On this day, in 1946 the legendary Dave Watson was born. David spent five years on Wearside and played a major role in our historic 1973 FA Cup triumph, gaining praise from Bob Stokoe for keeping the Leeds strikers quiet in the final.
He was born in Nottinghamshire, and began playing for Notts County to start his career. He made a couple of appearances in his two year stint at his hometown club but he moved to Rotherham in the Second Division, where he played over 100 games for The Millers. Whilst at Rotherham he suffered a relegation, though he would soon earn the captains armband under a new gaffer. What was interesting was that his position always changed depending on the opposition, he would alternate between striker and central defender often, two very contrasting positions.
He ended up catching the eye of then Sunderland manager Alan Brown, who used him primarily as a striker. Under Alan Brown we never gained promotion to the First Division and when Bob Stokoe came in he moved Dave back into defence where we unlocked Watson’s full potential.
Aside from grabbing a decent amount of goals for a defender, Watson was an integral part to the side that took us all the way to Wembley where we beat Leeds in the FA Cup Final in ‘73. Following the historic victory Bob Stokoe singled out Watson and praised him for his defensive efforts after he managed to keep Leeds attacking duo Allan Clarke and Mick Jones silent.
One year after the FA Cup victory Dave was introduced to the England national setup. He briefly played as England failed to qualify for the 1976 European Championships and 1978 World Cup. He would eventually establish himself as one of the first names on the team sheet, and helped England end a bad run of not getting out of the qualification stages. We qualified for the 1980 European Championships but couldn’t make it out of our group that consisted of Belgium, Italy and Spain. He then wasn’t a part of the squad for the next major competition, the 1982 World Cup which England did qualify for. This made history for Dave as he became the most capped England international to not play a single game in the World Cup finals.
Of course on Wearside we were all hoping we could keep the good times rolling by finally getting back into the top flight but we missed out on promotion by two points in two consecutive seasons and then in the summer of ‘75 Watson left us for Man City. We received £175,000 and Jeff Clarke in return for the defender. He spent four seasons at City, missing out on the Division One title by one point during that time though he did earn the club’s Player Of The Year. He did however win the League Cup in 1976, beating the Mags in the final 2-1.
When he left City he had a turbulent time in Germany with Werder Bremen. He would get a red card in only his second game which would see him suspended for eight weeks, then after that he refused to travel to an away European game as he felt he was still injured.
He quickly came back to England with Southampton, spending a season there before moving to Stoke. One year at Stoke and he was on the move again, this time away from England he made the switch to the Vancouver Whitecaps before calling an end to his career with Derby and hometown club Notts County.
Upon retirement Dave has battled with dementia and has been open about his diagnosis in an attempt to help younger players prevent it. His wife is also an independent advisor to the PFA's department for degenerative disease. Of course the dementia is linked to his playing days, where rules were more laxed and if something was in the air it would get headed, whether it was a ball or the opposition. One time during Dave's career he was knocked unconscious and actually kept on playing. Something that thankfully wouldn't happen in today's game, or at least shouldn't.
