He helped Colchester to promotion out of the Fourth Division in 1973–74 before he moved into non-League football with Romford in 1975, before retiring due to a knee injury.
Taking charge at West Bromwich Albion in February 1997, he switched clubs to Queens Park Rangers ten months later.
[6] He started his playing career as a centre-half at Charlton Athletic as an amateur in May 1961, turning professional at Frank Hill's Second Division side in May 1964.
[2] He made his debut in a 5–2 defeat to Peterborough United at St James Park and missed just one Third Division game in the remainder of the 1965–66 season.
[8] The Layer Road side finished in the Football League's re-election zone in 1972–73, with Harford making 21 appearances, scoring one goal.
[9] The "U's" secured promotion in 1973–74 with a third-place finish; Harford was also given the Colchester United Player of the Year award in 1974 for his performances in this 48 games that season.
[4] But Luton were forbidden to enter the 1988–89 UEFA Cup because the ban on English teams in European competition arising from the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster still had two years to run.
In 1990–91, Wimbledon did well to finish seventh in the First Division, and there were high hopes that the club could qualify for European competition or win one of the two domestic cups during the 1991–92 season.
Wimbledon made a slow start to the season, and then Harford resigned in October to take up a lucrative offer at Blackburn Rovers.
Their wealthy benefactor Jack Walker was determined to get the Ewood Park side into the new Premier League, which was due to start in the 1992–93 season.
A month after the title success, Kenny Dalglish was promoted to Director of football, and the board offered Harford to fill the manager's seat.
Chris Sutton, Jason Wilcox and Graeme Le Saux missed a lot of games through injury, although Alan Shearer was still brilliant, with 31 Premiership goals.
Although they never looked like regaining their Premiership title, they were in contention for a UEFA Cup place until the last game of the season but lost out to Arsenal and finished seventh.
During the summer of 1996, Alan Shearer was sold to Newcastle United for a then world record fee of £15 million, and Harford failed to replace him adequately.
Harford handed in his resignation on 25 October and was replaced temporarily by coach Tony Parkes, who took charge until the end of the season and guided Rovers to 13th in the final table before Roy Hodgson was appointed as permanent manager.
Despite a promising start to the following season, he said that he found it tiring to travel over 100 miles (160 km) from his Berkshire home to the Midlands on an almost daily basis, and in December 1997 moved to Division One rivals Queens Park Rangers.
[15] Harford remained on the club's coaching staff and was crucial in Millwall's Division Two championship that season which ended a five-year exile from the upper tier of the English league.
In October 2002, Harford was diagnosed with lung cancer and spent the rest of the season away from his job at Millwall receiving treatment for his illness.
Early on the morning of 9 August 2003, Ray Harford died whilst he was still officially a member of the Millwall coaching staff under Mark McGhee.
However, he did manage a few senior appearances in subsequent spells with Wigan Athletic and Shrewsbury Town, before a more active career at non-league level.