John Hendrie – The Barrel Chested Piece of History
By Degsyg79 • May 20th, 2009 • Category: Boro LegendsWe were on a come down after our first Wembley appearance some months earlier and after precariously finishing 21stand surviving with a 4-1 home win against the Geordies on the final day of the season.
Colin Todd had to re-build and having worked under Bruce Rioch (Rioch had tried to sign Hendrie previously for the Boro) he decided to try again to bring in John Hendrie, the barrel chested Scottish player from Leeds United for £500,000. A lot of money back in the day, the same summer he brought Robbie Mustoe to Ayresome Park, so in his short tenure Todd made some good signings, if not a lot else.
Hendrie arrived having made this his fourth club in four years and had spent spells at our arch rivals Leeds United and Newcastle United. He’d soon be forgiven and would eventually go down in Boro history as a true great.
He began his career on the wing (flank was the term in those days) and often inter-changed with Stuart Ripley to terrorise opposing full-backs. This included a very memorable goal against Millwall, taking the ball from the edge of his own box and finishing at the other end, with calmness and compose not often seen in the 2nd division.
Under Lennie Lawrence, Hendrie became deployed as a 2ndstriker and became more prolific in his middle years with the club, firmly becoming a fans’ favourite, especially after hitting the clubs first Premier League hat-trick in a Match of the Day main feature 3-2 home win against Blackburn Rovers, Dalglish, Shearer et al.
His final years at the club saw the arrival of Bryan Robson, the move away from Ayresome Park to the Riverside Stadium and the influx of foreign players to the club. But Hendrie left with his head held high, having kept his nerve on the final day of the 1994/95 season to fire the final goals at Ayresome Park and bring the First Division trophy to the club at the same time.
Hendrie had a respectable goal scoring record at the Boro:
192 league games scoring 44 goals
40 cup games scoring 11 goals
But he’s more than his scoring return. It was about his mazy runs, its commitment to the shirt, his ability to score great goals, to terrorise opposing defenders. He truly found his spiritual home at the club and we treated him as one of our own.
Surprisingly Hendrie was never capped by Scotland but he did go into club management and was harshly treated by Barnsley in my opinion. John now enjoys a successful career in the media whilst ferrying his sons Luke to Manchester United for junior games and Jordan to Bradford City for junior games.
Thanks for the memories John.
Degsyg79 is a new writer on BoroMania. Check out his sports blog for more of his excellent articles.
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Nice one Degsy.His goal against Millwall - that came after an 80-yard dribble along the pitch, though it felt like 8000 - is one of my all-times favourites.
Check this out:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1397447/john_hendrie/
Absolute legend and one of my favourite all-time Boro players.