Liam Watson (born 21 May 1970) is an English former professional footballer and current manager of Southport Football Club. Playing career Professional career 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. 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. 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. 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. Semi-professional career Due to his injury Watson retired from professional football and returned to non-league. The first side to sign him on his return was Marine before moving on to Witton Albion and then eventually Runcorn. Watson was soon signed from Runcorn by John Coleman for a short stint at ambitious Accrington Stanley before returning to the newly renamed Runcorn F.C. Halton in a managerial capacity replacing Mark Carter. Managerial career Runcorn FC Halton In September 2000, Watson, at the relatively young age of 29, became Runcorn's new manager in the Northern Premier League. 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. After three relatively successful years at Runcorn, in October 2003 Watson replaced Mike Walsh as manager of Southport and became the youngest manager in their history at the age of 33. Southport One of Watson's first moves at Southport was to oversee a large turn around of players. 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. This saw a remarkable turn around of fortunes, with Southport languishing in mid-table and struggling to qualify for the