Tributes paid to Graham Turner's career - VIDEO

Shrewsbury boss Graham Turner was honoured by the Football League for his career spanning six decades as a player and manager. James?Garrison?looks at a stalwart of the game:

Some three decades on, Ken Mulhearn still refers to Graham Turner as "the boss."

The former Shrewsbury Town goalkeeper was an integral part of the first squad to fall under the managerial watch of the latest winner of the Contribution to League Football award.

With Turner having previously been a team-mate of the group he took charge of in November 1978, a potentially awkward situation faced the newly-appointed player-manager of whom difficult selection decisions were now demanded.

But the standing in the game of the 'new gaffer' ensured a smooth transition.

"Graham had an aura so him taking over as manager was never a problem," said Mulhearn.

"I roomed with him for a long time before he was manager and we socialised off the pitch a lot with our wives.

"When he became manager and we were at work it was always boss. When we were outside the football club it was Graham.

"I'm a pensioner now but it's still the same. I'm at the club on a matchday and if I see him there it's boss and if we get together away from the club it's Graham.

"I do it now because he has earned that respect over so many years."

After a career spanning six decades with in excess of 2,200 competitive games as player and manager, that respect runs deep throughout the sport and was recognised on Sunday night in front of 600 peers at the Football League awards dinner in London.

It was an evening when football doffed its collective cap to Turner, who has displayed incredible longevity in continuing a career which began even before Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy.

Turner was a green 16-year-old back in 1964, launching a playing career which was to produce exactly 650 appearances for Wrexham, Chester and Shrewsbury.

With collective gain much higher on his list of priorities than personal achievement, it is a landmark that barely registered with Turner then or now.

Instead his focus was squarely on continuing to help Shrewsbury punch above their weight, the 1978-79 Division Three championship-winning season propelling Town into the second tier of English football and a run to two FA Cup quarter-finals.

Lured by a crack at one of the stellar names of English football, Turner answered a call from Aston Villa in 1984.

But, two years later, it was at another Midland club where he would further enhance a reputation which still grows today.

Back-to-back promotions helped Wolves fast-track through the bottom two divisions while he oversaw the rise to England prominence of Steve Bull.

"He was different class and he hugely deserves this award for his achievements in the game," said the prolific striker

"He got the best out of me and he always knew when to give people a pat on the back or a rollicking – it was all down to his managerial instincts.

"As a manager he was 10 out of 10. We never had an argument and he was definitely one of the best I played under.

"As players, we all owe him a great deal because he lifted us up the footballing ladder and got us playing well."

But Turner's most demanding challenge arrived when he boarded the Hereford rollercoaster in 1995.

On the pitch, the bitter blow of relegation out of the Football League provided sufficient motivation for Turner to guide the Bulls to two promotions.

But that achievement was arguably eclipsed by simultaneously steering Hereford through tricky financial waters in his guise as chairman and owner during his 15 years at Edgar Street.

"You don't do what he has done without tactical nous, a massive enthusiasm and good man-management skills," said John Trewick, who became his assistant at Hereford and remains his chief lieutenant at Shrewsbury today.

"It was a fantastic achievement to get Hereford into League One and he handled the stress of having all the other jobs well.

"He was responsible for a huge variety of things. He didn't seem to get particularly stressed and uptight about it outwardly.

"But I'm absolutely certain that inside he was churning up a little bit because of the nature of the job. You wouldn't be human if you didn't but he handled it magnificently well and took the club from a position of near bankruptcy into League One."

His ties eventually cut from Hereford, Turner's 'Second Coming' arrived in 2010 with a return to Shrewsbury.

Still now his enthusiasm burns bright, as his daily 7am arrival at his desk testifies, and a sixth promotion of his managerial career could be just two months away.

That would be another major milestone for a man who has always found football to prove a staunch and loyal ally.

But whatever good times the game has given Graham Turner, it has been returned with interest.

Thanks to the Football League for video footage of Graham Turner