Neil Redfearn

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Neil Redfearn
Personal information
Full name	Neil David Redfearn
Date of birth	20 June 1965
Place of birth	Dewsbury, England
Club information
Current club	Bradford Park Avenue
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1982-1984 1984-1986 1986-1987 1987-1989 1989-1990 1990-1991 1991-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2004 2004 2004-2006 2006- 1982-2006	Bolton Wanderers Lincoln City Doncaster Rovers Crystal Palace Watford Oldham Athletic Barnsley Charlton Athletic Bradford City Wigan Athletic Halifax Town Boston United Rochdale Scarborough Bradford Park Avenue TOTAL	35 (1) 100 (13) 46 (14) 57 (10) 24 (3) 62 (16) 292 (71) 30 (3) 17 (1) 22 (7) 42 (6) 54 (12) 9 (0) 60 (17) 0 (0) 850 (174)
Teams managed
2002 2005-2006	Halifax Town (caretaker) Scarborough
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Neil David Redfearn (born 20 June 1965 in Dewsbury) is an English footballer and manager. Redfearn is also known as one of the most durable players in the history of English football, having played 790 matches in The Football League (5th all-time), and nearly a thousand first-team games overall in a career that has spanned 24 years.

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 getting his first taste of football at the highest level in 1991 as a member of Oldham.

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.

He endured a dismal season at Charlton on the pitch in 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.

Redfearn spent the better part of two years at Boston, before finishing his Football League career at Rochdale in the spring of 2004. 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, while remaining registered as a player.

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

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 is due to make an historic 1000th competitive appearance on 4th November 2006 for Bradford Park Avenue when they face Solihull Borough in the 2nd qualifying round of the FA Trophy

Preceded by: Alan Little	Halifax Town A.F.C. Manager (Caretaker) 2002	Succeeded by: Chris Wilder
Preceded by: Nick Henry	Scarborough F.C. Manager 2005 - 2006	Succeeded by: Mark Patterson