[3] After some impressive displays for the Crewe Alexandra Hornets team, Stafford made his first-team debut on 22 September 1890, in a Football Alliance game against Birmingham St George's at Nantwich Road.

[2] In 1901 The Heathens were struggling financially and at the end of February held a four-day fundraising bazaar at the St James's Hall on Manchester's Oxford Street.

Stafford was reunited with Major through a Lost & Found advert in the Manchester Evening News and refused a generous offer from Davies to buy the dog for his daughter.

In December 1904 Harry Stafford and James West were each suspended by the FA for two and a half years, after pleading guilty to making illegal payments to players and failing to keep the club's books in order.

Stafford resigned his seat on the board and became landlord of the Imperial Hotel on Manchester's Piccadilly approach; a public house that in December 1907 hosted the birth of the footballers union the AFPU, the forerunner of today's PFA.

After United's FA Cup win in 1909, Stafford left Manchester and MUFC minutes for 19 September 1911 state that he was awarded £50 by the club to assist with his emigration to Australia.

The following month he sailed for Boston, Massachusetts on the SS Devonian[4], before travelling to Schenectady in NY State, where he began work as a boilermaker at the American Locomotive Company.

In 1917 Stafford moved to Quebec after obtaining the position of boiler inspector at the Montreal Locomotive Works but during the Great Depression lost his job and struggled financially throughout most of the 1930s.

His remains are interred in an unmarked grave in Mount Royal Cemetery, plot number G 733-L.[2] 1903 – 1904 Stafford played in one Birmingham & District League game for Crewe Alexandra v Druids of Ruabon before announcing his retirement as a player.