Southgate hails striker’s ‘fairy tale’ scoring debut
Gareth Southgate described Ollie Watkins’ goalscoring England debut as a “fairy tale” after the striker completed his incredible journey from playing non-league to international football.
And Southgate, the England manager, also insisted that the door remained open for players to try to push their way into his team for the first game of the European Championship against Croatia on June 13.
Aston Villa’s Watkins scored England’s final goal in their 5-0 World Cup qualifying victory over San Marino after replacing two-goal
Dominic Calvert-lewin as a substitute. Raheem Sterling and James Ward-prowse also got on the scoresheet, but it was Watkins’ goal that caught the imagination, following his rise through the leagues with Exeter, from where he went on loan to non-league Weston-super-mare in 2014-15, Brentford and Villa.
Southgate said: “The first thing you saw was the reaction from the rest of the team. That shows you how together they are. They know what it means for him. He’s settled in really quickly with the group.
“He’s a really humble boy and it was nice to be able to give him half an hour or so. For him to get a goal is fairy tale isn’t it?”
Watkins said: “Unbelievable, what I have dreamt about. All day in the hotel I was just thinking that I hope to get a chance to come on, enjoy it and get the opportunity to score. I’m speechless to be honest.
“It’s been a good journey. I just feel honoured that I can come out here and play for my country with these players and score on my debut. Over the moon. I just wanted to get on the pitch for a start. I have and I can’t believe it.”
Ahead of last night’s game, Southgate said that if the European Championship started tomorrow, he would know his best team.
But he insisted after the San Marino success that the door was not shut on players changing his mind between now and then by saying: “Every game we play, people have the chance to show their good form and their level of quality, and they have the opportunity to change my thinking. It would be foolish to pin ourselves to one way of thinking at this stage.”
England travel to Albania on Sunday for the second of their three
World Cup qualifiers and Southgate insisted the game would go ahead.
A row over the policing had briefly thrown it into doubt, but Southgate said: “We didn’t think for one minute it wouldn’t go ahead. These things come up all the time with various issues and it is very rare it comes to fruition. I’ve got no doubt the game will go ahead as planned.”
England could easily have finished with more goals against San Marino, but Southgate insisted he was happy with the outcome after watching his players take the knee ahead of kick-off.
“We did it as well as we could,” said Southgate. “I was really pleased with the way we pressed when we lost the ball. That highlighted the mentality of the team for the full 90 minutes. Of course, it’s an opponent we should beat, but I thought they went about the job really well.
“There were lots of good individual performances. It would be difficult to pick one out. The midfield players moved the ball around really well. Kalvin Phillips, I was really pleased for him. He’s used the ball well and his athleticism around the pitch was good.
“Mason Mount in the first half was excellent and set the tone. It was good to see Jesse Lingard looking like he’s enjoying his football again. There were a lot of good things.”