ELEMENTARY FOR WATSON
LURE OF YORK WAS JUST TOO HARD TO RESIST
AS CITIES go, there’s much in common between York and Lincoln. An imposing Minster in one, a cathedral that looms from up high over the other. Quaint streets steeped in history and scenes that conjure up visions of days gone by. But they also house two of football’s most famous names with similar tales to tell. Both crashed into NonLeague and found it difficult to get out. When York did, they were soon back and that relegation was followed by another as they fell into the National League North – a league that can swallow up even the most hardened of teams. Of course, Lincoln City are on the up now. Powered by management brothers Danny and Nicky Cowley, a promotion into League One is a serious possibility this season. For York, it’s onto a third manager of a campaign that has stuttered and spluttered. Ex-Darlington boss Martin Gray left early in the season and his replacement Sam Collins has also moved on. But last week they made an appointment that will have even the most pessimistic of York fans believing their fortunes are changing. Former Newcastle United midfielder Steve Watson has been working wonders at Gateshead this season. In uncertain times at the club and with large budget cuts, he pieced together a side pushing for the National League play-offs when all they were expected to do was struggle at the bottom. But York City are a big pull for anyone and Watson couldn’t turn down the chance to be the man to lead the revival. Like the Cowleys did at Lincoln, he knows galvanising a city is a big part of the job. “A similar story really – a traditionally huge club that had lost its way a little bit and dropped down to NonLeague,” Watson says. “Danny and Nicky hit the ground running and never looked back. I’m pretty convinced they’ve had very good offers in the summer to manage higher – maybe even Championship level.
No illusions
“But they’ve started a project there, they’re obviously enjoying it and that’s the goal really, that’s the plan for a manager like me having taken over a similar project at York. “The dream is to try and go through the divisions and enjoy the journey at a great club in a lovely city. Everything’s here.” Watson is under no illusions at the size of the task but he wouldn’t have enjoyed a long playing career at the highest levels with the Magpies, Everton and Sheffield Wednes- day if he hadn’t been able to cope with the demands and pressure of management. He learned his trade as a coach, taking roles alongside Lee Clark at Birmingham City after starting out with Huddersfield Town’s development set-up and then cutting his teeth in NonLeague as assistant to John Askey at Macclesfield Town before taking up the Heed role 18 months ago. “I’d be lying if I said as a player I knew immediately management is something I wanted to go into,” Watson says. “It’s something some players do know. “I came out of football, I had a couple of operations, got into coaching a little bit later than most. I enjoyed going through different types of coaching – from development to first team to assistant and then I went into this level with John hoping it would be the best route into management for me once I’d decided it’s what I wanted to do.
Challenge
“Eighteen months into my managerial career I know it’s definitely the right thing for me. All of the work I put in as a player, I was relatively successful in terms of a lot of games at some fantastic clubs but not much in the way of silverware to show for it. “So that’s my goal now. To try and be more successful as a manager than I was as a player.” Watson had no qualms about starting out in Non-League. Having thrown his hat in the ring for some jobs in League One and League Two, he realised hopping on the train further down the line was best. Watson wants to manage at the highest level possible so, with that in mind, a drop down a level would have been a hard decision. “I probably wouldn’t have wanted to leave Gateshead fighting any kind of battle,” Watson, who believes Ben Clark and Ian Watson are excellent choices to take the team on, says. “Hopefully now it’s one to stay in and around the play-offs but it would have been a much more difficult decision had they been around the bottom. So that was a factor. “But I’m an ambitious manager and I want to manage at the highest level. Just the year I had there, I couldn’t foresee where the club was going next year. “It would have been impossible to judge. If any other club in our division or the division below other than something like York had come along, it’s something I wouldn’t have thought about.” Watson says a play-off push – however big a task – has to be the aim while it is mathematically possible. Long term speaks for itself. And Watson is relishing the challenge. “Already after a few days, you can just see it’s waiting to happen,” Watson says. “But in the knowledge of how much hard work it’s going to be, how much dedication and commitment from me, the staff and the playing staff to get there to make it work.”