From Weston to Dortmund – Ollie Watkins – doyen of the lower leagues.

Posted on July 11, 2024 by henry tapper

The England team , peppered as it is with high profile premiership players, would be the weaker without the pyramid below it.

Ollie Watkins was not just an Exeter player in the bottom tier of the EFL, he was a loanee to Weston-Super-Mare playing in the Conference South. Yeovil fans often refer to player’s having a shocker as having a “Weston”. Both Somerset teams know each other well. We also know and love Exeter through Adam Stansfield. Yeovil fans will be pleased for our Devon Neighbors.

Olly Watkins’ goal in the 90th minute has shot him to national celebrity , but most of his career has been spent in the EFL with Exeter and Brentford, is is only recently that he has played against his England team mates – he and Ivan Toney are two good reasons Brentford are now a premiership club. Thanks to the BBC for this 

“He had the perfect attitude, the perfect character and physical ability. He had all the boxes ticked yet, at 17, 18, 19 years old he never played as well as he should have done,” said Paul Tisdale, Watkins’ first manager at Exeter.

At the age of 18, mostly playing on the wing, Watkins had made four first-team appearances for Exeter City before being sent on loan to Weston-super-Mare in the Conference South, the sixth tier.

He scored 10 goals in 18 starts there – and broke into the Exeter team, as a striker.

“Suddenly the engine turned on. I’ve never seen a player have a quantum shift in their output as much as Ollie did,” said Tisdale.

He left for Championship Brentford in 2017 for £1.8m having scored 26 goals in 78 appearances for Exeter.

Another 49 goals followed in 143 games for the Bees before he became the most expensive Championship player ever when he joined Aston Villa for £28m three years later.

England is a team that EFL and non-league supporters can get behind because it represents all levels of the football pyramid- just look at the flags on Sunday.

The premiership and their entitled supporters may finally be taking an interest in their national team . but for the fans of smaller clubs the form and style of their national team is what they cannot get when they pay to watch their sides. This is why so many fans have been incensed at the vapid play from many of our “star players”.

Last night, at last, we played like a team that wanted to wind and not a team terrified of losing. We have one chance on Sunday to do something that has not happened since I was four and win a major trophy.

I hope that Ollie Watkins starts.

Watkins at Weston

About henry tapper

Founder of the Pension PlayPen,, partner of Stella, father of Olly . I am the Pension Plowman
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