Stephen Henderson (footballer, born 1966)

Stephen Henderson

Personal information
Full name	Stephen Henderson
Date of birth	(1966-01-02) 2 January 1966
Place of birth	Dublin, Ireland
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Youth career
	Stella Maris
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1985-1986	Shelbourne	11	(0)
1986-1988	Dundalk	4	(0)
1988-1990	Limerick
1990-1992	Lisburn Distillery
1992	St James's Gate	2	(0)
1992-1995	Cobh Ramblers
1995-1996	St James's Gate
1996-1998	Ards
1998-1999	Finn Harps
1999	Dundalk
Managerial career
2004–2008	Cobh Ramblers
2009–2011	Waterford United
2015–2019	Cobh Ramblers
2022–2024	Longford Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Stephen Henderson (born 2 January 1966) is an Irish football coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper.

Personal life

Stephen comes from a goalkeeping family. His father, Paddy, was a League of Ireland goalkeeper, as was his brother Dave. His younger brother Wayne was a Republic of Ireland international goalkeeper and Stephen's son, Stephen, has made over 200 appearances at club level in England

Career

Henderson played underage football with Stella Maris F.C. before joining Shelbourne F.C. in the summer of 1984. He made his debut for Shels in a League Cup match against Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds on 8 September 1985. His League debut followed in October when he played in a 3–0 defeat to Dundalk at Harold's Cross Stadium.

He followed Billy Hamilton from Limerick F.C. to Lisburn Distillery in 1992 before going on to play for St James's Gate, Cobh Ramblers, Ards and Finn Harps. Henderson then spent four years as the goalkeeping coach at Cork City.

Between 1996 and 1998 Henderson played for Ards including 2 appearances in the 1997 UEFA Intertoto Cup against AJ Auxerre where he conceded against Stéphane Guivarc'h and FC Lausanne-Sport.

However, when the manager's job at neighbouring Cobh Ramblers became available in 2004 he became the first member of his family to become a senior manager. He made his managerial bow at Finn Park on 4 September. He guided the club to third place in the First Division table in 2005, their highest league placing since 1999, and fourth place the following season before delivering the club their first ever piece of silverware when he guided Cobh Ramblers to the First Division title in 2007. Cobh were relegated in 2008 from the Premier Division and Henderson took up the manager's post at Waterford United in December 2008.

He led the club to the final of the League Cup and the semi-finals of the FAI Cup in 2009, and to the promotion play-offs the following season. However, after an indifferent start to the following season, in May 2011 Henderson was sacked by the Blues.

In October 2015, he re-joined Cobh Ramblers on new three-year contract and the following season he guided Ramblers to Munster Senior Cup victory and a third-place league finish. Ramblers reached the final of the EA Sports Cup in 2018 when they lost 3–1 to Derry City in a game played in Derry. With the side struggling in the league, Henderson left Cobh in June 2019. He immediately became Head of Youth Development at Shelbourne in a position he held until April 2021.

On 24 November 2022, Henderson made his return to first-team management when he was appointed manager of Longford Town. Longford finished in eighth place of ten teams at the end of the 2023 League of Ireland First Division season. The following season began very poorly with the side bottom of the table and winless after eight games when Henderson departed as manager on 13 April 2024.

Honours

As a manager

Cobh Ramblers

• League of Ireland First Division (1): 2007
• Munster Senior Cup 2016

References

Irish Football Handbook 1994-95 ISBN 0951798731