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Harry Dunn (footballer)

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Harry Dunn
Personal information
Date of birth (1953-09-05) 5 September 1953 (age 71)
Place of birth County Durham, England
Position(s) Midfielder[1]
Youth career
Burnley
Derby County
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1971–1975 Bishop Auckland
1975–1981 Scarborough 265 (65)
1981–1983 Blyth Spartans
1983–1989 Bishop Auckland
Managerial career
1989–1993 Bishop Auckland
1995 Blyth Spartans
1995–2004 Whitby Town
2004–2009 Blyth Spartans
2009–2010 Whitby Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Harry Dunn (born 5 September 1953[2]), also referred to as Harry A. Dunn, is an English football manager and former player.

As a player, he played as a midfielder, beginning and ending his career with Bishop Auckland, with spells with Scarborough and Blyth Spartans in between. As a manager, he began his career with Bishop Auckland, before having two spells with Blyth Spartans and Whitby Town.

Background and playing career

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Dunn was born in County Durham,[3] raised in the village of East Howle before attending school in Durham.[4] At the age of 12, Dunn was involved with the youth team of Burnley for four years, before joining Derby County's academy set-up.[4]

His debut with hometown club Bishop Auckland was in 1971,[1] and he joined Scarborough in 1975 with whom he gained two FA Trophy winners medals, having scored in the 1977 final at Wembley against Dagenham.[5] He made 265 appearances for Scarborough in all competitions, scoring 65 goals.[6]

He is sometimes confused with another long-standing Scarborough player also named Harry Dunn, who made over 900 appearances for the club and was already at the club before Dunn joined from Bishop Auckland. To avoid confusion, the new signing was given the fictitious middle initial "A" to differentiate between the two players.[4][7] Therefore, to Scarborough fans he has always been known as Harry A. Dunn. It was the original Harry Dunn who managed Scarborough in 1982, and between 1984 and 1986, and was clubman of the year in 1970 and 1974, and not Harry A. Dunn as it is often reported.[8]

Dunn joined Blyth Spartans in 1981, winning a Northern League Championship medal,[9] before rejoining Bishop Auckland in 1983.

Managerial career

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From 1989 to 1993, he was manager of Bishop Auckland, until he left the club to join Phil Staley at Fleetwood Town.[10] In 1995, he left to manage Blyth Spartans.[11] However, he did not stay long at Croft Park as he was appointed as manager of Whitby Town in December 1995, steering the Blues to their first-ever promotion from the Northern League in 1997. Dunn then won the FA Vase, at Wembley, days later. Town were promoted again a year on, to the Northern Premier League Premier Division, but he was sacked in September 2004 after a poor start to the campaign, months after missing out in a play-off tournament for the newly-formed Conference North.[12] He returned to Blyth the following month.[13]

On 8 November 2008, his Blyth Spartans side defeated League Two side Shrewsbury Town 3–1, in the first round of the FA Cup.[14] They went on to defeat Bournemouth 1–0 in a second round replay at Croft Park,[15] before losing 0–1 to Premier League club Blackburn Rovers on the same ground in round three,[16] a game which Dunn refused to be moved to Newcastle United's St James' Park.[17] Alongside his managerial duties for Blyth, Dunn worked in a caretaking capacity for a Durham nursing home.[3] On 27 April 2009, Blyth confirmed that the club would not be renewing Dunn's contract.[18]

Dunn was re-appointed as manager of Whitby Town in May 2009, before resigning on 4 October 2010.[19]

He was appointed as chief scout at Darlington 1883 in June 2012.[20] In October 2017, Dunn followed Martin Gray to York City as chief scout, and is also heading transfer policy and "assessment of forthcoming opponents".[21] He was replaced as York City's chief scout by Peter Whinham by the start of the 2018/9 season.[22]

Dunn was appointed chief scout at Bishop Auckland in July 2021.[23]

References

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  1. ^ a b Simon Turnbull (4 January 2009). "Cup heartache is still hard to shoulder for Blyth boys of '78". The Independent.
  2. ^ "Harry Dunn". blythspartansafc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  3. ^ a b Simon Turnbull (11 November 2001). "Grounds for a Spine-Tingler". Independent on Sunday.
  4. ^ a b c "The Tash force is not Dunn yet". The Northern Echo. 28 November 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  5. ^ "Blyth plot Cherries cup upset". BBC Sport. 28 November 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  6. ^ "Player Database 1968 to 2007 surnames A to K". Seadogs Fans. Archived from the original on 23 January 2008.
  7. ^ Steven Penny (24 January 2004). "Penny's in heaven with Boro". Yorkshire Post.
  8. ^ Adamson, Steve (1998). Scarborough F.C., 1879-1998: The Official History. Yore Publications. ISBN 9781874427926.
  9. ^ "THEY WERE THE NORTHERN LEAGUE: BLYTH SPARTANS AFC 1970-1990" (15). Players' Inc. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ Walter Gammie (31 December 1993). "Fleetwood turn to Staley". The Times.
  11. ^ "1st October 2006 – Harry on his North East Football Award". blythspartansafc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  12. ^ "Whitby axe boss Dunn". Scarborough Evening News. 7 September 2004.
    "End of an Era as Dunn Is Sacked". nonleaguedaily.com. 7 September 2004. Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. ^ Bob Moreland (12 October 2004). "Tom's Working Towards a Win". Evening Chronicle.
  14. ^ "Blyth Spartans 3-1 Shrewsbury". BBC Sport. 8 November 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  15. ^ "Blyth Spartans 1-0 Bournemouth". BBC Sport. 16 December 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Blyth Spartans 0-1 Blackburn". BBC Sport. 5 January 2009. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  17. ^ Blyth Spartans turn down Newcastle ground as they look for FA Cup home banker
  18. ^ "Harry in Seasiders return a Dunn deal? Have your say". Whitby Gazette. 12 May 2009.
  19. ^ "Dunn Leaves Whitby". Evening Chronicle. 6 October 2010. p. A57.
  20. ^ Craig Stoddart (28 May 2012). "Quakers appoint Gray as new boss". Northern Echo. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
  21. ^ Flett, Dave (13 October 2017). "Harry Dunn has dual role as York City's new chief scout". York Press. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  22. ^ "Dunn leaves York".
  23. ^ "Harry Dunn Scout".
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