Career
He was most recently the manager of League Two club Portsmouth having been sacked in March 2014. He has previously managed and Crawley Town. Born in Sheffield, Barker began his career at Sheffield Wednesday, but only played in the Intertoto Cup for the first team
He was sold by the Owls in 1997 to Northern Irish side Linfield after loan spells at Doncaster and Ards, before returning home to play for Brighton & Hove Albion.
He played two seasons at Brighton, scoring 12 goals, before moving to Macclesfield on a free transfer in 1999. At Macclesfield, Barker scored 23 goals in 58 league games.
He was signed by Rotherham United in January 2001, and helped the Millers gain promotion to the Championship. He was mostly used as a substitute by Rotherham, and was allowed to move to Mansfield Town on a free transfer in November 2004.
Barker soon became a fan favourite at Field Mill, scoring 10 goals in his first season at the club
In the summer of 2005, he was named team captain, and he led by example with his professionalism and work-rate. In the summer of 2006, Barker signed a contract extension with Mansfield which tied him with the club until the end of the 2008-2009 season. However in January 2007 he was reluctantly forced to transfer to United during the January transfer window, much to the anger of the Stags fans.
He re-joined Rotherham United on 3 October 2008, on an emergency loan in January 2009.
He scored on his second Millers debut in the 4–1 over Grimsby Town after coming off the bench. He his move permanent on 1 January 2009.
Due to a knee injury in January 2009 he decided to hang up his boots on 29 May 2009. career After joining Sheffield United, being part of the Academy, Barker was named the manager of "s youth team from July 2010. Barker became caretaker manager of in April 2011 after Alan Knill left for Scunthorpe United with eight games left in the season.
Barker led to six consecutive victories and promotion to League One.
He was named Football League Two Manager of the Month for April 2011. This successful spell led to him being appointed as "s permanent manager on 1 June 2011. Barker was appointed manager of Crawley Town on 7 August 2012.
On 27 November 2013, Crawley Town terminated Barker"s contract with immediate effect.
On 9 December 2013, Portsmouth announced Barker as their new manager with Steve Coppell being appointed as director of football. On 1 April 2014 Barker was appointed Assistant Manager at MK Dons.
This has initially been confirmed as being until the end of the 13/14 season. This has since been extended to a position as head of coaching for the forthcoming 2014/15 season.
