Starting out at Bolton Wanderers in the early-1930s, Norman Greenhalgh honed his trade in the rough and ready world of Division Three North, a league in which hardness had to be combined with footballing ability in order to survive.
As a young half back he possessed both, as well as the guile and mental toughness necessary to succeed. His relentless will to win succeed marked him out as a natural leader, yet there was no rapid ascent. In 1935 he joined New Brighton and converted to full back where he emerged as a formidable young talent.
In February 1938, Everton paid their neighbours £3,000 for Greenhalgh, who was given a contract worth £6 per week, rising to £7 after he played eight league games. His progress was impressive. After deputising for Billy Cook at right back, he came in for Jack Jones on the left side of Everton’s defence. By the end of the 1937/38 season he had made the number three shirt his own, and by the start of the following campaign he was captaining Everton.
Greenhalgh, recalled Stan Bentham in Three Sides of the Mersey, ‘was a very wholehearted player, and he didn’t take much from any of the outside-rights. He made a good captain; not always too popular, I don’t think, because he opened his mouth a bit to try to get the best out of the players.’
For an opposing winger he was a formidable sight, and Stanley Matthews was one such player known to hate coming up against him. ‘Norman was the only one who could get much out of Matthews,’ said Bentham. ‘He was known for his sliding tackle, and I’ve seen Matthews jump out of the way: “Mind me legs, Mind me legs.”’
The impression he made upon a team renowned for their attacking play – and yet not necessarily a winning mentality – was considerable. Everton had finished sixteenth, seventeenth and fourteenth the previous three seasons; yet they won the 1938/39 First Division title in breathtaking fashion. In a side possessing players like T.G. Jones, Tommy Lawton, Torry Gillick and Joe Mercer, the input of the likes of Greenhalgh – the proverbial ‘water carrier’ – tends to be overlooked. But his contribution unquestionably allowed others to flourish.
Greatness seemed to beckon for Everton, but three games into the 1939/40 season war came and changed everything. Greenhalgh made nearly 300 wartime appearances for Everton, but it was never the same.
‘We won the League and Portsmouth won the Cup, and we were supposed to play them in the Charity Shield,’ he told the authors of Three Sides of the Mersey. ‘What happened? Bloody Adolf Hitler stepped in, didn’t he, and the bloody war was on, and I lost a medal. That was always a bone of contention for me.’
By the time football recommenced in September 1946, Greenhalgh had been shorn of his pace by the passing years. Although he played most of Everton’s games in the 1946/47 season, thereafter he found Gordon Dugdale and Jack Hedley picked ahead of him. After appearing on the wrong side of a 6-0 mauling against Chelsea in September 1948, he never played for Everton again. He joined Bangor City on a free transfer and later worked in the pub trade.