From City's bench at Bayern to Bury's FA Cup upset bid — Glendon's remarkable journey

George Glendon once warmed the bench as Manchester City beat Bayern Munich 3-2 in the Champions League. On Saturday, the midfielder will be hoping to help Bury reach the FA Cup first round proper for the first time in eight years when the Shakers host Harrogate Town at Gigg Lane in the fourth qualifying round.

Glendon only joined Bury in the summer from Radcliffe Borough, but his connection to the club stretches back to 2019, when he came agonisingly close to signing before the Shakers’ collapse. “The week Bury went bust I was training all week with them and was meant to play on the Saturday at Doncaster away and went home and told my dad I was signing for them, then I was watching Sky Sports when it came up that they had folded,” he told the Manchester Evening News.

Since that implosion, Bury have been expelled from the EFL, folded entirely, re-formed and re-emerged in the Northern Premier League — the seventh tier of English football, two divisions below Harrogate, who were relegated from League Two last season and are currently flying high in the National League.

For Glendon, the tie carries extra weight given everything the club has been through. “It’s massive for us,” he said. “We have done really well in the cup so far, we’re doing well in the league but for the fans and everyone involved in the club it will be a good occasion on Saturday and hopefully we can cause an upset. If we can cause an upset and get through to the first round proper then it will be a belting day for everyone.”

The match also represents a significant financial opportunity for Bury. The winners collect £9,375 from the FA’s prize fund, and even a defeat in the next round would guarantee the Shakers a further £15,800.

Glendon’s path to this point has taken him a long way from the highs of the Etihad. He spent 16 years progressing through City’s academy, captaining the Under-21 squad and making the bench on multiple occasions — most memorably for that 3-2 victory over Bayern in 2014, when Sergio Aguero scored a hat-trick. “It was the best times of my life,” he said of his time at City. “All the places we got to see, all the friends made for life, the opportunity it gave me in football and in life.”

After leaving City, Glendon went on to play for Fleetwood Town and Carlisle United before dropping into non-league football. Saturday at Gigg Lane offers him — and a club that has defied considerable odds simply to exist again — a chance to write a new chapter.