There wasn't very much of Henry Cockburn, but it was
difficult to remain unaware of his presence on a football pitch. If he wasn't
tackling like a miniature tank, or sprinting at full tilt in pursuit of ball or
opponent, then probably he was issuing instructions at the top of his voice.
Indeed, so perpetual was Cockburn's motion, and so passionate was his fervour
during his prime in the decade following the Second World War, that the
Manchester United and England wing-half created the irresistible impression that
he was engaged in all three activities at once.
The diminutive Lancastrian, who stood a mere 5ft 5in in his
stockinged feet, operated in a defensive midfield role in the first of Matt
Busby's three outstanding teams, the one which purveyed the most exhilarating
football in the land as the game offered much-needed entertainment in the era of
post-conflict austerity.
In many ways Cockburn was similar to Nobby Stiles, the
tigerishly abrasive destroyer who played a key role as United piled up the
honours throughout the 1960s and who was integral to England's World Cup triumph
of 1966. Admittedly tactics were different in the Cockburn heyday, so usually he
occupied a more advanced position than Stiles, who thrived in a withdrawn
position alongside the stopper centre-half Bill Foulkes, but the two pocket
battleships had plenty in common.
Eager, bright-eyed bundles of energy and enthusiasm, they
were both combative and constructive, their boundless spirit, honesty and
endeavour making up generously for their lack of inches. The pair of them were
pacy, doggedly tenacious and unfailingly brave in the tackle, but also - and
this was crucial to their success - they were instinctive readers of the game
who were blessed with far more pure skill than many critics maintained.
Cockburn, a natural all-round sportsman who also excelled
at cricket, made his first footballing impact as a teenager with Goslings, a
local feeder to Manchester United, the Old Trafford club enlisting him as an
amateur in September 1943. While continuing with his work as a mill- fitter, he
impressed the Reds' coaching staff enough to earn a professional contract a year
later and he made his first United appearance as a nippy, elusive forward during
unofficial wartime competition, in which he had guested also for Accrington
Stanley.
By 1945 Cockburn had been converted into a left-half,
despite being right-footed, and he was awarded his senior d�but in an FA Cup
meeting with his former Accrington team-mates in January 1946. Making light of
ferocious competition for places, he made such prodigious progress that he was
chosen along with eight other new caps - including Billy Wright of Wolves,
Preston North End's Tom Finney and Frank Swift of Manchester City - to play for
England in September 1946 after only seven First Division outings.
That afternoon at Windsor Park, Belfast, Cockburn shone as
the first post-war successor to the majestic Joe Mercer, contributing massively
to a 7-2 triumph over Northern Ireland and looking utterly at home on the
international stage. He retained his berth for the next two games, which yielded
victories over Wales and the Republic of Ireland, slotting in effectively
alongside Wright and the stylish Neil Franklin, and it seemed that England had a
settled half-back line for the foreseeable future.
However, Cockburn was ousted by Harry Johnston of
Blackpool, and, although he extended his cap total to 13 over the next five
years, he never cemented the regular place which most United fans reckoned to be
his just deserts. Back on the club scene, though, the Cockburn career flourished
royally. He was a crucial component of the side that finished as League title
runners-up in each of the first three post-war campaigns, won the FA Cup by
defeating Blackpool - Stanley Matthews et al - by four goals to two in a
titanic Wembley clash in 1948, then finally claimed the championship crown in
1951/52.
Cockburn meshed splendidly with John Aston, being swift to
cover when the adventurous left-back embarked on his characteristic forays into
opposition territory, and with the left winger Charlie Mitten, who benefited
constantly from the wing-half's crisp and canny distribution. Indeed,
reminiscing during the late 1990s about Busby's breathtaking post-war creation,
Mitten declared:
It was fabulous to play in front of Henry. When
he got the ball I always knew that I would be the next to touch it. He was
totally reliable, both as a player and as a comrade.
The manager agreed, frequently praising Cockburn's slick
one-touch passing technique and lauding the little man for responding to a
cherished Busby maxim with which he drilled his players religiously: the ball is
round, so keep it rolling!
Unusually for one so short, Cockburn was magnificent
aerially, too, being capable of leaping above much taller opponents from a
standing start, thanks to a combination of exceptional athleticism and well-nigh
perfect timing. Such was his fitness and consistency that the advent of his
thirties seemed unlikely to signal the closure of his Old Trafford sojourn, but
an accident in a friendly encounter with Kilmarnock in the autumn of 1953,
staged to mark the installation of floodlights at Rugby Park, altered that
perception.
As Cockburn climbed high to meet a ball, he was dazzled by
the Killies' new lights and clashed heads with his marker. He was led away with
a smashed jaw, a young leviathan named Duncan Edwards trotted on to take his
place, and the No 6 shirt was never again his automatic preserve.
Still hardly a gnarled veteran at the age of 30, Cockburn
was not content with life in United's reserves and in October 1954 he accepted a
transfer to Second Division Bury, where he linked up once more with the former
Red Devil Stan Pearson, the deliciously gifted inside-forward behind whom he had
performed so superbly for so long. At Gigg Lane he added 39 League and FA Cup
appearances to the 275 he had accumulated at Old Trafford, then switched to
Peterborough United, at the time plying their trade in the Midland League, in
the summer of 1956.
Cockburn adored playing football so much that he was eager
to continue, even at lesser levels, later assisting Corby Town and Sankeys of
Wellington before being attracted back to the Football League by another former
United chum, the Oldham Athletic manager Jack Rowley, as a trainer at Boundary
Park in February 1961. Three years later he signed for Huddersfield Town as
assistant trainer, eventually working under yet another ex-Old Trafford
colleague, Ian Greaves, as senior coach before bowing out of the professional
game in 1975.
He was ideally suited to his role at Leeds Road, being
especially adept at working with rookies, as he had proved in the twilight of
his Manchester United days when his help to the emerging Busby Babes had been
invaluable. Indeed, he played an important and selfless part in the development
of that remarkable wave of fresh talent, making light of the inevitable
circumstance that the precocious newcomers would soon be depriving him of
employment.
It was tragically ironic that, when he was working
part-time on a Peterborough newspaper in 1958, one of his duties was to write
the posters which told of the Munich air disaster in which so many of his
prot�g�s had perished. -
England
Football Online
