Norman John Trollope MBE (born 14 June 1943) is a former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and coach who served

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

in various capacities for nearly 40 years. Trollope previously held the record for the number of

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appearances made for one club - turning out for the Town in 770 games between 1960 and 1980, an achievement which saw him appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the 1978 Birthday Honours.

Playing career

Trollope made his debut for the club on 20 August 1960 in a 1–1 draw with Halifax Town, when he was aged seventeen and missed two matches that season. Trollope was an ever-present in the side in the 1962–63 season - a trend which continued for seven seasons. A run of 368 consecutive matches was brought to an end in August 1968 when he sustained a broken arm in a match at Hartlepool United. He did not return to the team until January - by which time he had missed most of Swindon's League Cup run. He only appeared in the competition twice that season - in the first game against

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

, and in the final at

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, where Swindon beat

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3–1. Trollope continued to be a regular member of the side right up until the 1978–79 season, when he made sixteen appearances. He retired at the end of the season and moved into the club's backroom staff. However, after an appalling start to the 1980–81 season, Trollope returned to playing and broke the appearance record previously set at 764 appearances by

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's Jimmy Dickinson. He finally retired from the playing staff at the end of that season.

Managerial career

Following his retirement from playing, Trollope replaced Bobby Smith as the club's manager early in the following season. His time as manager was far from successful - working on a shoestring budget, he led Swindon to their first ever relegation to Fourth Division. He was replaced by Ken Beamish near the end of the 1982–83 season. Even this was not the end of Trollope's times at Swindon; he was appointed assistant manager to Lou Macari during Easter 1985 and he took charge of the youth team under Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle, John Gorman and Steve McMahon before finally leaving the club in 1996. His time on the coaching staff took in Swindon's climb from the old Fourth Division to the

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between 1986 and 1993, although by the time he left they had suffered two consecutive relegations and were on the verge of another promotion. He would later work for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

, before returning to Swindon in 2008 to take up the role of Under 15's coach in the Centre of Excellence.

Personal life

Trollope's son

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

became a professional footballer who played for

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internationally, before becoming a manager.

Career statistics

Honours

Swindon Town *

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

: 1968–69 *

Anglo-Italian Cup The Anglo-Italian Cup (, also known as the Anglo-Italian Inter-League Clubs Competition and from 1976 to 1986 as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup or Gigi Peronace Memorial) was a European football competition. The competition was ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

* Anglo-Italian League Cup: 1969

References

External links

Profile
at Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Trollope, John 1943 births Living people Footballers from Swindon English men's footballers Men's association football defenders English Football League players Swindon Town F.C. players English football managers Swindon Town F.C. managers Members of the Order of the British Empire Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Swindon Town F.C. non-playing staff English football coaches