Martin Henderson (1974 to 1978)
An impressive close season world tour saw Martin Henderson force his way into the plans of manager Jock Wallace in time for the 1975/76 campaign and it was certainly a season the young striker would never forget.
Martin had joined Rangers from school and was one of several promising players pushing to make the step-up at Ibrox under the guidance of Joe Mason having won both the Reserve League and Reserve League Cup in season 1974/75. Others within that group included Chris Robertson, Alex O’Hara, Davie Armour, Gordon Boyd and a very young Ally Dawson. A tall centre forward, Martin’s 16 goals for the Reserves had not gone unnoticed and he would score 4 on 1st team duty during a friendly match at Elgin.
His competitive 1st team debut came on 2nd September 1975 as Queen’s Park were defeated 3-0 in the Glasgow Cup at Ibrox (Armour and Dawson were also handed their first starts in this one). Substitute appearances soon followed in the European Cup against Bohemians of Dublin and Saint-Etienne respectively.
Martin’s first goal came in November during a 2-1 league defeat at home to Hearts. It was our third league defeat in the opening ten matches and a result that would see us sitting in the bottom half of the table albeit only 2 points off top spot! His doubles against Dundee at Ibrox and Hearts at Tynecastle were enough to secure maximum points in those games over the next few weeks and he would also start in the vital win over Celtic on New Year’s Day, 1976.
Although he had not featured in the earlier League Cup Final win over Celtic, momentum was building and there was plenty of opportunity to add silverware during the remainder of that season. The League Championship was duly retained with 19 year-old Martin having scored an impressive 10 goals in 23 league starts. The icing on the cake soon followed as the Treble was completed against Hearts at Hampden with Martin making the starting line up. Whilst he didn’t score in that Final, he had netted in the earlier rounds against East Fife, Aberdeen and Queen of the South. It had been an impressive introduction to the top team with Martin keeping Derek Parlane out of the side for large spells.
Whilst Martin would continue to feature during season 1976/77, the majority of those appearances came from the bench with the two Derek’s (Johnstone and Parlane) leading the line (they would score 38 goals between them). With DJ reaching peak form in terms of his career as a striker (he would score 38 times in 47 appearances during 1977/78), it was a tall order for Martin to force his way back into the starting line up. His last goal for the side came at the start of season 1976/77 during a 3-0 win at Muirton Park in the League Cup and he left Rangers in April 1978 for a spell overseas.
Highly rated by Jock Wallace, Martin would again team up with his old boss at Leicester City where he helped them gain promotion to the top flight after winning the Second Division title in season 1979/80. Derek Strickland and Gary Stevens were part of that same squad in addition to a young Gary Lineker.
In all, Martin made 48 appearances for Rangers scoring 14 goals whilst earning the full set of domestic winners medals.
by Rick Plews
