Bob Glendenning

Bob Glendenning started his footballing career with his two hometown teams Washington Athletic and Washington United. He also played a few games for Sunderland reserves before signing his first professional contract with Barnsley at the age of 19. During his time at the Yorkshire club, he played in two FA Cup finals. He was on the losing side against Newcastle United in 1910 and two years later was on the winning side against West Bromwich Albion, and in that game he was involved in an incident that played a part in the changing of the rules of the game forever.

Glendenning was having an injured foot attended to when West Brom attacked and after beating the Barnsley goalkeeper, and with the ball goal-bound, Glendenning ran back to the pitch wearing just one boot and cleared the ball away from danger. The FA subsequently instituted a rule change which said a player could not return to the field of play without the referee’s permission, and that rule still stands today.

After leaving Barnsley, Glendenning spent the last two pre-War seasons at Bolton Wanderers and became club captain. He remained on Bolton’s books throughout World War I, when Glendenning served with the 13th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry and saw action in France. After the War he ran the Ainsworth Arms in Bolton before returning to football with Accrington Stanley for one season. Glendenning then turned to coaching and his first appointment was in the Netherlands. He coached the national side for one game in 1923 before becoming the permanent coach in 1925. It was a post he would hold for 15 years. He also spent five years in club football with Koninklijke HFC having originally had a brief spell at DFC when he first moved to the Netherlands.

Glendenning guided the Netherlands national team to the FIFA World Cups of 1934 and 1938, as well as the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. His last game in charge of them was against Belgium in April 1940. He returned to England shortly afterwards, following the German invasion of the Netherlands. At the time, he had been coach to the national team on a record 87 occasions, with 46 wins to his credit, which remained a record until surpassed by Dick Advocaat in 2017.

Just over six months after returning to England in 1940, Bob Glendenning died after being admitted to the Manchester Royal Infirmary for an operation on a hip he damaged while playing football in the Netherlands.