Ben Charles Watson (born 6 December 1985) is 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 lea ...

, who is manager for Crediton United FC . He is also currently a coach at League 2 side Exeter City's community trust and holds his B-License coaching qualification. The striker started his career with Brighton before a few loan moves before signing for Bognor Regis permanently in 2004. He later moved onto Grays Athletic where he impressed and earned a move to then Conference side Exeter City after catching the eye of manager Paul Tisdale. Watson is currently on his second spell at Bideford following a recent second spell with Dorchester. Watson is perhaps best known for his time at League Two side Exeter where he won promotion twice, first time through the conference playoffs (where he wore the number 32) and played at Wembley, and the second was an automatic promotion to league one the following season (where he wore the #19 shirt). He had two short loan spells with Forest Green and a third with Bath City before being released by Exeter due to a constant calf injury across 2 seasons and joining Eastbourne Borough. Watson has recently signed for Bideford for a second spell following time at Dorchester (two spells) and Truro City.

Career

Born in

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in the Adur District, Adur district, in the county of West Sussex, England. In 2011 it had a population of 20,547. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to ...

, Watson has also played for

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

Bognor Regis Town Bognor Regis Town Football Club is an English football club based in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. Nicknamed 'The Rocks’, the club is an FA Chartered Standard Community club affiliated to the Sussex County Football Association. They currently co ...

and

Grays Athletic Grays Athletic Football Club is a football club based in Grays, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Chadfields in nearby Tilbury. History The club was established as Grays Juniors in 1890, before merging with former ...

. He holds

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

'B' coaching badges for both

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

. With this he spent some of his time whilst at Bognor Regis coaching at

Varndean School Varndean School is a secondary school serving a large area of Brighton, England. In 2013, 2017 and 2022, Ofsted inspectors described Varndean as a 'Good' school. Varndean shares the Surrenden Campus with Balfour Primary School, Dorothy String ...

in Brighton. He then moved on to Grays Athletic. Watson made his debut for

on 24 March 2008 in the 3–1 away defeat at Weymouth, while on loan from

. Following Exeter's promotion to the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

, Watson signed a one-year contract with the club. He made his debut as an Exeter signee, at home to

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

, in the 2–1 defeat in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

on 2 September 2008. On the last day of that year, he extended his contract to tie him to the club until the end of the 2009–10 season. Watson joined

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Formed in October 188 ...

on loan for a month on 31 December 2009. The loan was terminated just a couple of days after however as Watson suffered a calf injury before the move.

Forest Green Forest green is a green color said to resemble the color of the trees and other plants in a forest. This web color, when written as computer code in HTML for website color display, is written in the form forestgreen (no space). The first reco ...

signed Watson on loan again the next season in September 2010. He made his debut the next day in a 3–0 away loss against Barrow. He returned to

in October when his loan spell with

expired. In May 2011 Exeter announced that he would not be offered a new deal at the end of the season. Watson signed for Eastbourne Borough on 21 June 2011. A year later, he signed for

Conference South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 of the NLS and sixth-highest ti ...

Dorchester Town. He ended the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season as Dorchester's top goal scorer with 17 goals in all competitions and signed a two-year contract in June 2013. With Dorchester experiencing financial problems, Watson and teammate Arran Pugh joined Pugh's old club

Truro City Truro City Football Club is an Association football in England, English football club based in Truro, Cornwall. They currently compete in the National League (English football), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

in the Southern Premier League on 4 October 2013. Watson scored twice on his debut the following day as Truro lost 7–3 at home to St Albans City. He won Truro City's 'Golden Boot' award for 2013–14 with 13 goals in all competitions, but after a poor start to the following season he was placed on the transfer list by manager

Steve Tully Stephen Richard Tully (born 10 February 1980) is an English footballer, who recently managed club Poole Town F.C., Poole Town. He was born in Paignton, Devon. Career He began his career as a fullback with his local side Torquay United, turnin ...

. He was later brought to

Bideford Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, South West England. It is the main town of the Torridge District, Torridge Districts of England, local government district. Toponymy In ancient records Bi ...

by general manager Steve Massey, formerly manager at Truro City. He joined

South West Peninsula League The South West Peninsula League (SWPL) is a football competition in England, which was formed in 2007 from the merger of the Devon County League and the South Western League. The league covers Cornwall, Devon, western Somerset and western Dors ...

club St Martins in February 2018.

References

External links

Ben Watson player profile
at exetercityfc.co.uk * {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Ben (footballer 1985 12) 1985 births Living people English men's footballers Footballers from Shoreham-by-Sea English Football League players National League (English football) players Southern Football League players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Bognor Regis Town F.C. players Grays Athletic F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players Eastbourne Borough F.C. players Dorchester Town F.C. players Truro City F.C. players Bideford A.F.C. players Men's association football forwards English men's futsal players 21st-century English sportsmen