Former Northern Ireland and Sunderland defender Martin Harvey has sadly passed away at the age of 78.
The Belfast native won 34 caps and scored three goals for his country in a ten-year period from 1961 making his final appearance in a green shirt in a 1-0 win over Wales in May 1971.
A one-club man Harvey played 357 games for Sunderland scoring five goals before being forced to hang up his boots prematurely at the age of 30 because of a back injury.
After his playing days ended he became coach with the North-east club before a seven-month stint as manager of Carlisle United in 1980.
Harvey also had a spell as coach at Plymouth Argyle in the 80’s but he is probably best remembered as being assistant to Billy Bingham during the glory years when Northern Ireland qualified for two World Cups in 1982 and 1986.
He later went on to take a similar role at Raith Rovers alongside Jimmy Nicholl helping the club to the Scottish First Division title in both 1993 and 1995 to win promotion to old Scottish Premier League.
During his time at Stark Park, Raith also won the first major trophy in their history when they defeated Celtic on penalties in the 1994/95 League Cup final.
In February 1996 Jimmy Nicholl and Harvey left Raith to take up similar positions at Millwall before leaving the South-London outfit a year later.
The Irish Football Association would like to pass on their condolences to Martin Harvey’s family and friends at this sad time.
