Another in my nostalgia series, this time looking at my favourite player from the mis-to-late seventies era when I first watched City as an impressionable schoolkid. It was a great team full of international players and I hold many of them in affection still: Corrigan, Hartford, Donachie, Royle, Kidd, Tueart, Barnes, Owen and others all gave me plenty of happy memories. But it was centre half Dave Watson who was my personal favourite, there was a (highly tenuous) personal connection which made him feel closer to me, and so he remains my all-time City favourite to this day.
When City challenged Liverpool for the title in 1976/7, the Blues had a more consistent and resilient side than in the previous two seasons, in which the club finished in 8th place on each occasion but an awful away record prevented the club from challenging at the top of the table. The emergence of Joe Corrigan, on the Maine Road scrapheap in 1973 and 1974, as a goalkepper of real quality, helped to remedy this, but arguably the biggest difference was the arrival of Dave Watson in the summer of 1975, by which time he was almost 29 and was about to sample top flight football for the first time.
A back injury restricted the Nottingham-born defender in his first season at City, though he picked up a League Cup winner's medal to go with the FA Cup he'd won at previous club Sunderland. But it was the following campaign in which Watson's partnership at the back with City stalwart Mike Doyle came into its own, their toughness giving the City rearguard a new meanness. The team conceded only 34 goals, and with the attacking quality at Tony Book's disposal, a title challenge was always likely. It was a sad irony that Watson's wonderful displays are overshadowed in some memories by his freak late own goal which allowed Liverpool to sneak an undeserved point in the Maine Road Christmas fixture at the end of 1976 - it had a crucial bearing given that the Merseysiders' eventual winning margin over City in the championship race was a single point.
This unfortunate single memory should be place in context, though, as Watson was an imposing figure whose presence laid the foundation for the achievements of what was a fine side notwithstanding that it failed to add to that lone League Cup triumph of 1976. As a fan, seeing his name on the teamsheet gave you confidence. It surprised me, years later, to read that he was only 5'11" tall, as he seemed to win everything in the air. He was also quick over the ground, and could also play. I really think he could not only survive in the modern game, but also prosper. He was an old fashioned stopper centre half, but with so much more as well.
He also seemed to me 'mine' in a way no other City player has since, which helped add to the esteem in which I held him. A very good friend of my mother's was his GP in Hale, and through that connection I got to meet him when he played for us and I was a star-struck kid. He also took my autograph book and made sure all the squad signed it, meeting me again to give it back. He may regularly have been named as the 'toughest opponent' by centre forwards filling in the 'Focus' questionnaire of my favoured Shoot magazine when I was a kid, but off the field he couldn't have been a more generous bloke.
Of course, the moment that most Blues who are old enough will remember is the header against Ipswich from Peter Barnes's corner. It was televised, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be on youtube. Anyway, if you were putting together a video dictionary of footballing terms and could get the footage, you couldn't really do any better to illustrated the term "bullet header".
In its absence, instead as a Dave Watson memory which can be seen in footage available on the web, I offer shortened highlights from that evening's Match of the Day of a 5-0 steamrollering of Leicester in January 1977. The game was notable for then striker and current assistant boss Brian Kidd bagging four goals, but I love that footage of Kidd's third that day because of the part Watson played in it. and Barry Davies's commentary at that point. The phrase Davies uses really summed up Dave Watson for me: "Quite majestic." He really was.
The 1976/7 season was City's last serious championship challenge in the top division: we were still in with a chance, albeit small, of the title going into our final game. I thought for a long time that we may never have another one, but I no longer think so, and remembering how enjoyable it was in those days makes me excited about the prospect of another one soon. I'll love dearly each and every one of the players who eventually make it happen, but it will take something very special for any of them to supplant Dave Watson in my affections.
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