Kevin Henderson thought his dreams of professional football were over until Chris Waddle gave the Morpeth Town striker a chance this season. PETE OLIVER heard how the former bank worker is aiming to cash in

ONE senior goal for Burnley might lead most pundits to suggest that he hasn't done anything yet.

But considering the number of setbacks and mishaps he has had to overcome to get this far, just making it into the ranks of professional football is a major triumph for Kevin Henderson.

Not that he will be resting on his laurels as he bids to become a success at Turf Moor. But even Henderson admits that his bad luck story is almost too incredible to be true.

I can at least vouch for the early part as I played alongside the rising star in the Second Division of the Morpeth Sunday League. And there's no way you could make up the rest so it must be true.

Perhaps he should have realised he would have to do it the hard way when his formative footballing years coincided with the school teachers' strike, and the Grey Arms in the Northumberland village of Red Row, the base for the aforementioned Sunday team, burned down never to be replaced. His first taste of Saturday league football came with Amble Town, a place more famous for Freddie the dolphin, who took up refuge in the town's harbour, than for it's football - although Burnley took John Angus from there and he played over 500 games for the club.

It was during his time with the Northern Alliance League club that ill-luck, and a bit of youthful foolishness, first struck the teenage Henderson.

After impressing during a week's trial at Leicester City he was invited by Brian Little to play for the reserves at Sunderland. Football being his life though, Henderson couldn't resist turning out for Stobswood United in the Sunday League three days earlier with disastrous consequences.

He picked up a knee injury which turned out to be a torn cartilage and although he turned out for Leicester he not surprisingly didn't do himself justice.

"I couldn't bend my knee. After a couple of minutes Anton Rogan came through the back of me and that did me the world of good!" he recalled.

Faced with a 16-month wait for a key-hole operation on the NHS, Henderson opted to play on, although it again cost him the chance to impress Sheffield United during a reserve game. "The doctor said don't play but it would have cost £500 to have the camera in and extra for the surgery and I couldn't afford it. I thought if I was out for 16 months my fitness would go so I took a gamble and kept playing."

Henderson moved on to Whitley Bay in the UniBond League where he got his first contract. They hoped to cash in on his blossoming talents but with cash tight and his injury to contend with the move turned sour so he took the chance of dropping down a league to join Northern League Second Division outfit Morpeth Town.

Things looked up as he regained fitness and trials followed at Queens Park Rangers and Doncaster Rovers but his luck didn't change as a grass burn he picked up during an under-21 game for QPR developed into a groin infection and he was invalided away from Loftus Road.

"I kept thinking it was fate. Every time something would go wrong," he said.

Away from football Henderson was also an accident waiting to happen. After serving two years as a trainee electrician he went to work at a pipeworks on the Northumberland coast where he was crushed by a six-tonne pipe.

"My brother managed to get if off me but I was on the floor and I couldn't get up. I spent a week in hospital with internal bruising and torn nerves."

The goals were flowing for Morpeth, however, and a productive partnership with former Newcastle midfielder Archie Gourlay saw Henderson finish as the Second Division's top scorer in a promotion season, despite having to spend three weeks in plaster with an ankle ligament injury.

But still there was no breakthrough with a league club, as Doncaster didn't take him on.

Henderson admits it was a low point. "It hit home after that. I said 'that's it, I've had enough'.

"I had given up when Jon Cullen (who signed for Sheffield United for £250,000 a month ago) went to Hartlepool. I was playing alongside him at Morpeth and I was just as good. If somebody picked him up I thought I could do all right."

Henderson knuckled down afresh and with help and encouragement from new manager Peter Feenan had scored 21 goals by November to attract the interest of Chris Waddle, one of his former Newcastle United heroes who asked him to play in Burnley's reserves.

"I felt fit and thought that if I did myself justice I would have a chance but I had to come off with 20 minutes to go after I got a whack on the ankle. I thought it was the kiss of death again.

"Luckily Chris Waddle offered me another chance against Bradford. We got tonked 4-1 and he slated us all.

"I thought that had finished it but the next day Peter Feenan rang to say Burnley wanted to offer me a contract and here I am."

By now he had taken up the safer option of working for the Northern Rock bank in Newcastle and in return for the offer of his job back should it not work out at Turf Moor he worked two weeks' notice before arriving as a professional footballer on December 1 at the age of 23. After one reserve game he made his debut as a substitute against Carlisle in the Auto Windscreens Shield earlier this month and no wonder he enjoyed his stunning last-minute goal.

"It's just starting to sink in. I've gone from playing in the Northern League to playing here and on that Tuesday night it became a reality. Now we are two games from Wembley."

"My main priority is to establish myself and get another contract. I have got two good lads to learn from and the best I can ask for is to be involved in the first-team squad.

"The fans have been brilliant. I just want them to give me a bit of time and say 'he's not bad' and I will give them 110 per cent. Everybody says Newcastle fans are daft but for this club to get the fans when they are in this position is great."

One of Henderson's biggest fans is yet to see him play in the claret and blue. His father Keith is on duty with the merchant navy but hopes to be back in this country to go to the Carlisle game with wife Brenda next Saturday.

"For him to know I'm at Burnley and I've played and scored he will be made up." And so he should be.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.