New Reggae Boy nets for Bristol City
A thumping header from new Jamaican international Marvin Elliott in the 44th minute lifted Bristol City to a 2-2 draw against Watford at the Vicarage Road Stadium on Tuesday to extend their unbeaten run in the English League npower Championship to six matches.
The 27-year-old, six-foot midfielder was scoring his second goal for the season for City from 19 matches, while providing two assists.
In his fifth consecutive season with The Robins, Elliott figured in City’s 54 per cent possession of play in match witnessed by 13,000 people.
Carl Dickinson and Craig Beattie handed Watford a 2-0 lead in the 25th and 42nd minutes, before Elliott nodded home from six yards a Ryan McGivern cross on the left.
And a blunder from Watford goalkeeper Scott Loach ensured City a share of the points 24 seconds in the second half.
Loach allowed Adrian Mariappa of Fiji to back-pass the ball, only for it roll into his net.
Elliott soon became a target of Jonathan Hogg of Watford, nicknamed The Hornets. Twice he was fouled by Hogg in the space of two minutes, resulting in free kicks for The Robins.
A crucial clearance by Elliott in the last four minutes of the game kept Bristol City on 20 points and in 20th place, with Watford in 18th place and on 21 points.
Making his international debut for Jamaica last October against Honduras, Elliott was a member of the 2007-2008 English League Championship Professional Football Association (PFA) Team of he Year, along with Ricardo Fuller of Stoke City.
Last season was Elliott’s best of his professional career, scoring eight goals (four of them headers) from 46 matches. Only four times was he substituted out, having started in all his matches.
Bristol City FC described him as a “tough-tackling, energetic box-to-box midfielder”. He was voted young player of the year in his first season at the club, in 2007-2008.
City will travel on Sunday to fourth-placed Middlesbrough, a team that Elliott played against five times and scored once (on October 30, 2010 with a right-footed shot at the Riverside Stadium).
