How York City’s former Huddersfield Town winger Harry Bunn has battled back from Bury demise and Kilmarnock’s Covid shutdown

The career of the former Huddersfield Town winger, now picking up the pieces at Conference North side York City, started to turn upside down in the summer of 2019.

His club Bury – two-time FA Cup winners in 1900 and 1903 – were expelled from the Football League due to unpaid debts and 134 years of history would subsequently be ended as the club folded.

It arrived less than four months after the club clinched promotion in 2018-19, a season marred with off-the-field troubles, with a winding-up petition adjourned shortly before the Lancastrians went up.

Their fates would unravel quickly and Bunn and many of his colleagues found themselves out of work and struggling to make ends meet with bills to pay and no income coming in.

At the age of 26 and with his partner pregnant, it was a hugely fraught time.

A lifeline for Bunn, who trained at Wigan to get fit during his time without a club, arrived when Kilmarnock – managed by his former Huddersfield assistant-manager Alex Dyer – offered him a deal in January for the remainder of the 2019-20 season with the potential for something longer if he impressed.

Then, after just four games with Killie, the shutdown of football north of the border due to Covid-19 represented a further untimely blow and it was back to square one.

Given the luckless time which he has been through, Bunn retains an admirable sense of perspective. The birth of his son Oliver in February has also helped.

Bunn told The Yorkshire Post: “There are people a lot worse off than myself.

“In football terms, it has been a frustrating past year or so. But in the bigger picture, there are people losing family members and stuff like that.

“Luckily, all my family are healthy and I am making my mark again and enjoying what I am doing. I have got nothing to moan about in terms of that.

“My little boy has started nursery and it’s exciting times.”

The financial meltdown at Bury left a bitter taste in the mouth of Bunn and his Shakers team-mates, who, after months without pay, lost their jobs and were subsequently forced to scramble around for clubs with the transfer window having closed last autumn.

Bunn, part-way through an Open University degree on sport and business, insists he had no intention of calling time on his career and stayed mentally strong during parlous times.

With considerable understatement, he continued: “The Bury thing was something you don’t really expect.

“You don’t expect any clubs to go bust. But it happened and you have just got to pick yourself up and move on. Things happened that should not have with the new owner coming in.

“The EFL should maybe have done more about that. But things happen and there’s things going on that are a lot worse.

“We went about six months without pay and, obviously, it is a long, long time for anyone, no matter what work you are in.

“Chatting to a lot of clubs at the time, they had filled their budget. Obviously, being after the transfer window and it shutting didn’t help either. I think if it had happened at the start of the summer, it might have been easier to get a club.

“Fortunately, I went into Wigan and they were good there. It gave me the chance to keep fit and keep ticking over. It was good.

“But I always wanted to carry on playing. I would not say I was ever that worried about it and it never crossed my mind (to finish playing).”

A move to Scotland at the start of 2020 was a welcome change of luck. But soon coronavirus changed all that as Bunn was forced to return south after the Scottish Premier League was suspended in mid-March and abandoned two months later.

Bunn commented: “The last year has been a bit of a nightmare for me. I thought Kilmarnock was a good opportunity and it is a club that wants to start moving forwards again.

“The standard up there is better than what people think it is. It is just unfortunate about the coronavirus pandemic, which obviously cut that short.

“They had the winter break and I signed at the end of January and played four games and then the season finished in March. Just as I was wanting to get going again, it cut short again.”

Coping with some blows earlier in his career and having a father who also speaks from experience when it comes to handling his own tough times in football has provided Bunn with a mental toughness to cope with adversity. Even if it is still hard.

At the age of just 19, Bunn – then a young professional at Manchester City – suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury on loan at Crewe Alexandra in a goalless draw against Tranmere Rovers in September, 2012 which kept him out of the game for a year.

Injury had previously prematurely ended the career of his dad Frank, an Oldham legend who became a League Cup record holder after scoring six goals in the Latics’ 7-0 win over Scarborough in 1989 and who was also famously the favourite player of Manchester United icon Paul Scholes.

Bunn senior spent a spell at Hull City before making his way to Boundary Park. But, cruelly, at a time when he was approaching his prime and Oldham were in the midst of the most feted time of their history under the command of Joe Royle during some heady days in that corner of Lancashire, it was all over.

Fortunately, Bunn junior has fought back amid the adversity of his own career and is now rebuilding his career at York.

He netted his first goal for the club in Tuesday’s 3-2 win at Southport.

The previous time he found the net in a competitive game was on April 22, 2019.

Bunn added: “My dad experienced things first-hand. His career was cut short and I think he was 26 or 27 at the time. He experienced big setbacks and he’s the first person I go to for advice.

“He has been there throughout and always there. He has played a major part in my career and it has been good for me.

“I think the knee injury helped me out in that respect (developing mental toughness). It happened when I was 19 and when you are told you might not play again, it hits you quite hard. It put me in good stead.

“The last year or so has been tough, but things are looking up now.

“My contract ran out at Kilmarnock and my missus gave birth and we had a little boy in February. There was a bit of interest, but the gaffer (York manager Steve Watson) made me an offer and it was a chance to get back playing.

“With the signings that the gaffer has made in the summer, a lot of lads have played higher up in the leagues.

“We have got a good squad and if we turn up and do what is expected, we should hopefully be at the right end of the table and pushing for promotion and come out on top and win it.”

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