“I’m not one of those goalkeepers like Ederson and Alisson who could play in midfield. I wouldn’t want to. But I can kick the ball hard and, just sometimes, straight.”
It was one of those thundering swings of his right foot which earned Matt Glennon his own modest place in the St Johnstone history books. A blast from the past; a cracking quiz question.
More than fifteen years prior to Zander Clark’s astonishing assist at Ibrox on Sunday — March 11, 2006 to be exact — Glennon went one better and actually rippled the back of the net during a crucial First Division fixture against Ross County.
Owen Coyle’s promotion-chasers were trailing 2-1 going into the final minute at Victoria Park, prompting the big Englishman to head forward in search of a leveller.
“You always think you are going to get on the end of it and score,” he laughed. “Whether in a game of five-a-side or if I went upfield during a match, I was always convinced I would score. In hindsight, I was maybe deluded!”
On this occasion, his delusion was justified.
A deep Paul Sheerin delivery caused pandemonium in the County back-line. In the ensuing stramash, Jason Scotland inexplicably passed up a chance to fire home and allowed the ball to bounce through to Glennon.
The Saints goalie took one touch to kill it on his thigh then lashed a sweet volley beyond Joe Malin.
“We knew the importance of the game and, at 2-1 down with a couple of minutes left, I just thought: ‘Stuff it!’,” he adds.
“Jason Scotland ducked, for some strange reason — I think maybe his dreads had just been done — and I took one touch and rattled it into the net. I like to tell people it was from 25 yards but, on reflection, it was a bit closer.
“Whenever the anniversary of that goal comes along, I’ll get tagged in tweets or get messages, and that’s fantastic. Social media is great for things like that — even if you do sometimes get a right whack on there too.
“I think the video has about 35,000 views on YouTube. Granted, 34,000 of those were me!”
It took a fair amount of bottle for Glennon to even trot up for the set-piece given his previous experiences, adding: “Just before moving to Scotland, I had come up for a corner while playing for Carlisle and got nowhere near it. They broke and scored, so you’d think I would have learned my lesson.”
Glennon now juggles barbering with G27 Hair and Beauty with running his own coaching school, the G27 Goalkeeping Academy. He also works as an analyst for Huddersfield Town games — having played north of 100 times for the Terriers — on BBC Radio Leeds.
And he describes his time in Scotland as ‘one of the highlights of my 22 years in football’.
“I played against Rangers and Celtic and I also turned in one of my only 10 out of 10 performances in a derby match against Dunfermline,” says Glennon of his initial stint at Falkirk during the first half of the 2005/06 campaign.
“I could see East End Park from my house and I went there and saved absolutely everything, every kick went to a teammate and we won 1-0. I still remember the pictures of [manager] John Hughes with his arms around me in the papers.”
With the timing of a man who now earns a crust as a broadcaster, he adds: “And then I got transferred two weeks later.”
That move was to St Johnstone, working with his old pal Owen Coyle; a relationship that went further back than even the McDiarmid Park gaffer knew.
“Coyley actually gave me my first rollocking in professional football, but I’m not sure he remembered,” continued Glennon. “I was a 15-year-old goalkeeper at Bolton and he was a senior player.
“I tipped one of his shots over the bar in training and pretended I didn’t touch it and he went mad — he was shouting ‘don’t ever lie’. I’m thinking: ‘I’m looking for a career in football; you’ve got to tell a few fibs!’
“But I got on great with Coyley and took plenty of money off him playing cards on the team bus as St Johnstone.”
Glennon played 12 games for the Saints (a sparse tally) and scored one goal (a downright prolific tally for a goalkeeper) during his six months in Perth and, although Coyle’s charges failed to secure promotion, the transient stopper is still invited to tell the tale of that goal regularly.
ST JOHNSTONE EQUALISE IN THE 120TH MINUTE! 😱😱
Goalkeeper Zander Clark flicks it on and Chris Kane slots it home! 🔵⚪
Madness at Ibrox! 🤪#ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/4AF77kmlVd
— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) April 25, 2021
He can only imagine how long Clark will be able to dine out on his own moment in the opposition’s box.
“It’s not just the assist,” said Glennon, who watched his former club prevail on Premier Sports.
“It was just one of those games you dream about from start to finish. He made big saves, stopped penalties, set up the equaliser; unbelievable. That’s what playing football is all about and I’m delighted for him and the club.”
