Ben Watson (footballer, born December 1985)

Benjamin Charles Watson (born 6 December 1985) is an English footballer, who plays for St Martins as a striker.

Not to be confused with Ben Watson (footballer, born July 1985).

Ben Watson
Personal information
Full name Benjamin Charles Watson[1]
Date of birth (1985-12-06) 6 December 1985
Place of birth Shoreham-by-Sea, England
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing position(s) Striker
Club information
Current team
 St Martins
Youth career
Brighton & Hove Albion
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2001–2004 Brighton & Hove Albion 0 (0)
2004 → Bognor Regis Town (loan) 20 (10)
2004–2007 Bognor Regis Town 90 (64)
2007–2008 Grays Athletic 24 (5)
2008 → Exeter City (loan) 12 (2)
2008–2011 Exeter City 13 (2)
2009 → Forest Green Rovers (loan) 0 (0)
2010 → Forest Green Rovers (loan) 7 (1)
2011 → Bath City (loan) 7 (1)
2011–2012 Eastbourne Borough 25 (11)
2012–2013 Dorchester Town 27 (11)
2013–2014 Truro City 10 (5)
2014–2015 Bideford 10 (5)
2015–2016 Dorchester Town 21 (6)
2016–2017 Bideford 2 (0)
2018– St Martins 15 (11)
National team‡
England futsal
England C
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 16:34, 28 October 2015 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 22:16, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

He is also currently a coach at League 2 side Exeter City's community trust and holds his B-License coaching qualification. The striker started his career with Brighton before a few loan moves before signing for Bognor Regis permanently in 2004. He later moved onto Grays Athletic where he impressed and earned a move to then Conference side Exeter City after catching the eye of manager Paul Tisdale. Watson is currently on his second spell at Bideford following a recent second spell with Dorchester. Watson is perhaps best known for his time at League Two side Exeter where he won promotion twice, first time through the conference playoffs (where he wore the number 32) and played at Wembley, and the second was an automatic promotion to league one the following season (where he wore the #19 shirt). He had two short loan spells with Forest Green and a third with Bath City before being released by Exeter due to a constant calf injury across 2 seasons and joining Eastbourne Borough. Watson has recently signed for Bideford for a second spell following time at Dorchester (two spells) and Truro City.

Career

Born in Shoreham-by-Sea, Watson has also played for Exeter City, Bognor Regis Town and Grays Athletic. He holds UEFA 'B' coaching badges for both football and futsal. With this he spent some of his time whilst at Bognor Regis coaching at Varndean School in Brighton. He then moved on to Grays Athletic.

Watson made his debut for Exeter City on 24 March 2008 in the 3–1 away defeat at Weymouth, while on loan from Grays Athletic. Following Exeter's promotion to the Football League, Watson signed a one-year contract with the club. He made his debut as an Exeter signee, at home to Shrewsbury Town, in the 2–1 defeat in the Football League Trophy on 2 September 2008.[2] On the last day of that year, he extended his contract to tie him to the club until the end of the 2009–10 season.[3] Watson joined Forest Green Rovers on loan for a month on 31 December 2009.[4][5] The loan was terminated just a couple of days after however as Watson suffered a calf injury before the move.

Forest Green signed Watson on loan again the next season in September 2010.[6] He made his debut the next day in a 3–0 away loss against Barrow.[7]

He returned to Exeter City in October when his loan spell with Forest Green Rovers expired.

In May 2011 Exeter announced that he would not be offered a new deal at the end of the season.[8]

Watson signed for Eastbourne Borough on 21 June 2011.[9] A year later, he signed for Conference South Dorchester Town.[10] He ended the 2012–13 season as Dorchester's top goal scorer with 17 goals in all competitions and signed a two-year contract in June 2013.[11]

With Dorchester experiencing financial problems, Watson and teammate Arran Pugh joined Pugh's old club Truro City in the Southern Premier League on 4 October 2013.[12] Watson scored twice on his debut the following day as Truro lost 7–3 at home to St Albans City.[13] He won Truro City's 'Golden Boot' award for 2013–14 with 13 goals in all competitions,[14] but after a poor start to the following season he was placed on the transfer list by manager Steve Tully.[15] He was later brought to Bideford by general manager Steve Massey, formerly manager at Truro City.[16] He joined South West Peninsula League club St Martins in February 2018.[17]

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References
  1. Hugman, Barry J., ed. (2009). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2009–10. Mainstream Publishing. p. 430. ISBN 978-1-84596-474-0.
  2. "Exeter City vs Shrewsbury Town: Match Report". Exeter City F.C. 2 September 2008. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2008.
  3. "New deals for five players". Express & Echo. 31 December 2008. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
  4. "Watson heads to The New Lawn". Exeter City F.C. 31 December 2009. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
  5. "Forest Green bag Ben Watson, Jack Winter & Tyrone Berry". BBC Sport. 1 January 2010.
  6. "Forest Green Rovers snap up Exeter striker Ben Watson". BBC Sport. 17 September 2010.
  7. "Barrow 3–0 Forest Green". BBC Sport. 18 September 2010.
  8. "Ben Watson and James Norwood to leave Exeter City". BBC Sport. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  9. "Striking Options Increased With New Addition". Eastbourne Borough F.C. 21 June 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  10. "Former Exeter striker Watson joins Magpies". Dorset Echo. 20 June 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  11. "New Two-Year Deal for Magpies` Striker". Football Conference. 10 June 2013. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015.
  12. "Ben Watson and Arran Pugh leave Dorchester Town". This Is Dorset. 4 October 2013. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013.
  13. "Pressure mounts on Massey after Truro are thumped by St Albans". Falmouth Packet. 5 October 2013.
  14. "City sign off with maximum points". Truro City F.C. 26 April 2014. Archived from the original on 14 December 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  15. Rogers, Steve. "Ben Watson". Truro City F.C. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  16. "Steve Massey masterminded Ben Watson move from Truro to Bideford". North Devon Journal. 30 October 2014. Archived from the original on 14 December 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  17. @St_Martins_AFC (23 February 2018). "We're pleased to have signed former Exeter city foward [sic] Ben Watson for the rest of the season" (Tweet). Retrieved 5 February 2019 – via Twitter.
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