At Dens in the tailend of the 1919-20 season Willie would make five starts. In 1920-21 and 1921-22 that became seventeen and sixteen respectively but in 1922-23 it doubled and that attracted attention so much so that Newcastle came in for him. Yet, again St. James' was not immediate success, this time due to ill health but once recovered he became a stalwart, including being part of the team in 1924 that lifted the FA Cup. And that was a fortnight after a single cap, against England, a draw, in which he might have scored the opener, although officially it was a 'keeper's own goal. 

However, the Toon fans never really appreciated Cowan fully and, as he approached thirty. he was moved on, dropping a division for a season with Manchester City before returning North for two more at St. Mirren, where he started only a few games but scored, as incidentally he had done at Manchester, at a goal almost every other game. 

He was by then well into his thirties and his career by then looked as if he were almost getting a game where he could, except for his penultimate outing, two years to 1933 as captain at Bath City in the Southern League. But in 1939 Willie Cowan, who does not seem to have married, is recorded as staying in Grange-over--Sands in the far north of Lancashire and working as self-employed chauffeur. He is also said to have worked for the Ministry of Fuel so the suggestion is that from 1929 or so he did not go where the football took him but in fact played football where driving work did so, the ultimate club being Wolviston St.Peters by Middlesbrough. And it would also be in the North-East that he was finally to settle, back on Tyneside in Gosforth, where at the age of sixty-eight he died in 1965 to be cremated at Newcastle's West Road Cemetery.