How Scottish football's brightest prospect was coached by mum - but had to watch out for neighbour's garden

Watson lands SFWA award as he cleans up in young player of year category

No matter how many trophies he picks up or how far he goes in his career, David Watson will always be grateful for his mother’s influence and guiding hand.

The accolades are mounting up for the Kilmarnock midfielder who today can be revealed as the DoubleTree by Hilton SFWA Young Player of the Year, a bauble that will sit nicely alongside the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award he collected just a week ago.

This has been a breakthrough season for the talented teenager who has become a pivotal figure in Derek McInnes’ side, adding goals to his all-round game. Scotland youth internationals who win personal trophies amid a clutch of man-of-the-match awards don’t stay under the radar for too long, something McInnes acknowledged when he revealed Kilmarnock are already steeling themselves for transfer bids flooding in this summer. Watson, though, doesn’t give the appearance of a man in a rush to leave Ayrshire. Raised a 25-minute drive down the coast in Prestwick, the 19-year-old has moved out of the family home and into his own place in Kilmarnock where supporters are delighted to occasionally spot him roaming around the local supermarket getting in the messages.

David Watson has enjoyed an excellent season at Kilmarnock, landing two awards - the latest being the SFWA young player of the year prize.

“I mostly keep myself to myself to be honest but every now and then I’ll maybe get stopped and someone will ask for a wee photo,” he says of his rising fame. “It’s normally when I’m in Tesco doing my shopping! All the fans have been amazing with me. I’ve never had anyone say a bad word. Every time I bump into a fan, they’re just full of compliments and always lovely with me.”

Football is in the blood. Both Watson’s parents played at a competitive level, with mum Claire (née Houston) an early pioneer in the women’s game, winning a mini–World Cup tournament as an under-13 player with Prestwick Girls on her way to being capped by Scotland. Dad John played in the Juniors before both established the Caledonian club in Prestwick where Watson would hone his skills as a fledgling talent until Kilmarnock took enough of an interest to add him to their academy squad when he was 10 years old. When Watson says none of this would have been possible without his parents, he is not just being deferential.

“My mum was my first coach alongside my dad,” he reveals. “It was them who started up my boys’ club so they’ve been a massive influence. They were my coaches for the first five or six years before I came to Killie. My mum took the school football team as well so she was always a part of my upbringing in football. We went and watched a lot of games too as she loves it as much as I do. She always encouraged me to kick a ball about in the back garden – except maybe when I was putting it into the neighbour’s garden!”

Feedback on his performances nowadays doesn’t just come from McInnes and his coaching staff. Waiting for him after every game is his mum, ready to offer counsel and guidance. “She comes to every game and then goes to my house afterwards to wait for me coming home to talk about it,” he laughs. “I get a good bit of feedback from her. Sometimes she is hard on me but I think that’s a good thing.”

Watson nets a late winner for Kilmarnock against Aberdeen earlier in the campaign.

Midfield remains the strongest part of the current Scotland squad and there is plenty of optimism for the future too, with Watson beating Aberdeen’s Connor Barron, Lennon Miller of Motherwell and Lyall Cameron of Dundee to win the football writers’ award. “There’s obviously great potential coming through the youth academies, especially the ones breaking through like me, Connor, Lennon and Lyall,” adds Watson. “There are loads of boys that have featured in first teams this season and that’s exciting to see.

“I’ve known Lennon for a year or so now. I played against him when I was younger, growing up through the academies, so we’ve always known each other. We started playing together with Scotland under-19s in the past six or seven months. He’s a great boy, we get on well and he’s great to play with. The Scotland midfield just now is so good and that’s a bit of an inspiration for us to go on and look at these players and try to meet their level. It’s always a dream to play for your country, even playing for the under-19s was a brilliant experience, going away to different countries and coming up against the best players of your age all around the world.”

Watson hasn’t forgotten his roots either. “I’ve done a few question-and-answer sessions with some of the younger groups at the academy and tried to answer whatever they wanted to ask me,” he adds. “In the away changing room we have a lot of the younger ones who are maybe training with the under-18s and sometimes feature with the first team. And if anyone wants to come and ask me about my journey then I’m always happy to have a chat.”

Watson is going to need to find extra shelf space soon as he expressed his gratitude at receiving another award, his progress matching the club’s in recent years. “Winning an award as prestigious as this is an honour, it adds to my PFA award which also means a lot to me,” he adds. “The football writers are the ones who watch us every week so it means a lot to me that they’re nominating me to win this, I appreciate it. It has been a great season for us on the park. I’m an Ayrshire lad so I know how important the club doing well is to the fans. Just a couple of years ago we were in the Championship and now we’re getting ready to get the passports out and go to Europe.”