Willie Henderson

Last updated

Willie Henderson
Personal information
Full name William Henderson [1]
Date of birth (1944-01-24) 24 January 1944 (age 80)
Place of birth Baillieston, Scotland
Position(s) Winger
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1960–1972 Rangers 276 (36)
1972 Durban United 3 (0)
1972–1974 Sheffield Wednesday 48 (5)
1973 Miami Toros 7 (0)
1974–1976 Hong Kong Rangers 47 (5)
1976–1977 Caroline Hill 24 (0)
1977–1978 Brisbane Lions 6 (0)
1978–1979 Airdrieonians 2 (0)
Total342(41)
International career
1961–1968 [2] Scotland U23 3 (0)
1962–1971 Scotland 29 (5)
1962–1968 Scottish League XI 6 (2)
1964 [3] SFA trial v SFL 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

William Henderson (born 24 January 1944) is a Scottish retired footballer. He played most of his career for Rangers, and spent the latter part of his career with Sheffield Wednesday, in Hong Kong with Hong Kong Rangers and with Airdrieonians. He also featured at international level for Scotland.

Contents

Henderson made his career debut in 1960 at the age of 16. He was a very pacy right-winger, and as he was only 5 feet 4 inches tall he became known as Wee Willie. [4]

Playing career

Club

During his time with Rangers he made over 400 appearances and won two Scottish league championships, the Scottish Cup four times and the League Cup twice, [5] including a treble in 1963–64. [4] He was also part of the Rangers team that got to the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1966–67 and was part of the campaign that eventually brought the trophy to Ibrox in the 1971–72 season; however, he was not involved in the 3–2 final victory over FC Dinamo Moscow in Barcelona in May 1972 as he had left Rangers just prior, having fallen out with manager Willie Waddell. Henderson later admitted that missing that game was one of the worst moments of his career. Thus while he sat on a beach in South Africa, his former teammates had their names carved onto the trophy. [4]

Henderson signed for Sheffield Wednesday for the 1972–73 season and made his debut on 12 August 1972 in a 3–0 victory over Fulham. He was a great favourite with the Wednesday fans in the two seasons that he was there even though the club had little success. He made 50 appearances for Wednesday with six as substitute, scoring five goals in his two seasons there. His last appearance for the club was on 27 April 1974, the last match of the 1973–74 season against Bolton Wanderers, a match Wednesday had to win to avoid relegation to Division Three – they won the match 1–0. Henderson left Wednesday at the end of that season and went to play for Hong Kong Rangers. In November 1976, he moved to Caroline Hill. [6] He spent three years in the colony and captained the Hong Kong League XI (a team made up of foreign professionals plying their trade in Hong Kong) before returning to Scotland for a final season with Airdrieonians.

International

He made his debut for Scotland on 20 October 1962, against Wales in a 3–2 victory for Scotland, in which he scored the winning goal. [7] He also scored in his second game for Scotland in a 5–1 victory over Northern Ireland. He went on to gain a total of 29 caps and five goals. His last game for Scotland was on 21 April 1971, in a 2–0 defeat by Portugal. Henderson remains one of the youngest players to represent Scotland at 18 years and 269 days, and won more caps than his main rival for the position at right wing, the highly regarded Jimmy Johnstone of Celtic. [4] In an interview with the Scotland on Sunday newspaper in April 2006, Henderson admitted that Scotland's failure to qualify for the 1966 and 1970 World Cups was a great disappointment to him as Scotland at that time had one of the best teams in Europe. "I can't believe that we had so many players who were genuine world class yet we didn't reach the best-ever finals of the biggest tournament of them all," said Henderson. He also represented the Scottish League XI. [8]

Later career

Whilst playing for Rangers, Henderson owned and ran a hairdresser's shop in Glasgow. Upon his retirement he opened a pub alongside Alfie Conn, Jr. in Coatbridge. He later operated a hotel in Lanarkshire and worked for Rangers at Ibrox on match days as a hospitality host. [4]

Personal life

Henderson is short sighted and wore contact lenses. People found this amusing as they would often wonder how good a player he would have been had his eyesight been better. Legend has it that late on in an Old Firm encounter he inquired on the sidelines, "How long to go, how long to go?" Jock Stein replied: "Go and ask at the other dugout, you bloody fool – this is the Celtic bench!". [4]

Career statistics

International

Scotland national team [9]
YearAppsGoals
196222
196381
196420
196581
196630
196810
196941
197110
Total295

International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first. [10]
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.20 October 1962 Ninian Park, Cardiff Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Wales 3–13–2 1962–63 British Home Championship
2.7 November 1962 Hampden Park, Glasgow Ulster Banner.svg  Northern Ireland 4–15–1
3.13 June 1963 Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid Flag of Spain (1945-1977).svg  Spain 5–26–2 Friendly
4.24 November 1965 Hampden Park, Glasgow Flag of Wales (1959-present).svg  Wales 2–14–1 1965–66 British Home Championship
5.17 May 1969 Hampden Park, Glasgow Flag of Cyprus.svg  Cyprus 7–08–0 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Johnstone</span> Scottish footballer

James Connolly Johnstone was a Scottish footballer who played as an outside right. Known as "Jinky" for his elusive dribbling style, Johnstone played for Celtic for 13 years, and was part of the 'Lisbon Lions', the team who won the 1967 European Cup Final, as well as winning nine consecutive Scottish championships. He scored 129 goals for Celtic in 515 appearances and was voted the club's greatest ever player by fans in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ally McCoist</span> Scottish footballer, manager, and pundit

Alistair Murdoch McCoist is a Scottish former footballer who has since worked as a manager and TV pundit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Davie Cooper</span> Scottish footballer

David Cooper was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a winger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Johnstone</span> Scottish footballer and manager

Derek Joseph Johnstone is a Scottish former football player and manager.

Robert Lowe McPhail was a Scottish professional footballer, who played for Airdrieonians, Rangers and represented Scotland.

George Lewis Young was a Scottish footballer who played as a defender. He is best remembered for his 16-year association with Rangers and for being the first player to receive more than 50 caps for the Scotland national team.

Andrew Cunningham was a Scottish football player and manager. He played for Kilmarnock, Rangers, Newcastle United and Scotland; his position was inside forward.

David Wilson was a Scottish international footballer who played as an outside left. He was perhaps best known for his decade at Rangers in which he played an important role in the club's success of the early 1960s; he also made over 100 appearances for Dundee United.

David Prophet McLean was a Scottish footballer who played as a striker, scoring consistently throughout his career. At club level he represented Celtic, Preston North End, Sheffield Wednesday, Third Lanark, Rangers, Bradford, Dundee and Forfar Athletic. He had one cap for Scotland.

James "Tadger" Stewart was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward and won the Football League championship with both Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle United, as well as making three appearances for England.

Robert Gordon Campbell was a Scottish footballer who played with Celtic and Rangers, as well as Queen's Park, Kilmarnock and Ayr United.

William Hogg was an English footballer who played at outside right, winning the Football League championship with Sunderland in 1901–02, before moving to Scotland where he won the Scottish League title three times with Rangers. He also made three appearances for England in 1902.

The 1991–92 season was the 112th season of competitive football by Rangers.

Joseph Nibloe was a Scottish professional footballer who played for Kilmarnock, Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday in a 15-year career between 1924 and 1939, during which time he made 459 club appearances including cup games. He also made eleven appearances for Scotland.

Daniel Kirkwood was a Scottish professional footballer who played in the Scottish League for Rangers and scored 76 goals from 205 appearances in the Football League playing for Sheffield Wednesday, Brighton & Hove Albion, Luton Town and Swindon Town. He played as an inside right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Spencer (Scottish footballer)</span> Scottish footballer and coach

John Spencer is a Scottish former professional footballer and coach.

Rhys McCabe is a Scottish footballer and coach who plays as a central midfielder, and is the player-manager of Scottish Championship club Airdrieonians.

Robert Glen was a Scottish footballer who played for Renton, Sheffield Wednesday, Rangers, Hibernian and Scotland.

William Hunter was a Scottish footballer who played mainly as a centre forward, featuring for clubs including St Bernard's, Airdrieonians, Kilmarnock, Rangers, Hamilton Academical, Motherwell and Cowdenbeath.

In Scottish football the term nine in a row refers to winning the league championship in nine consecutive years. This has been accomplished twice by Celtic and once by Rangers. It has become a commonly-used phrase, and a topic which has drawn much attention, as has the goal of winning ten in a row.

References

  1. ↑ "Willie Henderson". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  2. ↑ Scotland U23 player Henderson, Willie, FitbaStats
  3. ↑ Ronnie McDevitt (2016). Scotland in the 60s: The Definitive Account of the Scottish National Football Side During the 1960s. Pitch Publishing. ISBN   9781785312458.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Hall of Fame: Willie Henderson". Rangers F.C. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
  5. ↑ Rangers player Henderson, Willie, FitbaStats
  6. ↑ "Sensational move cripples Rangers Blues' Henderson joins Caroline Hill". South China Morning Post. 20 November 1976.
  7. ↑ "Scotland supreme, but learn some lessons from Wales". London Hearts Supporters Club. 20 October 1962. Retrieved 2 November 2011.
  8. ↑ "Scotland FL Players by Appearances". London Hearts Supporters Club. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
  9. ↑ National Football Teams profile
  10. ↑ SFA profile
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.