Mickey started his playing career with the West Bromwich Albion youth team, winning the Baggies’ Young Player of the Year award in 1984 and winning seven England Youth caps. After making 33 appearances for West Brom he moved to Derby County in November 1984 for £25,000.
Mickey was with the Rams for just under four years, scoring one goal in 50 games, before joining Oxford United in August 1988 as part of the deal that took Trevor Hebberd to the Baseball Ground.
In over a decade with United Mickey played successfully both in central midfield and central defence; he was a model of reliability and an integral member of the 1996 promotion-winning side. After that promotion season Mickey stopped playing and became the U’s youth team coach. However, injury problems saw him recalled to the first team in August 1999. He went on to play a total of 351 games for United, scoring seven goals.
In October 1999, Mickey was made caretaker manager following the departure of Malcolm Shotton after which he returned to coaching the youth team while acting as Denis Smith’s assistant.
After Smith’s resignation in October 2000, Mickey became assistant to caretaker manager Mike Ford, then became player-coach at Oxford City before giving up playing to become assistant manager, having spent the summer of 2001 as player-coach with US side Des Moines Menace who he took to second place in the Premier Development League.
While with City, Mickey also became coach to the Oxford University football team, who he led to three consecutive Varsity victories. Mickey left Oxford City in December 2003, becoming coach at Slough Town the following month. He remained at Slough until July 2005, at which point he was appointed David Penney’s assistant manager at Doncaster Rovers.
In August 2006, the pair left Doncaster and Mickey returned to Oxford, where he coached Abingdon Town, Oxford United under-11s and the University side again before he replaced new manager Darren Patterson as Oxford United’s youth-team coach,
In November 2007 he became Assistant Manager and played a key role in the club’s Wembley win in 2010
He finally left the U’s in 2015 after a 28-year association. He managed Hayes & Yeading United after which he continued coaching the Oxford University side. Most recently, Mickey was the Head Coach for the male programmes for the Oxford City Velocity education programme.
Mickey passed away on 6th March 2021 after a short battle with cancer
