Redders spoke to Radio Leeds last night

Redfearn Talks To Radio Leeds

His first real start in football was when a certain George Mulhall signed him at Bolton Wanderers from Nottingham Forest where he had served as an apprentice.

He then went on to have other spells at many other club such as Oldham, Barnsley, Charlton, Bradford, and Wigan before he ended up at the Shay. He was the sort of player who wanted to play every game which meant he was a bit of a journey man.

He joined Halifax after Paul Bracewell had offered him his first chance to get into the coaching side of the game.

Obviously he got his first chance as management when Tony Parks and himself took over as caretaker managers when Bracewell walked out.

He feels that Bracewell made the right decision, leaving the club when he realised he had done what he could and knew the club still had plenty of time to turn things around.

He developed a good coaching relationship with Parks. Although Redders is not keen on keepers becoming coaches, he said Parks had a great knowledge of coaching, he had a strong character, and he wanted to do well for the club.

In the end up, Alan Little got the full time job because Redfearn and Parks wanted a 3 year contract instead of the 2 year offered.

Redfearn said he needed time to do well for the Shaymen, and because there was no money to bring in new players then he needed time. He wanted 3 years. The first year was to see out the season and keep the club up. The second season was to bring in his own players that he wanted and let them blend together. The third season to get the results. But this didn't happen and he continued as player.

He felt that the Halifax Board made a mistake not giving him the third year. In the two spells he had as caretaker manager, the results were much better. He wanted to play good football, but knew the defence had to be sorted, and in his first spell, he had 5 clean sheets out of 8 games.

When he got his second chance, after Alan Little fell ill, he knew that it was too late at the point and there was no going back which just frustrated him when he knew he could have turned it around.

He has no regrets, and just wanted more time to do a job for Halifax Town.

The future for Neil Redfearn definitely seems to be in the game. There are a couple of jobs that have interested him. He feels he has at least one year of playing in him yet, but he is seriously interested in management.

He enjoys the thrill of responsibility and loves working with the players. He has learnt a lot off some good managers.

Danny Wilson at Barnsley and Alan Curbishley at Charlton. Both like their teams to play good football, and they are both great man-managers.