Former Cove Rangers boss John Sheran hailed Eric Watson as the best pound-for-pound signing the club ever made after the defender announced his retirement.
Watson spent 12 years at Cove Rangers – the majority of that under Sheran – and won six Highland League titles and seven other trophies during the club’s most successful period in the division.
The 38-year-old has stepped away from the game due to the current pandemic as he works in Dundee and it is currently in a higher level of coronavirus restrictions than Aberdeenshire, where he had been playing with Inverurie Locos.
Sheran brought Watson to the club in 2007, buying him from Tayport after he had committed to signing for them upon leaving Montrose Roselea. It proved to be an astute purchase, as the future skipper went on to become one of the most successful Highland League players of the modern era.
Sheran said: “If you look at the successful period for Cove, 2007 onwards, Eric was signed in 2007 and pound-for-pound was probably the best signing we ever made. Just on the basis of his overall contribution; not many guys have got six Highland League titles to their name and he’s played a massive part in all of them.
“I knew about Eric from my time at Montrose and had watched him at Roselea a few times. We were rebuilding the team after a few boys had left at the end of that season and I wanted to get Eric.
“Unfortunately he had already signed for Tayport and we ended up buying him from them in the end. We bought him as a holding midfield player, but, once we moved him back to centre-half, he just looked at home. In that team, him and Kevin Tindal were a great partnership.”
Watson won league titles in 2008, 2009, 2013, 2016, 2018 and 2019, ultimately helping Cove to achieve their long-term ambition of reaching the SPFL.
His final game for the club was the play-off second leg against Berwick Rangers, in which he came on to a huge ovation from the travelling support.
He spent last season back in the Highland League with Locos, where he looked to mentor the club’s younger players.
Sheran, now Cove’s director of football, added: “In the Highland League, if you’re successful as Cove were, you’re playing 50-plus games a season.
“It was only towards the end of his career where he didn’t play all the games.
“When it came to the big games and the run-in at the end of the season, Eric was playing every game. Everyone will remember him for being strong in the tackle and the air but he was a good football player as well.
“It was always in the big games for me – he was always up for them and he would get the rest of the team up for them. Generally he played well in those and that was the defining thing. When you’re chasing leagues and cups, you needed players to perform at a high level consistently and he did that.
“He played in his part in achieving the ultimate goal in getting to the Scottish league. I would think he will be remembered as one of the best players to play for Cove, if not the best.”