Henry Anderson

Henry Anderson
	Anderson (Left) during a post match interview after the 2020 Emirates FA Cup.
Personal information
Full name	Henry Edward Anderson
Date of birth	11 December 1970 (age 49)
Place of birth	Swanland, East Yorkshire, England
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Position(s)	Centre Forward
Team information
Current team	Fulham (Manager)
Youth career
1980-86	Scunthorpe United
Senior career*
Years	Team
1986-1997	Scunthorpe United
1997-2001	Hartlepool United
Total
Managerial career
2016-2020	Scunthorpe United
2020- Present	Fulham
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Henry Edward Anderson (born 11 December 1970) is an English football manager and former professional player

who played as a centre forward. He is currently the manager of Fulham , having previously being the manager of Scunthorpe United.

He played for Scunthorpe United from 1986 until 1997, playing over 300 games in all competitions, and towards the end of his career, moving to Hartlepool United in the League 2.

Playing Career

Early Career

Born in Swanland, East Yorkshire, Anderson began his footballing career at Scunthorpe United, from Under 10s level. Anderson stayed at Scunthorpe for the entirety of his youth career, until the age of 16, where he was an unused substitute vs Blackpool at Bloomfield Road. Anderson, after this game was a regular substitute for the rest of Scunthorpe United's 86-87 campaign, eventually seeing the iron finish 8th place in the 4th Division. Anderson went on to make his first appearance ,off the bench, in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, when Scunthorpe suffered a 3-0 loss at Everton.

Scunthorpe United

Anderson, having made several appearances as a substitute in his first professional year, earned a start in the first game of the 87-88 season, at home versus Swansea. Anderson went on to score the opening goal in the fixture, which went on to finish with a 4-1 victory for the Iron . Despite this promising start, Anderson didn't start another game until April 1988, when Thomas Ashton, Scunthorpe's starting striker, suffered a bad injury to his Knee, eventually leading to retirement. In this 10-game spell, Anderson managed to score 2 goals, one being a late winner versus Scarborough, to confirm playoffs for the Humberside team. However, it came to no avail, Scunthorpe went on the lose in the playoff semi-finals versus Cardiff City.

But it wasn't until 1991-92 season where Anderson hit form. After scoring as low as 3 goals to as high as 11 goals per seasons prior as a teenager, twenty year old Anderson was named as the clubs starting striker for the season, due to financial worry and injury. What appeared to be a disaster for Scunthorpe United, turned into a dream as Anderson went on to score a league leading total of 28 league goals, leading to Scunthorpe's fifth place finish, but more importantly playoff victory, leading them into the 3rd Division. Important goals from Anderson included scoring a hat-trick in the playoff Final, leading to a 5-0 thrashing versus Walsall. This eventually lead to Anderson being awarded "Division 4 Player of The Season", as well as "Division 4 Golden Boot Award".

Despite such a successful season no clubs made official bids for Anderson, who of which had just 6 months on his contract. This lead Anderson to sign a bumper 5-year deal at the club Seeing him score an impressive 122 goals in just 5 years, averaging a staggering 24 goals per season. These triumphant seasons led to Anderson being awarded 3 more Golden Boot awards in the 3rd Division, as well as player of the season in all 5 of these seasons. However in May 1997, Anderson suffered a serious ligament tear in his ACL, leading him to be out for up to 15 months. Due to Injury, despite Anderson's prolific seasons, his contract was not renewed and he left Scunthorpe United in the summer of 1997.

Hartlepool United

Having only being 3 months into a serious leg injury, Anderson was offered a 4-year deal at Hartlepool, making himself the highest paid Hartlepool United player ever. Anderson recovered much quicker than expected, only taking 10 months to see himself on the bench versus struggling Yeovil Town. Despite not coming on, Anderson did appear as a substitute versus Bury at Gigg Lane, Anderson went on to score twice against the 4th division outfit. In his first season Anderson bagged a total of 8 goals, in just 21 Appearances.

Hartlepool had no intentions of selling Anderson, proving to be an important piece in their end-of-season relegation battle.