Thomas Sidney Watson (12 December 1927 – 1 September 2021) was an English

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 played 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 ...

for

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

as a wing-half. Sid Watson worked at

Pleasley Colliery Pleasley Colliery is a former English coal mine. It is located to the north-west of Pleasley village, which sits above the north bank of the River Meden on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border. It lies 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Mans ...

when he signed with Mansfield Town as an amateur in September 1948. In January 1950, he signed a professional contract with the club, but had to wait until the 1951–52 season before making his first-team debut. Watson went on to become one of Mansfield's longest-serving players of all time. He spent 13 years at the club, and played 307 first-team games for the Stags, including 292 in league competition. He left Mansfield at the end of the 1960–61 season, and then played four seasons for non-league Ilkeston Town. After his retirement from professional football, Watson was an employee at

King's Mill Hospital King's Mill Hospital is an acute general district hospital serving the population of north Nottinghamshire and parts of Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. It is managed by the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The majority of the hospital ...

Sutton-in-Ashfield Sutton-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 48,527 in 2019. It is the largest town in the district of Ashfield, four miles west of Mansfield, two miles from the Derbyshire border and 12 miles nort ...

until his retirement in 1992. He died on 1 September 2021, aged 93.

References

1927 births 2021 deaths Footballers from Mansfield English men's footballers Men's association football wing halves English Football League players Mansfield Town F.C. players Ilkeston Town F.C. (1945) players {{England-footy-midfielder-1920s-stub