Bristol City Garland was born on 24 April 1949 in
Ashton Gate, Bristol, England, the second son of Grace and George William Henry, a factory worker and lorry driver respectively. He attended a trial for England Schoolboys, and was signed up as an apprentice at
Bristol City in 1964. However, he broke his leg in a park game with friends, and was severely reprimanded by manager
Fred Ford. He recovered and went on to sign professional terms with the club five days after his 17th birthday. He made his
Second Division debut at
Ashton Gate on 3 December 1966 in a 2–0 victory over
Preston North End. This was his only appearance of the
season as the "Robins" went on to finish in 15th place. Ford was sacked early in the
1967–68 campaign, and caretaker-manager
Les Bardsley made wholesale changes to the first eleven, including a recall for Garland. He played all three of Bardsley's games in charge, and scored in the 3–3 draw with
Hull City. He started in new manager
Alan Dicks' second game in charge, and remained a first team regular throughout the rest of the season, scoring nine goals in 32 league and cup games. In the
FA Cup the club beat
Bristol derby rivals
Bristol Rovers and
Middlesbrough, before losing 2–0 to
Leeds United in a bad tempered game that saw
Gary Sprake sent off for punching Garland in the jaw. City finished in 19th place in the
1970–71 season, four points above the relegation zone.
Chelsea Garland was sold to
Dave Sexton's
Chelsea for £100,000 in September 1971. He was signed as a squad player and found first team opportunities limited, especially after spending a month out injured following a bad tackle from
Nottingham Forest's
Barry Lyons. He scored his first goal for the club in his fifth appearance, in a
League Cup semi-final win over
Tottenham Hotspur; he also scored in the second leg. He went on to sing with the rest of the team in
Blue Is the Colour, a song to coincide with
the final, which went on to reach number five in the charts. He played in the final at
Wembley Stadium, in which Chelsea lost 2–1 to
Stoke City. The "Pensioners" finished the
1971–72 campaign seventh in the
First Division. Chelsea declined in the immediate aftermath of his departure, and suffered relegation at the end of the
1974–75 season.
Leicester City Garland was sold to
Leicester City for £100,000 on 12th March 1975; he agreed to join the club without speaking to Everton as he was convinced by manager
Jimmy Bloomfield that Leicester were the right club for him. He scored eight goals in ten matches, including a hat trick in a 3–2 win over
Wolverhampton Wanderers at
Filbert Street on 22 March, to help the "Foxes" to finish three points above the
First Division relegation zone at the end of the
1974–75 season. He was one of three regular rotated forwards in the
1975–76 campaign, alongside
Frank Worthington and
Bob Lee, and City went on to finish seventh; he claimed another hat trick in a 3–0
FA Cup victory over
Sheffield United on 3 January. He scored three goals at the start of the
1976–77 season and broke
Jeff Blockley's cheekbone after punching him during training for what Garland believed was Blockley's rough treatment of the club's apprentices. Garland submitted four transfer requests and was eventually sold back to his hometown club.
Return to Bristol City Garland was sold to his former club
Bristol City for a £110,000 fee in November 1976; during his absence the club had reached the
First Division while still under the stewardship of
Alan Dicks. Dicks planned to use Garland in a strike partnership with target man
Paul Cheesley, but a severe injury to Cheesley meant that Garland had to play as the target man centre forward despite his small stature. He initially struggled in the role, but Dicks had no other suitable replacements other than
Tom Ritchie, who also was not a natural centre forward. Despite a tough end-of-season schedule City managed to pick up enough points to narrowly avoid relegation in
1976–77, with Garland scoring winning goals against
Leeds United and
Liverpool. Garland tore his cruciate ligaments early in the
1977–78 season and missed not only the rest of the campaign but also spent much of the
1978–79 and
1979–80 seasons struggling with the same injury. Dicks departed following relegation in 1979–80, and under
Bob Houghton's stewardship they dropped immediately out of the
Second Division in the
1980–81 campaign, with Garland again having limited involvement due to his knee and ligament injuries. Houghton sent him on loan to
Västerås SK of the
Swedish second Division to help him gain fitness. There he scored the winning goal against local rivals
IFK Västerås, and helped the club to a third-place finish in
1981. Garland rarely featured under Houghton, and when new manager
Roy Hodgson arrived he informed Garland and seven teammates (
Julian Marshall,
Jimmy Mann,
Geoff Merrick,
Peter Aitken,
David Rodgers,
Trevor Tainton and
Gerry Sweeney), known as the "Ashton Gate Eight", that they would have to take
voluntary redundancy as part of a last-ditch plan to save the club, which was on the verge of folding; Garland agreed and lost £3,750. He and Merrick then spent six months playing in Hong Kong for Caroline Hill. City suffered a third successive relegation in
1981–82 after dropping out of the
Third Division. After relegation to the
Fourth Division, Garland would go on to be re-employed by Bristol City manager
Terry Cooper for the
1982–83 season, playing as a non-contract player until February 1983, when he retired. ==Later life==