Glennon ends wandering ways at Falkirk

Glennon was 23 when he finally decided to leave the Reebok stadium, having been unable to establish himself in the first team after coming through the youth ranks. He had spent time on loan to Port Vale, Stockport County, Bristol Rovers and Carlisle United, but he felt that he needed to move away permanently if he was to make something of his career. The journey took him first to Hull City and then to Carlisle, where he dropped into non-league football, but the depths he reached seem worthwhile now. At 26, he has found something to savour at Falkirk, and a sense of revitalising vigour.

“I went away as a young goalkeeper to get games,” he explains. “I had a bit left on my contract at Bolton, but I wasn’t playing. Jussi Jaaskelainen has played hundreds of games there now and he’s done fantastic since he came, so it was right that I decided to move on. I’ve played 200-odd first-team games now and I’m working my way back up. I’m getting to my prime and hopefully I’ll kick on from here.”

Glennon’s contract with Carlisle expired last summer and despite the club regaining their place in League Two with promotion from the Conference, he felt the tug of restlessness. He needed a new challenge. Several Scottish teams, from both the Premierleague and the First Division, expressed an interest in him, but after speaking to John Hughes, the Falkirk manager, and seeing the club’s stadium and training facilities, Glennon was set on only one destination. Hughes ’s enthusiasm, the eagerness that seeps from him like sweat, left a telling impression.

The goalkeeper was also convinced that the move would benefit his career, that the standard of football he was coming to would have an improving effect. He spoke to Greg Strong, the Livingston defender who is a former teammate, about the merits of the Premierleague, while Richie Foran, a close friend from their time together at Carlisle, is at Motherwell. The presence of Alan Thompson at Celtic Park also said much to Glennon about the competition that he was entering, but there have been some developments this season that have caught him unawares.

“I knew it (the Premierleague) was going to be a good standard because I knew players up here already, good players” he says. “I was at Bolton with Alan Thompson for a good few years and I know what a superb player he is. So if he’s playing up here, it’s got to be a good standard. But what has surprised me is that when I came up here it was ‘Celtic, Rangers, Celtic, Rangers’ and now there are other teams. Hearts have got more than a chance (of winning the title) now and that makes it better for the league.”

Today, he must face those unbeaten leaders, and the way Falkirk have played against the Old Firm suggests that they will rise to the occasion against the Tynecastle side. It is how they fare against the other sides in the league that will determine whether or not Falkirk can evade relegation. The outcome of those encounters are less easy predicted. Hughes would not allow himself to go into the dressing room to see his players after the 5-0 defeat by Motherwell, for fear of what he might say to them, yet Glennon has found Falkirk’s approach this season refreshingly different to what he has known before. “It’s nice that every time I get the ball I don’t have to smack it as far as I can, like I’ve had to at certain clubs I’ve been at,” he smiles. “We get it down and pass, everyone wants it, everyone’s comfortable on the ball.”

Falkirk are sitting second bottom of the table alongside Dunfermline and three points ahead of Livingston, who have gained just two points. Although Hughes’s side have played a game less, the trio look as though they could become detached from the rest. Glennon is used to the strains that come with such pressure situations, having been at Bolton when they were trying to reach the Premiership and experiencing both promotion and relegation with Carlisle.

“I’ve been at clubs that have been under pressure for years, when every game means something,” he says. “For Falkirk this year, plenty of games are going to mean something, but hopefully we won’t be fighting relegation. We want to be away from that before the end of the season. If we string a couple of results together, two or three wins, I think we can get back up there. There’s a long way to go.”

Glennon should know. He has travelled a fair distance in his career already.