Pryde Bob Image 3 Blackburn Rovers 1938

Description

Methil, Fife born centre half Bob Pryde began his football career with Windygates Thistle in 1928, playing for Thornton Rangers in 1929 before joining Scottish League St Johnstone later the same year. He had a spell on loan at Brechin City in 1932 before being spotted by First Division Blackburn Rovers who signed him in May 1933. Described at the time as “well fitted for the part of centre half, standing over 6 ft….. he is largely a defensive player in the modern ‘stopping’ style… he has made a handsome contribution to the latter’s [ie Blackburn’s] revival and return to the First Division”, he made his Football League debut against Chelsea that October and from the start of the 1934-35 season became a mainstay of the Blackburn Rovers line up, Although Rovers suffered relegation to the Second Division in 1936, they regained top flight status in 1939 when Pryde missed just one match as they won the Second Division Championship in the final peacetime season before the outbreak of the Second World War forced the abandonment of League football in September 1939 and severely interrupted Pryde’s career.

He played both sides of the War, during which he guested for West Ham United, and missing very few games over 15 War interrupted years until his final Rovers appearance in April 1949. By the time he joined Wigan Athletic as player-manager in the summer of 1949 he had scored 11 times in 348 appearances for Rovers. During the 1949-50 season, he played 22 games and scored twice in the Lancashire Combination as the club finished as the League’s runners-up. He decided to end his playing career before the start of the following season, and went on to win the League title as manager. He left the club in January 1952.