season for a £150,000 fee, but his Blues career was blighted with a serious knee injury for 20 months which kept him out of manager Terry Cooper's first team plans. He scored the "Blues" consolation goal on his debut in a 2–1 defeat to Stoke City at the Victoria Ground on 4 January, but started just two league games as Birmingham won promotion as runners-up of the Third Division. He started three games at the start of the 1992–93 campaign, and claimed a goal at St Andrew's in a 2–0 win over Southend United on 1 September. Beckford's only appearances in the 1993–94 season came at Gigg Lane in a three-game loan spell with Mike Walsh's Bury after coming back from long term injury at Birmingham. Later career Beckford spent the first half of the 1994–95 season at Stoke City, but made just three starts for the "Potters". He then joined Mick McCarthy's Millwall, and played nine First Division games in the second half of the 1994–95 season. However, he left The Old Den at the end of the season, and arrived at Third Division side Northampton Town for the start of the 1995–96 campaign. He made four substitute appearances for Ian Atkins's "Cobblers", before announcing his retirement at Sixfields due to the persistent knee injury. Management and coaching career Beckford arrived at Mossley after coaching at Manchester City and the Bolton Wanderers' Academy side. He was appointed assistant manager in June 2002 and, following Ally Pickering's sudden departure in July 2003 he was appointed team manager. He led the "Lilywhites" to second place in the North West Counties League in 2003–04, which was enough to secure a place in the Northern Premier League. A seventh-place finish in 2004–05 saw Mossley miss out on the Division One play-offs by a three-point margin, before they won the league in 2005–06. However they could not survive in the Premier Division, and Beckford left the club after relegation in 2006–07. After leaving this post in April 2007, he returned to Bolton in 2008 as part of the club's restructured youth academy, and also worked as the under-16 coach alongside Steve Morgan at Oldham Athletic. In August 2012, he moved to Canada to work as Newmarket Soccer Club's technical director. He later coached the youth teams at Kleinberg Nobleton SC and Vaughan SC, serving as assistant coach of Vaughan's first-team in League1 Ontario in