Robert Glen (16 January 1875 – 16 July 1953) was a Scottish

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 for Renton,

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

, Hibernian and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Club career

Glen started his career with his local club Renton. He briefly left them in 1893 to play for

, but returned later that season. He captained Renton in the

1895 Scottish Cup final The 1894–95 Scottish Cup was the 22nd season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The Cup was won by St Bernard's when they beat Renton, 2-1, in the final. Calendar First round *Match Declared Void First round r ...

, which they lost 2–1 to Edinburgh club St Bernards. After a brief spell with

, where he was used as a backup for the regular defensive players, Glen joined Hibernian in 1898. They finished third in the league in 1899–1900, but a mistake by Glen contributed to a second-round defeat by Hearts in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1901–02, but then went on a prolonged run in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Clyde,

Port Glasgow Port Glasgow ( gd, Port Ghlaschu, ) is the second-largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19,426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16,617 persons. The most recen ...

, Queen's Park and Rangers sent Hibs to the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, which was played against

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 ...

at Celtic Park (neutral Ibrox was intended to be the venue, but part of its terracing collapsed during a Scotland match there in April). Early in the game, Glen succeeded in protecting goalkeeper

Harry Rennie Henry George Rennie (1 June 1873 – 17 March 1954) was a Scottish football goalkeeper who played for Morton, Heart of Midlothian, Hibernian, Rangers, Kilmarnock and the Scotland national team. Career Born in Greenock, Rennie started his ca ...

. With fifteen minutes remaining,

Andrew McGeachen Andrew McGeachen (born 1882) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as an inside forward. Career McGeachen began his senior career with Hibernian, playing for the Leith club between 1901 and 1904. He scored the only goal of the 190 ...

scored the only goal of the match, and Hibs had won the cup. One match report said Glen was the star performer in defence for Hibs, as he would make interceptions "in the nick of time" and would use "trick" plays like

overhead kick In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick, scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before ...

s to get the ball to safety. A few weeks later he was in the side that defeated the same opposition 6–2 to win the

Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup The Glasgow Merchants' Charity Cup was a knockout football tournament open to teams from in and around Glasgow and later on in the tournament's history, teams from outwith Glasgow. Invitations were made and sent out by the Glasgow Charity Cup ...

(in that year only, entry was extended to clubs outwith that city to boost the income for the Ibrox Disaster Relief Fund). Glen also helped the club win the

Scottish League championship The Scottish League Championship (currently the Tennents League Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the fi ...

1902–03 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

, although he made only three appearances that season due to injury. After spending the best part of nine seasons with Hibs, he played some further games for Renton, by now competing in the minor

Scottish Football Union The Scottish Football Union was a football league competition that existed from 1906 till the outbreak of the First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global confl ...

competition. Soon afterwards he emigrated with his family to Canada, where he worked as a bricklayer.

International career

Glen made his full international debut for

on 23 March 1895, in a 2–2 draw with

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

at the

Racecourse Ground The Racecourse Ground ( cy, Y Cae Ras) is a football stadium in Wrexham, Wales. It is the home of Wrexham A.F.C. It is the world's oldest international football stadium that still hosts international matches, having hosted Wales' first home i ...

. He made two further appearances for Scotland, in a 4–0 win against the same opponents on 21 March 1896, and a 3–0 win against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

on 3 March 1900. He also played in an unofficial game for Scotland against Ireland on 9 August 1902, a match that also raised funds for victims of the Ibrox Disaster.

Style of play

Glen played as a left-back, and was known for his strength and the intelligence of his play. At the time of the 1902 Scottish Cup final, he was a favourite player of the Hibs supporters and had been on good form leading up to the final.

References

;Sources * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Glen, Robert 1875 births 1953 deaths People from Renton, West Dunbartonshire Scottish emigrants to Canada Scottish men's footballers Footballers from West Dunbartonshire Men's association football fullbacks Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Renton F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players