Having plied his trade at Maghull and Burscough, Watson finally made his mark at Warrington Town where John Beck signed him for Preston North End for a fee of £60,000.

[1] This smashed Warrington Town's transfer fee received record which had only been set a few weeks earlier when Neil Whalley also moved to Deepdale for just £25,000.

[1] He scored in his début after replacing the injured Micky Norbury in a 5–2 win over Rotherham United on 27 March 1993 and then netted again in his next two appearances against Port Vale and Huddersfield Town.

[2] They would turn out to be the only three goals he would score for Preston but went on to make six more appearances before a serious injury cut short his professional footballing career.

With little budget Watson was forced to scour the reserves of local non-league teams with a bulk of his signings coming from Southport, who he would later go on to manage.

Out went players such as Peter Wright, Mark Byrne and Andy Whittaker and among the influx of players was Neil Robinson, who went on to score 15 goals in 15 games on loan from Macclesfield Town, Steve Daly, Chris Price and Kevin Leadbetter all followed Watson from Runcorn while young starlet Carl Baker was signed from Prescot Cables.

[3] At the start of the 2004–05 season Watson began undertaking another squad re-build which saw Neil Robinson return to the club permanently along with Earl Davis who had previously been on loan from Burnley.

In the same season, Burscough also won the Peter Swailes Memorial Shield and for the first time in 40 years the Lancashire Junior Cup.

[6] In his first season back at Southport, Watson oversaw a strong title challenge but fell short and ultimately lost to Gateshead in the play-off semi finals.

Southport however were saved from the drop following the demise of Rushden and Diamonds, and continued to compete at the top level of non-league football.

[11] Only weeks after announcing he would leave Southport at the end of the season, he immediately became favourite to become new manager of relegated side AFC Telford United.

However, after a poor run to the 2014/15 season the board of AFC Telford announced on 14 December 2014 that Watson and assistant Dom Morley have been relieved from their duties.