Henry added to the Hammers’ Cup hangover
A frozen pitch denied Cowdenbeath’s young players the chance to impress in front of a television audience on Friday night.
There might have been a rising star who caught the eye of a manager who tuned in to watch one of Steven Gerrard’s new signings. Henry Mowbray got his big move to England when a scout came north to watch one of his Cowdenbeath team-mates in 1967.
And spotting him led to the Seasiders finding another top player in Scotland’s Second Division.
Henry recalled: “It was my first season at Central Park after playing for Blairhall Colliery in junior football.
“I’d been down for a couple of weekends at Blackburn Rovers, but they didn’t make me an offer.
“A few clubs started watching my team-mate, Andy Rolland, and scouts came to our games. “Celtic were supposed to have been keen on me. But I’m not sure I’d have got into the team that had just won the European Cup. “Stan Mortensen had been appointed as Blackpool manger and he took a shine to me.
“I was working as a labourer in Dunfermline at the time, so I jumped at the chance to become a full-timer in England. “Cowdenbeath accepted an offer of around £6,000 and I was ready to go.
“We still had a couple of games to play that season and Stan came up to see me playing against Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill.
“Tony Green was playing in midfield for the opposition and Blackpool decided to sign him as well.
“He proved to be a great addition to the Blackpool team. It was really unlucky that his career ended in his mid-20s because of a knee injury.”
Henry went straight into the Blackpool team at left-back, with club legend Jimmy Armfield on the other side of defence.
They’d just suffered relegation and were looking to rebuild in a bid to get back to the First Division.
“It took a couple of seasons to get promotion,” said Henry.
“We came agonisingly close in my first year. We beat Huddersfield 4-1 on the last day of the campaign and were sure that secured second spot behind Ipswich. “It wasn’t until we were on the road home when we heard that QPR had got two late goals against Aston Villa and beaten us to promotion on goal average.”
“But we made it up in 1970 when Les Shannon took over as manager.”
It was during that season in the top flight that Henry scored his only goal in tangerine. The game was a notable because it was featured on Match Of The Day as Blackpool knocked West Ham out of the FA Cup, 4-0. It then emerged that four Hammers players, including Bobby Moore and Jimmy Greaves, were disciplined for being out drinking the night before the game.
Henry went on: “Most people were expecting the match to be off because of the freezing conditions.
“But with Blackpool being on the coast, the frost didn’t take hold as much as other places. “The London boys probably didn’t realise that and expected to be getting the day off.”
“Blackpool was an exciting town to live in at that time.
“It was the place all the Scots wanted to go on holiday. A trip to Burntisland beach was about as far as I got when I was growing up.” Henry left Blackpool in 1971, but didn’t go far. He said: “I was Jimmy Armfield’s first signing when he became Bolton manager.
“We won the Third Division, but I then missed nearly a whole season with a cartilage problem.
“After that I came back to Scotland and had a season at St Mirren under Willie Cunningham.”
Henry spent several years in Australia, where he played for and coached Hakoah Sydney. He later worked for a catering company and is now a season-ticket holder at Cowdenbeath.