Gloucester City boss Mike Cook has expressed his excitement after Elis Watts grabbed his first goal for the club against Basingstoke Town after signing from Hungerford Town last month.
Watts scored a fantastic goal from well outside of the box, as the spoils were shared in a 1-1 draw in the Southern Football League, Premier Division South.
“I am pleased for Elis because he is on the score sheet, he is one of those that can score goals. We all know that we haven’t got a centre-forward who can do that at the moment, but we have got goals from other areas, but we needed that lucky sort of deflection for it to go in.”
The 22-year-old signed signed for Gloucester in January after departing from Hungerford, Watts came through the ranks at Newport County as a youngster before signing for Aldershot Town. While with the Shots, he had successful loan spells with Farnborough and Weston-super-Mare before permanently signing for the Seagulls permanently in 2022.
Cook’s side are unbeaten in their last nine games, but have only won three in that time; beating Swindon Supermarine, Sholing and Bracknell Town.
“We have had some good performances lately; I am not so bothered about that. We just need a couple more wins within that, I am not that bothered about performances, I want a couple of more wins to be honest. You come away to places like this (Basingstoke), this is tough.
“They play five at the back for most of the game, they switched it on Tuesday night against Merthyr as well once they scored. They are very tough to break down, it is not terrible, but it is just a little bit disappointing.”
Despite going behind 63 minutes into the game after a goal from Jaden Brissett and levelling the game late on, Cook was still disappointed that his side were only able to pick up a point: “It is probably two points dropped, but in saying that, it wasn’t a bad performance in the first-half, we just didn’t create enough in the second-half. It was disappointing the way they scored the goal because that is what we have told them was going to happen. So, to concede like that is definitely disappointing.”
Gloucester had plenty of chances to win the game before their late equaliser, which their manager reflected on post-match: “When you see them work on a Tuesday and a Thursday night and putting those chances away, it is frustrating. I thought KP (Kieran Phillips) did quite well for 60 minutes, we are just protecting him, we don’t want him to play 90 minutes yet. Jadyn (Crosbie) and Stan (Anaebonam) did well when they came on and gave us a little bit extra.
“We have got the game on Wednesday, so we have got to keep that in mind,” Cook said on the some players who may not be available. “Ed (Williams) is struggling a little bit with his hamstring, BRE (Ben Richards-Everton) is out as well, I don’t know whether he will be okay or not for Wednesday.”
The Tigers sit third, firmly in the playoffs, but are 14 points off league leaders Merthyr Town, who have recently turned down an offer of £6m to rejoin the Welsh top-flight in 2026.
Next, they travel to Gosport Borough on Wednesday, hoping to get back to winning ways in the Southern Football League, Premier Division South – their opponents currently sit in 11th.
