5'11"  12st.
b. Mayo 18 December 1899
 

Debut  20 November 1920 (20y 337d) Final Game 15 January 1921 (21y 28d)
CAREER: Royal Artillery;Blackburn Rovers Nov'19;Accrington Stanley May'22 (free)[18];Southend United May'24[42];Brentford Aug'25[79];Gradanski Zagreb (Yugoslavia) '29;Thames Association Jul'28-May'32[36-3];Gūneş (Turkey) '33-'35.
 

FL        8 apps
FAC     2 apps
Total  10 apps

Alec McGhie spotted Donnelly during the war when he was a guest player with Arsenal, and was serving in the Royal Artillery after returning from France. Given opportunities in both full back positions he failed to secure a spot and moved to Accrington. He saw regular Football League action  in the south before being hired as player-coach at the  Yugoslav champions Gradanski. The club had acute financial problems and were relegated but although he oversaw them regail their status he was dismissed for favouring an over defensive formation. He had formed the first ever schoolboy team to represent Yugoslavia . Returning to England he played with Thames before finishing his playing career in Turkey, with a team in the Second Division of the Istanbul League. His expertise was noted and he was hired as coach by the Turkish giants Fenerbahce, who he led to the Istanbul championship and then the first championship  of the newly formed national league. In October 1937 he moved to Italy where he assisted the coach of Ambrosina Inter by preparing detailed reports on future opposition. He left in March 1938 when he was apppointed  coach to the Austrian national team. War preparations meant that he had no opportunity to see his side in international action. After a brief spell in Holland was ended by the war he was forced to return to England. In 1940 he was back in Blackburn, staying with his old friend Monty Webster, lamenting the events that had lost him four good coaching jobs. He had been married in Blackburn in 1926 to Mary Ellen Waterhouse of Farington but she never appears to have accompanied him on his travels and remained in Darwen until her death in 1981. Donnelly's later years have not been accounted for but there is some inconclusive evidence that he was coach to Italian Serie B side  Taranto in 1946.