THE word "dapper" could have been coined for Bobby Henderson. He started as a net boy at Firhill and observed closely his predecessors in the Thistle goal - men such as Rab Bernard, Kenny Campbell and "Jakey" Jackson.

Bobby Henderson was very much a north-western boy brought up in Emersfield Street. His first side was the junior Glasgow Perthshire.

He fought his way to the Thistle goal. He had seven games in 1938-39 although he had made his debut before that against Arbroath in September 1937. He would live to play to a gate 20 times as large as the 6000 that night. A fellow debutante on that occasion was wing-half Jackie Husband and the two men would play more than 10 years together.

He had to see off Bobby Johnson in 1937-38, but in the following year he played all five of the matches before war broke out in September. For the first four years of the conflict he played pretty regularly in the Western Regional League and the Southern League. The war had checked a promising revival by Partick Thistle.

In every sense, the adoption of their new strip in 1934 - bright if you liked it, garish if your taste did not run to red-and-yellow hoops - seemed to brighten Thistle's approach. The signing of a new right wing, Alec McSpadyen, and PeterMcKennan carried a threat to all defences and both men won represented honours.

The war put an end to that and it seemed as if Bobby Henderson's career would be just one more wrecked by the conflict. With 10 years in football behind him, only reserve football seemed left for him. Then the war did him a belated good turn.

The Dundee first-choice keeper, international Bill Brown, was called up for National Service. Bobby Henderson came in and held his position for a year against the international competition.

Now he was among multitudes. A league cup win against Kilmarnock had drawn 51,000 spectators and the Scottish Cup Final between Dundee and Motherwell had pulled in a massive 136,000 at the gate.

Henderson, by this time a Dundonian, had a splendid temperament. In the Kilmarnock game he had kept Partick Thistle in the running with a fine first-half display of keeping and he then helped in scoring the clinching goal when his long punt eluded the defence.

The trappings of success came to him. There were big crowds, tours of South Africa, international caps for his colleagues and he himself just missing out being reserve for an international goalkeeper's position on at least six occasions. He toppled Bill Brown again for a time, this time without any help from National Service.

Dundee would have been an obvious choice to represent Scotland in the Coronation Cup, but the 1953 calendarwas a crowded one and the Dundee side had to choose between Cape Town and Hampden.

Hampden lost out, but Dundee found South Africa a fairy tale recruiting ground with players such as centre-forward Ken Ziesing and full-back Gordon Frew.

Dundee had been well served even by their secondline keepers, but when the club found themselves dangerously exposed, the ready-made article was close by, one Bobby Henderson, who came on a free transfer from PartickThistle. For another two years he was a most capable keeper and one who, given a late chance, exploited it to the full.