Leonard Benbow (3 May 1876 – 1946) was an English

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 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 ...

for

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...

. Benbow played for Oswestry United and Shrewsbury Town before joining

in 1897. He won the 1898 FA Cup with Forest and scored 22 goals for the club in 62 games. He spent the 1900–01 season at

scored four goals in 24 matches and ended his career with Northampton Town.

Career

Benbow was born in

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

and played for his local team Oswestry United and then nearby Shrewsbury Town. Benbow's performances in the Birmingham League for Shrewsbury earned him a move to

in 1897. In his first season with Forest he enjoyed a large amount of success as he scored 13 goals and played in the 1898 FA Cup Final as Forest beat Derby County to lift the cup. In 1898–99 He scored eight goals in 27 matches and in 1899–1900 managed just one in six as he found himself out of favour. He joined

for the 1900–01 season and his signing was met with approval from the club's supporters. But he failed to live up to the hype and he managed just two goals in the league both coming against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

in January 1901. He was allowed to leave the club at the end of the season and Benbow went to Northampton Town.

Career statistics

Honours

; Nottingham Forest *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

winner:

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benbow, Len English men's footballers Nottingham Forest F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players English Football League players 1876 births 1946 deaths Footballers from Oswestry Men's association football forwards