KING KONG TAYLOR!

Ex-Watford defender Martin Taylor recalls his embarrassing celebration

MARTIN Taylor once flattened strikers for a living. These days, the only things he lays out are patio slabs, bathroom tiles and laminate flooring.

Since retiring from the game last year, the 35-year-old has turned to property development and if he’s anywhere near as effective at that he’ll soon have a bursting portfolio.

Nicknamed ‘Tiny’ (he’s a chunky 6ft 4ins), the centre-half played for Blackburn, Birmingham, Watford and Sheffield Wednesday, won the League Cup, three promotions and spent seven seasons plying his trade in the Premier League.

And on a break from his building work, the Ashington lad told us all about his highs and lows...

FIRST CLUB

Blackburn Rovers. I’d been released by Newcastle at 14 and was playing for Cramlington Juniors up in the North East. Luckily for me one of the coaches was a scout for Blackburn.

He sent me for a trial, they liked me and I basically left school at 16 and went straight into playing football. It was a good time to join – it was the summer of 1995, just after they’d won the Premier League under Kenny Dalglish. I ended up going all the way through the youth system and eventually spent eight years there.

BEST MANAGER

I’ve played for some high-profile names, but the out-and-out best would be Malky Mackay at Watford.

He’s a good coach, a good manmanager. I was 30 when I signed for Watford and Malky gave me a lot of responsibility which was just what I needed at that stage in my career. We had a great relationship.

It was only when I went to Watford, who had a lot of younger players and less natural ability, that I saw just how much actual coaching was needed to make a team function. Seeing Malky work was a real eye-opener and I hope he gets another job because he still has so much to give.

BEST TEAM-MATE

A player we had at his absolute peak at Blackburn was Damien Duff.The two years before he joined Chelsea, he was outstanding. He’d lit up the World Cup with the Republic of Ireland in 2002.

Then came back to us and was absolutely out of this world. Chelsea paid £17m for him at the end of that season.

He was fast, skilful – and if he got you turned, he was gone. Nobody wanted to play right-back against him in training. He

he struggled with his hamstrings in later years but he got it sorted and I think he’s still playing in Australia.

FIRST PROMOTION

To the Premier League with Blackburn in 2000-01.

There were about four or five of us – me, Damien Duff, David Dunn, Damien Johnson – who’d been bitpart players before relegation in ’99 but suddenly were playing most weeks. We ended up forming a great bond and I think that unity played a big part in our success.

It took us two seasons to get it done but at least it was automatic.We beat Preston on the penultimate weekend to make sure we didn’t have a nervy last day.

FUNNIEST PLAYER

I’ve known a few jokers but Carl Dickinson at Watford made me laugh the most. He wasn’t much of a practical joker, but he was brilliant at impressions and would impersonate people all through training and all through the warm-up.

Not everyone got it but I did. He’s at Port Vale now.

FUNNIEST INCIDENT

At Watford, I’d been scoring a few goals and the lads were giving me stick because I never celebrated very much.

So I went home and said to my eldest son ‘I need a celebration – what should I do?’ He’d been watching King Kong and he told me to beat my chest. I said ‘No way, that’s too embarrassing’ but he said ‘No, no Dad, next time you score you’ve got to do it’.

Anyway, about two weeks later I scored a goal. It wasn’t massively important, but a few lads came over and congratulated me.

It was only as I was running back to the halfway line that I suddenly thought ‘Oh no, I haven’t done the King Kong and my lads are in the crowd!’

So I looked up at the crowd, made sure none of the lads were looking and gave it the quick dum-dumdum on the chest. I thought ‘Great, got away with that’.

About a week later, we were about to start our weekly debrief with Sean Dyche and he said ‘We’re playing suchand-such, we’ll be working on this and this… but just before we begin I’ve got a little clip for you’.

It was me, putting the ball in the net, then celebrating with the lads. Then, for some reason, the internal Watford camera had followed me all the way back. And there I was, standing on the halfway line all by myself, looking at the crowd and beating my chest like an absolute nutter. Everyone was in fits. Funniest player: Carl Dickinson

BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT

Beating Tottenham to win the League Cup with Blackburn in 2002. We’d just come up from the Championship and Spurs were a big side who had won it in 1999 – I think everybody thought it was done and dusted, including them.

But we took the lead early on, played really well and I remember Andy Cole scoring the winner to make it 2-1.

I was only 22 at the time and probably didn’t appreciate it then. At that age, you don’t realise how difficult it actually is to win a major trophy. It’s only when you get older that you realise it was a once in a lifetime moment.

LOWEST MOMENT

I was relegated three times in my career – as a teenager with Blackburn and twice with Birmingham.

The first and last I barely played, but the first time I went down with Birmingham, in 2006, I’d been a regular in the team and that felt awful.

We shouldn’t have gone down. At Christmas we looked safe but we had a really bad run that coincided with Portsmouth somehow finding