Sideburn Bob - Legend

This piece was written for the Prescot Cables v Workington match programme in the Northern Premier League, Premier Division on 31 January 2026.

Today we look back at the extraordinary career of a player who many of our older readers will recognise but who, I suspect, few could name.

Sideburn Bob’s first appearance is believed to be in a Derby County programme in 1974, promoting the club’s Ram Boutique. After that, he became synonymous with football advertising in many soccer magazines and periodicals, until he first appeared as a cover star on a 1976 Kilmarnock programme.

After that, Bob went on to grace the covers of hundreds of football programmes up and down the UK, with his glory years being the 1980’s & 90s, but always hotly pursued by his doughty opponent, Dependable Dave.

,Occasionally, the pair are separated and both Bob and Dave have been featured on their own. Some times they are accompanied by a tiny referee, who seems to be intent on blowing his whistle for some imaginary infringement.

Usually Bob and Dave are seen running left to right, but sometimes the image is reversed and they’re chasing the ball to the left. Bob has probably played for hundreds of clubs in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, at levels from Juniors and Sunday League to the Football League.

Bob has definitely appeared several times against Prescot Cables, but I don’t think he has been seen on our side? However, he did make an appearance on the cover of Neville Walker’s history of the club, ‘From Slacky Brow to Hope Street’ I have also found characters who may be Bob’s cousin and Dad on old Prescot programmes from 1965/66 and 1996/87.

Both lads have also played abroad, with sightings in Spain, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, the USA and even Oman! Bob has been capped by the Republic of Ireland and Wales and appeared in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico for France!

Despite being in opposition for most of their long careers, Bob and Dave appeared as teammates on the badge of the, now disbanded, VV Montfoort club in the Netherlands. I think Bob’s new moustache made him look a little like Steve Heighway?

Both players have even switched codes and had the odd run out in Rugby Union. Most bizarrely, they have also turned up in women’s foot ball in Cornwall (as Bobette and Davina?)!

Mystery surrounds where Bob came from. Popular belief is he is, in fact, an early example of clipart, bearing a passing resemblance to the well-known Newcastle United footballer, Malcolm MacDonald.

The image was seized upon with glee by hard-pressed programme editors wrestling with poor quality football imagery and dodgy photocopiers! Equally, just when Bob and Dave acquired their names is also lost in the mists of time.

Thanks to great investigative work by Miles McClagan (@the skystrikers) and Tony Candland unearthing Bob and Dave’s long and varied careers, the lads developed something of a cult following in the mid-2010’s and their careers had a brief renaissance during the 2017-18 season, with many clubs, surprisingly, interested in issuing programmes with the iconic image either on the front cover or within the programme itself.

There are some great collections of Sideburn Bob programme covers on Flickr. Thanks to Tony, Bob even got his own Twitter (X) page, @sideburnbob1 although this hasn’t been updated for a while.

The last word should go to Tony Candland. ‘Why do I love this character? Well simply because it brings back memories of programmes collected throughout the years. For me, he is an iconic figure of the 1980’s and 90’s and reminds me of my first ventures into non-league football.’

Sideburn Bob - the People’s Champion - is a football icon of his time and the search still goes on for his full career history.

POSTSCRIPT: After writing the initial article, I have since come across match programme covers from season 1993/94 (when we were just called Prescot FC), which feature our hero, plus his perenial adversary, Dependable Dave! So, we can add Prescot to Bob’s long list of clubs