Harry Thomson (footballer)

Harry Thomson
Personal information
Full name Henry Watson Thomson
Date of birth (1940-08-25)25 August 1940
Place of birth Edinburgh, Scotland
Date of death 14 March 2013(2013-03-14) (aged 72)
Place of death Barrow-in-Furness, England
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
–1959 Bo'ness United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1959–1969 Burnley 117 (0)
1969–1971 Blackpool 61 (0)
1971–1972 Barrow 40 (0)
Total 218 (0)
International career
1967 Scotland 2 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Henry Watson Thomson (25 August 1940 – 14 March 2013) was a Scottish professional footballer. He played as a goalkeeper.

Thomson was born in Edinburgh, but began his professional career with English club, Burnley, having joined the Clarets from Scottish junior side Bo'ness United in 1959. In a decade at Turf Moor, he made 117 league appearances. After a 1966–67 Fairs Cup third-round tie against Napoli, the Daily Express called him "a God in a green jersey", after Thomson kept a clean sheet over two legs in Burnley's 3–0 aggregate victory.

Thomson made two appearances for the Scotland national team during a 1967 overseas tour that the Scottish Football Association decided in October 2021 to reclassify as full internationals.

In 1969, he joined Burnley's Lancashire rivals Blackpool for £5,000. He made his debut in the first game of the 1969–70 season, on 9 August 1969, in a 2–1 victory over Portsmouth at Bloomfield Road. He played in all but two of Blackpool's 48 league and cup games that season, displacing Alan Taylor.

In Thomson's second and final season at Blackpool, 1970–71, he made 21 league appearances. His final game for the club occurred on 13 February 1971, in a 2–0 defeat at Coventry City.

Thomson finished his thirteen-year career at Barrow in 1972.

He died of throat cancer on 14 March 2013, and was survived by his wife, two children and four grandchildren.