The player featured today is a man who scored loads of goals for Hendon in the 1960s and early 70s, Bobby Wilson.

Bobby Wilson, the Hendon football player, was definitely the second-best known sportsman in the borough when he began his Hendon career. Finchley resident Bobby Wilson, nine years his senior, had spent many years as Britain's Number 1 tennis player and was a seven-times Grand Slam quarter-finalist. Our Bobby joined the club from Feltham in 1967, having been a junior at Brentford. He made his debut on the opening day of the 1967–68 campaign, away to Dulwich Hamlet, and he scored the third of five Hendon goals in a 5-0 win. He was prolific at the start of the season, scoring eight times in the first nine matches - and failed to register in only two of them - and was on 11 goals by mid-October. He finished the season with 19 goals from a team-high 45 appearances, but was a dozen behind top-scorer Tony Harding. It was a disappointing cup season for the Greens, who despite losing only 1-0 to West Ham in the London Challenge Cup, were out of everything by the beginning of March.

For the following season, Bobby was the focus of the Hendon attack, and delivered 25 goals in 48 appearances, the most prolific of his four Hendon seasons. Although the league form was disappointing, there was silverware at the end of the campaign season as Hendon beat Dagenham in the London Senior Cup final. Bobby appeared in all five ties and scored in the 4-0 win over Hounslow at the start of the run. But Bobby was not the out-and-out centre-forward in the style of Harding and although he scored all those goals, the Greens were not as dangerous in front of goal. At the end of the season, Bobby received representative honours in the form of selection for the famous Middlesex Wanderers touring team.

The striking issue was sorted out for the 1969-70 season with the arrival of John Baker - but Bobby had an injury-hit campaign and played in only 24 of 38 League matches. His goal tally in the league was also down to just nine, but he scored the same number in 21 cup ties. Amazingly, his 18 goals were good enough only for joint-fourth on the Hendon scoring charts. Baker was on 26, Peter Anderson on 24 and Rod Haider with 19 all bettered his total; Paul Collett matched it. To put this into perspective, Hendon's five top goalscorers in all competitions scored 105 goals between them. It didn't translate into much in the way of success as Hendon finished fifth in the Isthmian League, a dozen points behind champions Enfield when there were only two points for a win. In cup competitions, Hendon didn't reach any finals, but did make it to the second round of the FA Cup, a run which saw the Greens net 21 goals including seven in a replay against Rainham - in which Bobby scored twice - and five in the first round proper against Carshalton Athletic. Hendon's problem was winning cup ties at the first attempt, though a 2-2 at home to a strong Millwall team in the London Challenge Cup was laudable. Four other ties needed replays to resolve them, and the same malaise was to be found in the league as Hendon recorded 12 draws in 38 outings - only Ilford with 15 enjoyed parity more often.

Bobby's final season was the one before the great run of success in the 1970s. Under new manager John Evans, Hendon tightened up their defence, and reduced their Isthmian League goals against from 44 to 37. They upped their goals tally, too, 77 to 81, but the numbers that really mattered were disappointing, with a sixth-place finish and one fewer win and draw than in 1969-70. Bobby did win his second Hendon medal, albeit a Middlesex Senior Cup runners-up one as the Greens lost 1-0 and 2-0 to Enfield in the two-leg final for a 3–0 aggregate loss. Bobby played in the FA Cup first round 2-0 loss at home to Football League side Aldershot and scored the only goal of the Middlesex Cup quarter-final victory over Hayes at Claremont Road. He scored 18 times in 42 appearances, his final goal - the 80th in four seasons - came at the beginning of May 1971, a 1-0 victory at home to Corinthian Casuals. His strike rate would be eye-opening in today's football, a goal every 2.25 games, but it was not that unusual in his time.

Evans' rebuilding saw the arrival of John Connell and Tony Bass to join Baker up front, so Bobby decided to move on. He joined Kingstonian, but his time there was very short and he moved to Feltham and Hayes all before the end of October 1971. Business commitments limited Bobby's time at Church Road, and although an end-of-season review suggested he had "star quality", it took some spotting because he played in just six games, and scored three times.

Joined Hendon: Summer 1967. Left Hendon: Summer 1971
Appearances: 180 (all starts). Goals: 80
Winners medal won: London Senior Cup 1968-69