Ian Henderson has thanked former Norwich City academy director Sammy Morgan for his influence, after scoring the 100th goal of his career.
The Canaries academy product, originally from Thetford, reached the landmark when scoring the opener in Rochdale's 3-1 win at Chesterfield on Saturday.
'I'm happy to have scored 100 goals. It's a nice milestone – it has been a long road, as they say,' the 32-year-old said. 'I'd like to thank Sammy Morgan who was my first mentor at Norwich City. He was the academy director there and probably one of the only people who believed in me. He showed me the ways to score goals and showed incredible belief in me, so it's a massive thanks to him.'
Henderson began his career with Norwich and made his debut as a 17-year-old back in 2002, scoring in his second appearance, in a 4-2 defeat at Wimbledon. He went on to score six goals in 79 games, playing his part in the Division One title success of 2004.
After a loan move to Rotherham in 2007 the attacker was released aged 22 and joined Northampton on a free transfer. After limited success with the Cobblers and Luton, and a brief spell with Ankaragucu in Turkey, Henderson finally settled down at Colchester United, where he scored 26 goals in 130 games across three seasons.
After an initial loan, he is now coming to the end of his fourth campaign with Rochdale, having notched 66 times in 197 matches.
'It's nice to score 100 goals but it's not about me, it's about the team,' Henderson continued. 'We were hot in the box in the first half and to go 3-0 up is credit to the boys. We're creating a lot of chances at the minute, so it's nice to get the three points.'
Dale are currently eighth in League One and six points adrift of the play-offs, with a game in hand, with Henderson targeting 20 goals for the season after scoring his 16th on Saturday.
'It is always a target (20 goals) at the beginning of the season,' he added, speaking to Dale's official website. 'We're in relatively good goal-scoring form at the moment but, again, it's not about me.
'We've got three or four players who are in double figures, so the goals are coming from lots of different players which is nice to see because it means there's no pressure on just one individual to score all the goals.'
Watch Henderson's 100th goal in the video above. The cheeky chip has been nominated for Sky Sports' goal of the week competition, view the shortlist and vote here.
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