Robert Henry Mason (born 22 March 1936) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

, where he spent the majority of his league career, and for

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club, commonly referred to as Orient, is a professional association football club based in Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, England. The team compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. ...

Career

Mason was signed up by his local club

as a youngster and turned professional in 1954. He spent time in the reserves and youth ranks - playing in the 1954 FA Youth Cup Final - before he finally made his league debut on 5 November 1955 in a 1–5 defeat at

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

. He made only a handful of appearances until the departure of

Dennis Wilshaw Dennis James Wilshaw (11 March 1926 – 10 May 2004) was an English international footballer. A forward, he scored 173 goals in 380 appearances in the Football League, and also scored ten goals in twelve appearances for the England national t ...

in December 1957 opened the door for him. He took his chance and scored 10 goals during the remainder of the 1957–58 season to help Wolves win the league title. He continued his form the following year as he scored 13 times en route to a second successive championship. The 1959–60 season brought his best seasonal tally - 15 goals - but the club missed out on a third successive title by a single point. He also netted four times during their

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

campaign that year, but missed out playing in the 1960 FA Cup Final when he lost his place on the eve of the game to Barry Stobart. After two more modest goalscoring seasons, he left Molineux in June 1962. He initially dropped into the non-league with Chelmsford City but returned to the Football League for the 1963–64 season with

. He later had brief spells with Poole Town and Parley Sports before retiring from the game in 1965. Today, he resides in

Swadlincote Swadlincote is a historic mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It lies within The National Forest (England), The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Bobby 1936 births Living people Footballers from Tipton Men's association football inside forwards English men's footballers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Poole Town F.C. players English Football League players