CRAIG Harrison has twice found redemption with The New Saints.

It was at TNS that the former Middlesbrough defender, who was forced to retire as a player when he was just 24 after a brutal double leg break, made a name for himself in management, winning a string of titles and breaking records.

And now in his second stint at the club, the Gateshead-born 45-year-old is back on top of Welsh football - and is targeting Europe.

Sandwiched in between his two spells at TNS was an incredibly difficult period back in the North-East with Hartlepool United.

Indeed, it wasn't until six months after leaving Hartlepool that Harrison began to realise just how much his time at the club - and his sacking - had taken out of him. But what hurt Harrison more was the impact it had on his young family.

Harrison, a product of Boro's youth system who won promotion with the club in 1997/98 and played in the top flight the following season, was the man tasked with leading Hartlepool out of the National League after their relegation in 2017 but, against a backdrop of turbulence off the field as Pools fought for their future amid financial troubles - described by him at the time as "like watching the slow death of a football club" - Harrison lasted just eight months before being sacked.

From a football perspective, he took it in his stride. Having been forced to retire so young while playing for Crystal Palace, Harrison understandably believes he's mentally equipped to "cope with anything in football".

But what's unseen in the game is the impact at home.

And what hurt Harrison, he says, is, having been told he had to be "all in" when taking the job, the goalposts moved dramatically just a few months into the season when Pools were put up for sale by then owner John Blackledge.

Harrison knows upheaval and uncertainty is part of life as a manager but had he known what was around the corner at Pools, he wouldn't have taken the job and certainly wouldn't have relocated his family from Wales.

"Looking back, I probably shouldn't have gone to Hartlepool," he admits, six years on in conversation with the Northern Echo.

"If I'd used my head instead of my heart, I'd have been a bit more patient because when you look at it, it was never a good read with how many managers they'd had in a short space of time. Then you add however many since. Really, I should have heeded that history of managers there."

Off the pitch uncertainty had an impact on results, inevitably. Players feared they weren't going to be paid and Pools were 19th when Harrison was sacked.

He says: "I know we had bad results but I just think it was an untenable position for everybody. Players weren't getting paid thousands, they were living month to month. Families moved to the area, I had an occasion where one wife rang me up and asked me what was going on.

"Her husband didn't want to get involved properly. They'd moved into the area, the wife hadn't got a job yet so they had one income coming in with a family to look after.

"I completely understood because I had a family to look after. It did take a toll on my family.

"My daughter is 10 now but she was six at the time, taking her out of school and moving her to a new school. When I had the interview I was told I had to be all in. The cheek of it now when you look back. I would have been anyway, that's the way I am, it was a great opportunity.

"My wife Danielle knew it was a great opportunity for me. She had a really successful dance school but she moved up north with me. We moved our daughter Ruby at a really young age. Then when we left it's the other way around again. She'd spent a full year and settled.

"Probably the most upsetting thing, I remember it like it was yesterday, the last day of Ruby's school, her leaving and I was in tears in the yard because of how upset she was and her friends and her teachers. Everyone had been great. That was the hardest thing.

"Football is what it is, you get on with it and start again. But that was the hardest thing and I don't think I've ever forgiven the people at the top for that."

Harrison might have found it difficult to forgive but he knew he had to move on with his career. He returned to Wales, had a brief stint in charge of Bangor and then moved back into the full-time game as assistant manager at Connah's Quay Nomads.

He went on to become manager of Connah's Quay but when TNS sacked their boss Anthony Limbrick in the early stages of the most recent season after their early exit from Europe, they made a move to reappoint Harrison - and history would soon repeat itself.

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In his first stint at TNS, he won six successive titles, seven cups and broke Ajax's world record for the most consecutive wins with 27.

Harrison hasn't yet managed to break his own record in his second stint but he did storm to the Welsh title, with his TNS side losing only once in 32 games, scoring 112 goals and conceding only 17 on their way to opening up a 22-point margin at the top over his former side Connah's Quay. The title was wrapped up as early as March.

"There were still players here who I had and signed, the likes of Ryan Brobbel for instance," said Harrison of his return.

Ex-Boro youngster Brobbel enjoyed a remarkable season, averaging a goal involvement every 74 minutes.

"Ryan has been flying. We know the qualities of Brobs. We brought him in about eight or nine years ago and he's been one of the best players the league has ever seen. He's only just turned 30, so he has more left in him. He recently signed a new two year contract. He has fantastic quality, we just have to make sure he keeps pushing himself."

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Harrison continued: "It was brilliant coming back and the fans have been great with me.

"I think they understood why I left in the first place, it was a chance for what I thought was to give myself the opportunity in England and hopefully start the pathway there and try to manage as high as I can in England. By the way, I still haven't lost that enthusiasm and drive.

"But it's almost like a dream come true for me to manage a club like this again with the style I want to play. The club has a DNA thanks to owner Mike Harris, who is brilliant.

"We only lost one game this season, which is really frustrating because nobody has ever gone a full season without getting beat. But they're the building blocks that we look for."

With that, Harrison moves on to discussing the next big challenge: Europe.

"We have to make sure we look after the domestic side of it and keep improving, but the owner has made it clear publicly and privately, everyone at the club knows where we want to be is trying to get into the group stage of European football," he says.

"The Champions League group stage is out of reach and I don't think that will ever be possible the way UEFA have changed it over the last five years.

"Europa League is a possibility but the Europa Conference is a real possibility. That's the goal. That's huge. It would be fantastic for the club but also for Welsh football - that's the dream."