Ernest Thomas Watkins (3 April 1898 – 10 October 1976) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who scored 87 goals from 202 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

playing for

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, Gillingham and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

Playing career

Watkins was born in

Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. Finchley is on high ground, north of Charing Cross. Nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, Mill Hill and H ...

, which was then part of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

. He began his playing career in local football with

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

and

before joining

in October 1922. He went straight into the starting XI for his debut in the First Division on 4 November in a goalless draw at home to

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

. He scored in the return fixture the following week, and kept his place for a few more games before dropping to the reserves. After that he played only twice more for the first team, standing in for the unavailable Jackie Whitehouse, then returned to the south-east of England in February 1924 to join

. Watkins scored at a rate of a goal every other game for Southend, with 17 goals from 34 games in all competitions, including 15 from 32 in the

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...

, but late in 1925 he was required to play for the reserves. He scored four goals as Southend beat

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

reserves 5–1 in the

London Combination The Football Combination was a football competition for the reserve teams of English Football League clubs from Southern England, the Midlands and Wales; other clubs from the Midlands and those from the North playing in the Central League (it is n ...

on New Year's Eve, but a "breach of club rules" occurring later that day brought the player a two-week suspension and a place on the transfer list. A few days later he signed for fellow Third Division club

in a £1000 transfer, at the time the club's record fee paid. Described as "a goal poacher whose best work was done inside the area", Watkins was Brentford's leading scorer in both the 1926–27 and 1928–29 seasons (becoming the first Bees player to hit 20 league goals in a season) and, , lay eighth in the club's all-time scorers list with 59 goals from 130 appearances. In February 1930 he joined

of the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, and then completed his tour of London- and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

-based Third Division clubs which took in spells with

, Gillingham and

. In February 1932, while a Charlton player, he sustained a knee injury which forced his retirement from the game at the end of the 1931–32 season. Watkins died in his native

on 10 October 1976 at the age of 78.

Career statistics

Honours

Brentford * London Charity Fund: 1928

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkins, Ernie 1898 births 1976 deaths Footballers from Finchley English footballers Association football forwards Barnet F.C. players Finchley F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players English Football League players