Russell Anthony Penn (born 8 November 1985) 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was appointed interim manager of club

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

in 2019 and was appointed as permanent manager on 2020.

Club career

Born in

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

, West Midlands into a sporting family (his father was a footballer with

Halesowen Town Halesowen Town Football Club is a football club based in Halesowen, West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Grove Recreation Ground. History The club was believed to have been established around 1873, but rec ...

and his younger brother

Mike Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and docume ...

became a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

professional), Penn began his career at

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 ...

in their

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

in July 2001. He joined the youth system at

in March 2002, and appeared in one youth team match against Wellington on 7 March before joining Scunthorpe United's youth system in July 2002. He returned to Kidderminster Harriers on a free transfer in the summer of 2005; he had a short spell on loan at

Alvechurch Alvechurch ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove district in northeast Worcestershire, England, in the valley of the River Arrow. The Lickey Hills Country Park is 2.5 miles (4 km) to the northwest. It is south of Bir ...

before breaking into the Kidderminster team. Penn joined newly promoted

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

club

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

on 9 July 2009 on a two-year contract, for an undisclosed fee thought to be a club record. He scored his first goal for Burton on 15 August 2009 in a 5–2 win over

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

. Penn signed for League Two club

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league sy ...

on 23 May 2011 on a two-year contract, after he rejected a new contract with Burton. He scored his first goal for Cheltenham in an FA Cup second-round match away at Luton Town in December 2011, followed quickly by his second goal a week later in a home League Two match against Southend United. On 7 January 2013, Penn turned in a man of the match performance and scored the home team's goal (his third for Cheltenham) in a 5–1 FA Cup third-round defeat at the hands of Premier League team Everto

Following the departure of club captain Alan Bennett in the January 2013 transfer window, Penn was named the new club captain by Cheltenham manager Mark Yates. Penn signed for Cheltenham's League Two rivals York City F.C., York City on 6 January 2014 on a two-and-a-half-year contract for an undisclosed fee. Penn turned down a new contract with York to join League Two club Carlisle United on 27 May 2016 on a one-year contract. On 22 September 2016, Penn joined

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

club

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

on a one-month loan until 25 October, having only made two appearances for Carlisle. On 24 October 2016, the loan was extended until 26 December. On 13 January 2017, Penn signed for National League club

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 ...

on a contract until the end of 2016–17, after leaving Carlisle by mutual consent. Penn rejoined Gateshead on 11 May 2017 on a one-year contract, after turning down a new contract with Wrexham because of family reasons. Penn re-signed for

National League North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Syst ...

club York City on 8 May 2018. Six months later he re-signed for York's National League North rivals Kidderminster Harriers on a free transfer, on a one-and-a-half-year contract.

Coaching career

In November 2019 he served as caretaker manager of Kidderminster for two matches, before being replaced by

James Shan James Shan (born 28 October 1978) is an English football coach who is a first-team coach at Sheffield Wednesday. Playing career Shan spent a three-month period in the youth set-up at Walsall at the age of 15. Following his spell at Walsall, Sh ...

, for whom he worked as assistant. When Shan departed to

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Leag ...

on 11 February 2020, Penn was made manager of the club. Shan was awarded the National League North Manager of the Month award for November 2021 after three league wins from three as well as success in the FA Cup and FA Trophy. Penn won the award again for January 2022 after winning more points than anyone else across the course of the month as well as defeating

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

in the FA Cup Third Round. On 5 February 2022, Penn saw his side take the lead against

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

before a 91st minute equaliser from

Declan Rice Declan Rice (born 14 January 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Premier League club Arsenal and the England national team. Rice began his professional career at West Ham United, having been re ...

took the game to extra time where

Jarrod Bowen Jarrod Bowen (born 20 December 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward for club West Ham United and the England national team. He has previously played for Hereford United and Hull City. Early life Bowe ...

scored in the last minute to avoid a massive shock.

International career

Penn was capped eight times by

England C The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at non-league level. Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it f ...

, scoring one goal, from 2007 to 2009. Having been a regular member of the team for two years, he was named the England C Player of the Year for 2009.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

References

External links

Profile
at the Kidderminster Harriers F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, Russell 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Dudley English footballers England semi-pro international footballers Association football midfielders Birmingham City F.C. players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Alvechurch F.C. players Burton Albion F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players York City F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Gateshead F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players National League (English football) players Midland Football Alliance players English Football League players English football managers Kidderminster Harriers F.C. managers Footballers from the West Midlands (county)