road for £375,000. What followed were stints in the United States (Fort Lauderdale Sun), Norwich City (for whom he scored the winning goal in the 1985 League Cup Final), Bolton Wanderers and Oldham Athletic, before he took up coaching/managerial roles with Stockport County, Shrewsbury Town and Boston United where he made 15 appearances as a player at the age of 40.^[2]

International career

He played in Scotland's ill-fated 1978 World Cup campaign in Argentina where Ally MacLeod's Scottish squad endured a first round exit. Brian Glanville commenting, in his frequently updated 'The Story of the World Cup', wrote "The Scots had an abundance of fine midfield players at a time when most other countries looked for them desperately; Bruce Rioch, Don Masson, Asa Hartford, Archie Gemmill, Lou Macari, Graeme Souness". Hartford played in all Scotland games in Argentina. His side lost 3–1 to Peru, drew 1–1 with Iran and defeated eventual runners-up the Netherlands 3–2.^[3]

Hartford's international career (which began in 1972 against Peru) came to an end in Seville during the Spanish World Cup of 1982 when he recorded his fiftieth cap for Scotland in the game against Brazil, thereby securing himself a place on the national team's Roll of Honour in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

Coaching and managerial career

Latterly, he joined ex-international team-mates Kenny Dalglish (at Blackburn Rovers), Joe Jordan and Lou Macari (at Stoke City where he spent four matches as caretaker manager) in various coaching/managerial roles before taking on an assistant managerial position at Manchester City with Alan Ball in 1995 and stayed as the reserve team coach until May 2005 when Stuart Pearce brought in his own coaching staff. He thereafter became a coach with Blackpool in December 2005. He left Blackpool in May 2006.

On 29 June 2007 it was announced that he had been appointed assistant manager at Macclesfield Town but both he and Ian Brightwell were sacked in February 2008 to be replaced by Keith Alexander. In April 2008 he was given a role with Accrington Stanley coaching the junior teams and the reserves, but was made redundant from this role in October 2011 and subsequently joined Birmingham City as a scout. In the summer of 2012, he returned to one of his former clubs Norwich City to assist with scouting duties having previously spent a season at Carrow Road in his playing career.

Career statistics

As a player

• Sourced from The English National Football Archive

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other^[A]		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
West Bromwich Albion	1967–68	First Division	6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	1
	1968–69	First Division	26	7	4	1	0	0	7	3	37	11
	1969–70	First Division	35	1	1	0	7	0	4	0	47	1
	1970–71	First Division	34	2	4	0	2	1	2	0	42	3
	1971–72	First Division	39	1	1	0	1	0	3	0	44	1
	1972–73	First Division	41	3	5	1	3	1	4	1	53	6
	1973–74	Second Division	33	3	4	0	2	0	0	0	39	3
	1974–75	Second Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	3	0
	Total		214	18	19	2	15	2	23	4	271	26
Manchester City	1974–75	First Division	30	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	32	2
	1975–76	First Division	39	9	2	1	9	2	3	0	53	12
	1976–77	First Division	40	4	4	0	1	0	2	0	47	5
	1977–78	First Division	37	4	2	0	5	0	2	0	46	4
	1978–79	First Division	39	3	3	0	5	0	8	2	55	5
	Total		185	22	12	1	21	2	15	2	233	27
Nottingham Forest	1979–80	First Division	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
	Total		3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Everton	1979–80	First Division	35	1	5	1	3	0	0	0	43	2
	1980–81	First Division	39	5	6	0	3	0	0	0	48	5
	1981–82	First Division	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
	Total		81	6	11	1	6	0	0	0	98	7
Manchester City	1981–82	First Division	30	3	2	0	4	1	0	0	36	4
	1982–83	First Division	38	3	3	1	4	0	0	0	45	4
	1983–84	Second Division	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
	Total		75	7	5	1	8	1	0	0	88	9
Norwich City	1984–85	First Division	28	2	4	0	8	3	0	0	40	5
	Total		28	2	4	0	8	3	0	0	40	5
Bolton Wanderers	1985–86	Third Division	46	5	1	0	4	1	7	1	58	7
	1986–87	Third Division	35	3	5	0	0	0	3	0	43	3
	Total		81	8	6	0	4	1	10	1	101	10
Stockport County	1987–88	Fourth Division	31	0	4	0	1	0	1	0	37	0
	1988–89	Fourth Division	14	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	15	0
	Total		45	0	4	0	1	0	2	0	52	0
Oldham Athletic	1988–89	Second Division	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
	Total		7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
Shrewsbury Town	1989–90	Third Division	17	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	20	0
	1990–91	Third Division	8	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	10	0
	Total		25	0	1	0	3	0	1	0	30	0
Career Total			744	63	62	5	66	9	51	7	923	84

A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Anglo-Italian Cup, Anglo-Scottish Cup, FA Charity Shield, Football League Trophy, Football League play-offs Texaco Cup, UEFA Cup, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, Watney Cup.

As a manager

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
Stockport County	12 June 1987	1 April 1989	93	24	34	35	25.81
Shrewsbury Town	1 January 1990	17 January 1991	55	16	19	20	29.09
Stoke City	10 September 1994	29 September 1994	4	3	0	1	75.00
Total[4]			152	43	53	56	28.29

Honours

Individual

• Scotland national football team roll of honour : 1982

References

Specific

1. "The Asa Hartford affair". Mighty Leeds. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
2. "Asa Hartford". ex-canaries.co.uk. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
3. "Ally MacLeod" www.qosfc.com 13 December 2010
4. "Asa Hartford". Soccerbase. Retrieved 2 July 2016.

General

• Glanville, Brian – World Cup. The Story of the, Faber & Faber, London, 2005.

External links

• Player profile at Post War English & Scottish Football League A – Z Player's Database
• Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk