Full name Glen Downey Years Team Playing position | Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Name Glen Downey | |
Date of birth (1978-09-20) 20 September 1978 (age 37) | ||
Place of birth Newcastle, England | ||
Glen Downey (born 20 September 1978 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1997 to 2007.
Contents
He notably played in the Football League for Grimsby Town, having also had spells with Hartlepool United, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor United, Gateshead, Scarborough and Worksop Town.
Career
Downey started his career as a trainee at Hartlepool United in 1997 but in three years with the club he had failed to make a single first team appearance and was released in 2000. He then moved into Non-League whilst having a brief spell with Bishop Auckland, before joining Conference National side Scarborough in 2003. He had struggled to make an impact with The Seadogs, and following his release in 2004 he was surprisingly signed up for Football League Two side Grimsby Town by Russell Slade, his manager at Scarborough. Originally signed as defensive cover, he was given a new one-year-deal a year later despite the fact he only played 14 minutes in his first season with The Mariners.
He was often referred to as 'The Invisible Man' by Grimsby fans, who speculated if he really existed, having featured more than 30 times as an unused substitute in his time at Grimsby. In his first appearance of the 05-06 season Downey impressed after replacing the injured Rob Jones in the impressive 1-0 Football League Cup victory away against Derby County. In his only league appearance of that season on New Year's Eve, he came on as substitute and scored an 84th-minute winner against Wrexham in a game where both Grimsby centre backs Simon Ramsden and Rob Jones departed through injury. Downey had played at left back as part of a makeshift back four with regular left back Tom Newey moving to centre back to partner striker Gary Jones.
Despite earning several plaudits in all 3 of his appearances for the club, Downey was released and joined Conference North side Worksop Town at the start of the 2006-07 season. This was only to be a brief spell and he departed after playing only a handful of games. Following his release from Worksop he was never to sign again with a club at neither professional or semi-professional terms, and despite never officially announcing his retirement from the sport he would never play competitive football again,
Personal life
Following the end of his football career, Downey moved back to his native North England, and later was accused of money laundering and running a brothel from a flat in Sunderland in 2007. He was cleared of these charges in a court hearing in January 2009.