Garry James Sidney Pendrey (born 9 February 1949) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defender, making 345 appearances in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

, including more than 300 for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

. After playing he went into coaching, as manager of Birmingham City, as assistant manager under

Alan Buckley Alan Peter Buckley (born 20 April 1951) is an English former professional footballer and football manager who now works as a sports co-commentator for BBC Humberside. As a player, he was a forward from 1967 to 1987 for Nottingham Forest, Wa ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

and

Graham Turner Graham John Turner (born 5 October 1947) is an English former footballer who became a manager. His son Mark was also a professional footballer. He is third behind only Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger in terms of most games managed. After a ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, and as coach or assistant manager under

Gordon Strachan Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Cove ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. In 2012, Pendrey was one of seven former players elected to Birmingham City's Hall of Fame.

Playing career

Born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, Pendrey spent his entire playing career in England. He signed for

in 1965 as an apprentice defender, before agreeing professional terms in October 1966. He played for the club until 1979, making 360 appearances in all competitions and scoring five goals. He then had spells playing for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

and

Coaching and management

Pendrey had joined Walsall in 1982 as

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

, and after retiring as a player he continued on the club's coaching staff. As assistant to manager

, he helped coach the team to the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

semi-final in 1984. In August 1986, Buckley and Pendrey were sacked when Walsall was sold to a new owner,

Terry Ramsden Terry Ramsden (born 1952) is an English investor and gambler from Enfield who focused on horse betting and the Japanese stock market. Early life Ramsden was raised in Enfield the son of a GPO Telephones engineer. He began working as an insuran ...

. He then spent a few months on the coaching staff at

before returning to Birmingham as manager in June 1987. With a dwindling squad and no money to spend on replacements, Pendrey was fighting a losing battle. On 24 May 1989, with relegation to the Third Division for the first time in the club's history confirmed, the new owners sacked him and appointed

Dave Mackay David Craig Mackay (14 November 1934 – 2 March 2015) was a Scottish football player and manager. Mackay was best known for a highly successful playing career with Heart of Midlothian, the Double-winning Tottenham Hotspur side of 1961, an ...

as manager. Pendrey refused the offer of a coaching role, and two months later rejoined the coaching staff at Wolves. He became assistant to manager

; the pair resigned in March 1994.

With Gordon Strachan

In 1995,

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nick ...

took over as manager of

and brought in

as player-assistant manager and Pendrey as coach. When Strachan moved up to manager in November 1996, Pendrey was appointed his assistant. When Strachan departed in 2001, Pendrey left the club also, only to reunite as manager and assistant at

on 22 October. After Strachan left Southampton in February 2004, new manager

Paul Sturrock Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former association football, football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances betwe ...

did not keep Pendrey on. On 1 June 2005, Pendrey joined

as Strachan's assistant manager. After the resignation of Strachan at the end of the 2008–09 season, Pendrey left Celtic. When Strachan was appointed manager of

in October 2009 to succeed

Gareth Southgate Gareth Southgate (born 3 September 1970) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a defender and midfielder. He has been the manager of the England national team since 2016. Southgate won the League Cup w ...

, Pendrey joined him as his assistant. He followed Strachan out of the club in October 2010.

References

Sources

External links

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Profile
at ''truegreats.com'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Pendrey, Garry 1949 births Living people Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Birmingham City F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Walsall F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Birmingham City F.C. managers English Football League managers Walsall F.C. non-playing staff Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Coventry City F.C. non-playing staff Southampton F.C. non-playing staff Celtic F.C. non-playing staff Middlesbrough F.C. non-playing staff