Eric Reginald "Reg" Holland (23 January 1940 – 3 January 2019) 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 as a full back.

Playing career

Holland enjoyed a promising start to his football career by being selected to play for England Schoolboys and

England Youth England national under-18 football team, also known as England under-18s or England U18(s), represents England in association football at under-18 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in Englan ...

while twice winning the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. Despite captaining the club's reserve side, Holland never made a league appearance at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

although he was an unused substitute on three occasions. In March 1960, he moved to

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

for £2,000, going on to spend six years with the North Wales side before joining local rivals

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

in March 1966. After six league appearances he dropped into

Non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

with

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

. After retiring from football, he joined the

Staffordshire Police Staffordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands of England. It is made up of eleven Local Policing Teams, whose boundaries are matched to the nine local authorit ...

and spent 27 years with the force before retiring in 1994. Holland died on 3 January 2019 at the age of 78.

Honours

;Manchester United *

(2): 1955–56, 1956–57

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Reg 1940 births 2019 deaths Footballers from Sutton-in-Ashfield English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Manchester United F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players English Football League players