After nearly four decades in a job that “felt like a hobby”, the manager of Everton Football Club at their old home of Goodison Park has retired.
Bob Lennon, 66, finished his last job on Saturday after 38 years of repairing the pitches at the Toffeemen’s Bellefield stadium and the historic ground where the men’s first team played until it moved to Hill Dickinson Stadium last year.
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Lennon worked with 19 managers, including five caretakers, and rubbed shoulders with some of the greatest Blues legends.
“I knew this day had come 12 weeks ago,” he said. “But I’m not sorry. I think it’s time for me to finish now.”
He said when his wife Carole asked how he felt about his retirement, he replied: “It’s like another chapter in your life book”.
Lennon added: “This is the end of one chapter, the mind of a very big chapter. But as I say, another page for tomorrow, another chapter.
“You can’t look back, you look forward.
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“It was a great pleasure to work with the people here.
“It’s more like a hobby than a job because you come to work whistling and it doesn’t matter if it’s raining or snowing.”
Bob Lennon said his work felt like “a hobby” [Everton FC]
Lennon said he would get to “banter with Colin Harvey, Howard Kendall, Terry Darracott, Paul Power and all the players, people like Ian Snodin, Neville Southall, all the great characters.”
Of all the managers he worked with, he described Harvey as the most demanding.
“He was a perfect diamond but very demanding. So, he’s very professional.”
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Lennon had worked for Liverpool City Council as a horticulturist before joining the Bellefield groundstaff in 1988 when Harvey was manager.
“There was a lot of pressure because in that place you couldn’t say ‘we will do that tomorrow’ – it should have been done then,” he said.
“If I said to Colin Harvey or Howard Kendall, ‘I’m going to cut that field tomorrow’ they’d say ‘No boy, I want it done now. I’ve got millions of players playing on that field, I want it done now.’
“It was like that.”
A new fan
Lennon said he was proud to have only lost a handful of games to the weather during his time at Goodison Park, and rarely because of the pitch.
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“We lost one game against Crystal Palace because of the strong wind,” he recalled. “The field was unusual.
“There was another one when the pipes at Bullens Road End, dating back to the 1920s, were getting tighter which meant toilets, pubs and takeaways could not be opened.
“It was a Sky game and they had been asking me all week if the stadium would be playable. I assured them it would be playable, and it was. But no one noticed the frozen pipes causing the issue!”
Now that he’s retired, Lennon said he plans to spend more time in his garden and with his grandchildren.
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And after nearly 40 years inside, he will finally be able to attend games only as a fan.
“I’m looking forward to that,” he said.
“Everton must be one of the top clubs in the country – the fans here are better than others. They are fantastic.”
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