Murphy had a brief career in semi-professional football for several non-league clubs in the 1960s and early 1970s starting at Croydon Amateurs and then moving to Epsom & Ewell in November 1962 where he remained for three seasons.
[3] After Mackay departed the City Ground at the end of October 1973 to become manager of Derby County, Murphy initially remained in post helping prepare the first team.
[4] However, following the appointment of Allan Brown as the club's new manager, Murphy departed to rejoin Mackay at the Baseball Ground as reserve team coach.
[6] Murphy left his role as assistant manager at Notts County to take charge of a struggling Lincoln City side[7] that was beset by financial problems and had just completed a lacklustre campaign in the Fourth Division.
In arguably his most successful period in management, Murphy secured Lincoln's promotion to the Third Division in the 1980–81 season with a second-place finish behind Southend United, thanks in large measure to Gordon Hobson's 21 goals.
The Murphy era is remembered fondly by the Imps faithful, with players such as Steve Thompson, Glenn Cockerill, Trevor Peake, Mick Harford, Tony Cunningham, Dave Felgate and John Fashanu contributing to one of the finest teams in Lincoln's history.
He joined Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia as part of the coaching staff under Bob Houghton, manager of Malmo in the 1979 European Cup Final.
Despite this renewed success, Murphy left the club by mutual consent on 20 May 1990 and spent the next two years coaching for Leicester City's youth team.
[10] When Dave Barry announced his intention to step down as manager of Cork City at the end of the 1999–2000 League of Ireland season, Murphy emerged as the favoured candidate to succeed him.