Deaths announced of former Halifax Town managers Mickey Bullock and Peter Wragg

Mickey Bullock enjoyed an extensive career in professional football which spanned 22 years, having started out at First Division Birmingham City, for whom he signed apprentice forms in July 1962 before turning professional upon his seventeenth birthday.

An England schoolboy international, Bullock made a sensational league debut, scoring a 47th minute winner against Manchester United at Old Trafford in January 1964.

A fine leader of the line and a terrific header of the ball, Bullock went on to make 27 League appearances and score ten goals for the Blues before leaving in June 1967 for Oxford United.

There, he was top scorer with thirteen goals from 45 League appearances in their Third Division championship success in his first season, and he later enjoyed more success with Orient, top scoring with nineteen goals as the Os won the Third Division title in 1969-70.

Two seasons later, Bullock was part of the Orient side which reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup, scoring in the sensational fifth round 3-2 win over top flight Chelsea in February 1972.

In 1973-74, he hit sixteen goals when Orient missed out on promotion to the First Division by one point and had amassed 277 League appearances and 65 goals for the Os before becoming one of Alan Ball Snr’s first signings upon his return as Halifax Town manager in February 1976.

Bullock was among a crop of players Ball hoped would halt a worrying slide down the table, but despite his efforts, Town were relegated from the Third Division.

Bullock’s first Town goal earned his side a 1-0 home win over Hartlepool in September 1976, and though he was never a prolific goalscorer with the Shaymen, Bullock did finish the 1976-77 season as top scorer with nine goals.

The following term he was also joint top scorer with Derek Bell, though by the end of the season he had started to concentrate on the coaching side.

When Jimmy Lawson took over as player-manager, he promoted Bullock to player-coach in January 1978, and it was Bullock who briefly took charge of first team matters following Lawson’s sacking.

George Kirby, appointed as manager at the beginning of November 1978, was happy to keep Bullock as his assistant, and though retained as a player, Bullock concentrated solely on coaching before hanging up his boots at the end of that season.

The Shaymen enjoyed a better season in 1979-80, highlighted by the FA Cup victory over First Division Manchester City, but they were condemned to re-election the following term.

When Kirby was dismissed, Bullock beat off nearly forty candidates to succeed him, with the board backing their new manager with £20,000 to buy young untried striker Bobby Davison from Huddersfield Town, a player who would repay Bullock’s faith in him.

Bullock appointed Billy Ayre as coach and Town finished nineteenth in his first season in charge, but it was an extra-ordinary season, one in which the club nearly went out of business with Sam Rorke as chairman.

Bullock tried to keep his players’ minds focussed on the job in hand, but though at times the side played some attractive football, too many late goals conceded meant they were denied the points their play often warranted.

The following term it seemed at one point as if Town were certainties to go cap in hand once more when a woeful run left them in twentieth place, and that after selling top scorer Bobby Davison for £98,000 to Derby County, money without which Bullock reckoned the club would have gone to the wall.

But throughout January and February, Town put together a six-match winning streak, culminating in a 1-0 success over Bury in front of over four thousand at The Shay, Bullock’s finest hour.

Town ended the 1982-83 season in a respectable eleventh place, but had an unhappy time the following term, battling against re-election once more, with FA Cup defeat at the hands of non-league Whitby Town, twelve months after losing to North Shields, singularly the worst experience Bullock surely felt.

The team succumbed to a bottom-four finish and Bullock’s job was about to become even harder when the board instructed him to curb the wage bill, a policy which led to the departure of the club’s best players.

Bullock re-appointed Billy Ayre, returning from a spell at Mansfield Town, as player-coach, and there was one last chance to hobnob with the elite when Town were paired with First Division Tottenham Hotspur in the Milk Cup.

But his crop of old heads and young-and-inexperienced players endured a torrid time in the League.

Following defeat by Darlington, which saw them slip to bottom place, Bullock was sacked on 22 October 1984, though he clearly felt he’d been treated unfairly.

After leaving The Shay, Bullock briefly worked in the media, and was acting as co-commentator with Tony Delahunte of Pennine Radio at Valley Parade, home of Bradford City, in May 1985 when the fire which claimed 56 lives broke out.

Bullock acted as manager at struggling Goole Town, then took the reins at Ossett Town before scouting for several clubs, including Portsmouth and Crystal Palace.

Following Halifax Town’s relegation to the Conference in May 1993, the board appointed in Peter Wragg a manager who they hoped would guide the club to instant promotion.

His appointment, on the face of it, was a logical one. After all, Wragg had spent his entire footballing career in non-league circles, gaining a vast amount of knowledge as both player and manager.

Sadly, things never worked out at The Shay and Wragg was dismissed as his side failed to make an impact in the Conference.

Born in Droylsden in March 1946, Wragg started out as a player with New Mills FC before becoming a favourite at Leek Town as a fast-raiding right-winger, only for his career to be effectively ended when he suffered a broken leg.

He took over as manager at Leek in 1976 but was sacked after just one season and moved to Chorley.

In 1979 Wragg became manager at Stalybridge Celtic and led them to the Cheshire County League title for the first and only time.

After four seasons, Wragg took over at Hyde United, guiding the side to the Northern Premier League Cup Final where they lost to South Liverpool.

Much sought after, he then began a lengthy spell as manager at Macclesfield Town in March 1986, giving them an unforgettable season in 1986-87 with an unprecedented treble.

They clinched the Northern Premier League title with a 3-1 success at Hyde United in front of 1,800 spectators, defeated Marine in a two-legged final to lift the President's Cup, as well as landing the League Challenge Cup.

Macclesfield finished in mid-table in their first Conference season and eliminated two League teams, Carlisle and Rotherham, from the FA Cup.

In 1989-90 Wragg guided the club to the final of the FA Trophy final, only for Macclesfield to lose 1-0 to Telford United, but he failed to build upon a fourth-placed finish that term.

After a struggle against relegation in 1992-93, Wragg was sacked and replaced by former Manchester United midfielder Sammy McIlroy but having been alerted to his availability, the Halifax Town board offered Wragg the chance to return to club management, only then to outline the conditions he had to work under.

There was little money and previous incumbent Mick Rathbone, who reverted to club physio, would act as his assistant, a situation Wragg tolerated, though describing it as ‘not ideal’.

He also found himself taking over a side where several players were already looking for new clubs, Russell Bradley and Lee Bracey being the first to leave.

Wragg reckoned that if the club was to compete in the Conference, experienced players were needed, and turned to the likes of Elfyn Edwards, Colin Lambert and Steve Saunders, who made a scoring debut in the final of the Yorkshire and Humberside Cup, the performances in the pre-season qualifying matches of that competition raising expectations among the fans.

The 4-2 victory over Bradford City in that final was a moment to savour, for Town struggled in the Conference, and it took them until their eighth match before they recorded their first victory, albeit a sensational 6-2 win at Woking.

This was followed up by the 6-0 defeat of Telford United, but by then there was simply too much ground to make up on the leaders, and promotion was ruled out long before Christmas.

Despite failings in the league, Wragg did deliver one of the club’s most enjoyable afternoons when second tier West Bromwich Albion were beaten 2-1 in front of a live Sky TV audience, without doubt Town’s biggest FA Cup victory since the defeat of Manchester City over thirteen years earlier.

Wragg had added to his squad with the signing of centre-back Craig Boardman, and later enticed to The Shay prolific goalscorer Steve Burr.

But with the side lying twelfth in the table, pressure was mounting and though negotiating a tricky FA Trophy tie at Spennymoor United in February 1994 which extended an unbeaten run to eight games, Wragg was summoned to The Shay the very next day by chairman Jim Brown and told that his services were no longer required.

Wragg returned to for a second stint as manager of Stalybridge before teaming up with Steve Burr at several clubs, notably Northwich Victoria, before having a third, brief, spell as manager of Stalybridge before finally resigning in January 2005, his last managerial post.

For several years Wragg was employed by events organisers Arena International, but latterly battled dementia and died on Christmas Day aged seventy-eight.