David Watson (footballer, born 1946)

This article is about the 1970–80s defender. For the 1980–90s defender, see Dave Watson. For the 1990s goalkeeper, see David Watson (footballer, born 1973).

David Watson

David Watson in 1978
Personal information
Full name	David Vernon Watson
Date of birth	(1946-10-05) 5 October 1946
Place of birth	Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s)	Central defender
Youth career
	Stapleford O.B
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1966–1967	Notts County	25	(1)
1967–1970	Rotherham United	121	(19)
1970–1975	Sunderland	177	(27)
1975–1979	Manchester City	146	(4)
1979	Werder Bremen	2	(0)
1979–1982	Southampton	73	(7)
1982–1983	Stoke City	59	(5)
1983	Vancouver Whitecaps	26	(3)
1983–1984	Derby County	34	(1)
1984	Fort Lauderdale Sun
1984–1985	Notts County	25	(1)
1985–1986	Kettering Town	10	(3)
Total		698	(71)
International career
1974–1982	England	65	(4)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

David Vernon Watson (born 5 October 1946) is an English former professional footballer who played for Notts County, Rotherham United, Sunderland, Manchester City, Werder Bremen, Southampton, Stoke City, Vancouver Whitecaps and Derby County as well at the England national team where he won 65 caps and was captain on three occasions. Watson is regarded as one of Sunderland’s greatest defenders of all time.

Playing career

Watson was born in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, and started his career in 1966 as a striker with hometown club Notts County making 26 appearances in two seasons, before moving to Second Division Rotherham United in 1968. Watson was signed by Tommy Docherty in a player exchange deal which involved Keith Pring, going to Notts County and the Millers paying £1,000. He was thrust into a relegation battle with Rotherham in 1967–68 which was unsuccessful which led to Docherty's departure. In came Jim McAnearney who installed him as club captain and continued to use him both in defence and up-front. After four seasons at Millmoor, making 141 appearances scoring 21 goals he caught the attention of Sunderland manager Alan Brown who paid £100,000 for his services in December 1970.

At Roker Park, Watson began at centre forward, which many believed hindered their chances of gaining promotion. It was not until Bob Stokoe took over in November 1972 that Watson began to play at centre back and it paid off with Sunderland reaching the 1973 FA Cup Final where they beat First Division Leeds United 1–0. Watson was singled out for praise from Stokoe after the match for keeping Leeds's strike pairing of Allan Clarke and Mick Jones quiet. Following Sunderland's cup success the expectation was now for the club to gain promotion but they missed out by two points in both 1973–74 and 1974–75.

In the summer of 1975, Watson joined First Division Manchester City for a fee of £175,000 in a deal which saw Jeff Clarke move the other way. Watson spent four seasons at Maine Road which saw Man City miss out on the title in 1976–77 by one point. They did win the League Cup in 1976 beating Newcastle United 2–1. He left Manchester City in the summer of 1979 for German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen. His time at Bremen was short as after making his debut in a 1–0 win over Bayer Uerdingen he was sent off in his second match against 1860 Munich for "pushing" Hermann Bitz and banned by the German FA for eight weeks. He was fined by his club and refused to travel to an away match against FC Schalke 04 because of an injury before turning up to play for England.

Unsurprisingly, he was back in England by October with Southampton paying £200,000. Watson played 31 games in 1979–80 and 44 games in 1980–81 as the Saints finished 8th and 6th respectively. However, he was dropped by Lawrie McMenemy during the next season and he joined Stoke City in January 1982. He played 24 times for Stoke in 1981–82 helping them to avoid relegation. He then played 40 times in 1982–83 as Stoke finished in a mid-table position of 13th. Watson then spent the summer of 1983 with the Vancouver Whitecaps before ending his career with a season each at Derby County and his first club Notts County.

International career

Watson's performances for Sunderland were noticed at the highest level. Less than a year after the FA Cup win and despite playing in the Second Division, he was given his debut for England in a friendly game against Portugal in Lisbon. Watson – quite advanced in years for a debutant at 27 – was one of six first-timers on show (among the others were Trevor Brooking) in what would prove to be 1966 World Cup-winning manager Alf Ramsey's last game in charge. Later in 1974, Watson won his second cap in a 2–0 defeat by Scotland at Hampden Park, Glasgow, coming on as a substitute for Norman Hunter. His first competitive game at international level was his seventh appearance in all as England defeated Czechoslovakia 3–0 at Wembley in a qualifier for the 1976 European Championships. Despite this scoreline, England would not ultimately qualify for the finals while the Czechoslovak team would go on to win it. He played every minute of England's fixtures that year, including World Cup qualifying victories over Luxembourg (twice) and Italy, though after the Italians had earlier defeated England in the campaign and had a better goals record against Luxembourg. England missed out on the finals for a second successive tournament. Watson did not miss another England game until 1980.

During the same year, Watson's establishment as England's first choice central defender was galvanised by a 4–3 victory over Denmark in Copenhagen which set the seal on a qualification for UEFA Euro 1980 – England's first major tournament qualification for a decade. Watson continued his England career, earning his 50th cap against Argentina in a warm-up game prior to the European Championships in Italy. Watson duly played in all three of England's group games – against Belgium, Italy and Spain – but a draw, defeat and victory respectively was not enough for England to progress. His final appearance for England came against Iceland in June 1982 having gained 65 caps. He was excluded from the squad for the 1982 FIFA World Cup, with manager Ron Greenwood selecting only three specialist central defenders, Phil Thompson, Terry Butcher and Steve Foster. He did however, appear in the video for "This Time We'll Get It Right", England's 1982 World Cup song. Watson remains the most-capped England player never to play in a World Cup finals match.

Personal life

Born in the small town of Stapleford, just west of Nottingham, Dave spent the majority of his childhood playing football with three of his four brothers in the local area; one of them (Peter), ended up playing for Nottingham Forest. Growing up, he played youth football for Stapleford Old Boys and left school to work as a farm labourer and then as an electrician. In February 2020, it was reported that Watson, aged 73, was suffering from a neurodegenerative disease with his wife, Penny, suspecting that "head injuries and repeated heading of the ball" were the cause.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Notts County	1966–67	Fourth Division	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
	1967–68	Fourth Division	21	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	22	0
	Total		25	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	26	1
Rotherham United	1967–68	Second Division	18	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	22	0
	1968–69	Third Division	44	8	4	0	0	0	0	0	48	8
	1969–70	Third Division	41	2	3	0	5	0	0	0	49	2
	1970–71	Third Division	18	9	2	3	2	0	0	0	22	12
	Total		121	19	13	3	7	0	0	0	141	22
Sunderland	1970–71	Second Division	17	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	17	4
	1971–72	Second Division	42	13	4	1	1	0	4	1	47	15
	1972–73	Second Division	37	3	9	4	1	0	0	0	47	4
	1973–74	Second Division	41	3	2	0	4	0	4	0	51	3
	1974–75	Second Division	40	4	2	0	1	0	3	0	46	4
	Total		177	27	17	5	7	0	11	1	212	33
Manchester City	1975–76	First Division	31	1	1	0	7	1	3	0	42	2
	1976–77	First Division	41	2	4	0	1	0	2	0	48	2
	1977–78	First Division	41	0	2	0	6	0	2	0	51	2
	1978–79	First Division	33	1	2	0	4	0	8	1	47	2
	Total		146	4	9	0	18	1	15	1	188	6
Werder Bremen	1979–80	Bundesliga	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Southampton	1979–80	First Division	30	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	31	4
	1980–81	First Division	38	2	4	0	2	0	0	0	44	2
	1981–82	First Division	5	1	0	0	1	0	2	0	8	1
	Total		73	7	5	0	3	0	2	0	83	7
Stoke City	1981–82	First Division	24	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	24	3
	1982–83	First Division	35	2	3	0	2	1	0	0	40	3
	Total		59	5	3	0	2	1	0	0	64	6
Vancouver Whitecaps	1983	NASL	26	3	–		–		–		26	3
Derby County	1983–84	Second Division	34	1	5	0	2	0	0	0	41	1
Notts County	1984–85	Second Division	25	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	27	1
Career total			688	68	53	8	41	2	28	2	810	80

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
England	1974	7	0
	1975	7	0
	1977	11	0
	1978	9	0
	1979	10	4
	1980	10	0
	1981	5	0
	1982	2	0
Total		61	4

Honours

Sunderland

• FA Cup: 1972–73

Manchester City

• League Cup: 1975–76

England

• British Home Championship: 1973–74 (shared), 1974–75, 1977–78, 1978–79, 1981–82

Individual

• PFA Division Two Team of the Year: 1973–74, 1974–75
• PFA Division One Team of the Year: 1978–79, 1979–80

External links

• Dave Watson at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database
• David Vernon Watson at Englandstats.com
• Dave Watson at fussballdaten.de (in German)
• Dave Watson Interview at talksport.co.uk