He won the Scottish Cup with East Fife in 1938, and was manager of both Bury and Tranmere Rovers for eight years.
Winning the Scottish Cup in 1938, Russell played 92 games for The Fifers before joining Sheffield Wednesday for the next season, where he was an ever-present as the club finished third in Division Two.
However, whilst at Bury, finances were a severe problem for Russell, and in 1957 they suffered relegation from Division Two for the first time in 63 years.
[2][3] He then took over as manager of Tranmere Rovers, at the time two divisions lower than Bury, replacing Walter Galbraith who had been in charge for less than a year.
After near misses and disappointments along the way, he finally steered Rovers back to the Third Division at the conclusion of 1966–67 season.