Watford striker Nathan Ellington scores twice for Preston North End Reserves

5:47pm Wednesday 12th January 2011 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Frank Smith, Deputy Group Sports Editor

Watford striker Nathan Ellington scores twice for Preston North End Reserves Watford striker Nathan Ellington scores twice for Preston North End Reserves

Nathan Ellington scored two goals and had one disallowed playing for Preston North End Reserves this afternoon.

Ellington is currently training with Phil Brown’s squad ahead of a possible loan move and scored twice as Preston Reserves beat Shrewsbury Town 3-1.

The Hornets most expensive signing is unable to feature for Watford as another appearance for Malky Mackay’s men would trigger another payment to former club West Bromwich Albion.

Ellington had already seen a goal of his ruled out when he doubled Preston’s lead on 40 minutes by, according to North End’s website,”running at the Shrewsbury defence before bending a fine right footed drive past the goalkeeper with the outside of his boot”.

The 29-year-old made it 3-0 minutes later when he “latched on to a Paul Parry cross to divert from close range”.

Comments(23)

Kentish Hornet says...
6:21pm Wed 12 Jan 11

Good, hopefully they will take him off our hands

Sec Word
plan-lift, I am happy to drop him off

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ICMRB says...
6:29pm Wed 12 Jan 11

Just go play for Preston already, or frankly anyone who will take him on loan/transfer/swap for a goat.

I realize it was not his "fault" that he was on a stupidly large contract, but if he'd ever truly cared about his playing career he would have either (a) agreed a mutual termination and got on with signing & playing elsewhere, or (b) restructured so he could play for WFC (Mr Ellington: see the wonderful Mr Eustace if you need notes on how you should have done this)

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RebelIan says...
6:34pm Wed 12 Jan 11

Kentish Hornet wrote:
Good, hopefully they will take him off our hands Sec Word plan-lift, I am happy to drop him off
Drop him off? I'll sweep the road between Watford and Preston if he'll follow it and stay there!

Of course he'll now join Preston and score bloody shed loads but at least he'll be doing it off our payroll, hopefully.

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pfwhornets says...
6:36pm Wed 12 Jan 11

My engine's running. Just say the word and I'll be over to pick him up. No doubt will get plenty of speeding tickets on the way up to deepdale.

Can't believe this....security word is "very-fast".....I think the wobby are having a laugh.

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The Rover says...
6:42pm Wed 12 Jan 11

Wonder how much we had to pay the Shrewsbury Town keeper to let those goals in?

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bushey tales says...
7:00pm Wed 12 Jan 11

I don't think it's exactly a case of the Duke 'doing it off our payroll,' sadly. I doubt PNE would pick up more than 10% of that ludicrous £40k per week. We'll still be shelling out well over thirty grand a week while he's lumbering around wearing somebody else's shirt. Yeah, you're right - it's worth it.

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inayellowshirt says...
7:21pm Wed 12 Jan 11

found his level at last

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andy710 says...
7:35pm Wed 12 Jan 11

£40k a week.. Your having a laugh, he's on good wages but no where near that amount. Think about it.. That would be a contract worth 8 million over4 years. There is no way they have paid that,

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not a regular says...
8:22pm Wed 12 Jan 11

It does make me laugh when people say he should have restructured his deal so that he can play.

HE CANNOT PLAY AS IT WILL TRIGGER A CLAUSE TO WEST BROM (NOT HIMSELF) FOR £1.25M

Rant over. I wish people would learn things before criticising.

Note: I do not think he has earned his wages and I cannot wait to be shot of him.

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WFC4ever says...
9:12pm Wed 12 Jan 11

This is good news.

Clearly "Duke" is playing for a contract.

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bushey tales says...
9:48pm Wed 12 Jan 11

Er....he's on 40 grand a week - believe me. Plus appearance money. Take a look at the balance sheet. Or ask Ashton.

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D.unstable says...
9:50pm Wed 12 Jan 11

I bet they think all their ramadams have come at once. quick do the deal to get him off the payroll whilst he is on a high and before he gets his lazy backside stuck in his size xxxl shorts.

Never known such a lazy excuse for a footballer.

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bobbysid says...
10:28pm Wed 12 Jan 11

If any PNE scouts stumble across this page ignore these guys. Ellington was a class act - athletic, great work ethic and an eye for goal. A bit like watching (the real) Ronaldo before he got fat and had silly haircuts.

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ICMRB says...
11:21pm Wed 12 Jan 11

not a regular wrote:
It does make me laugh when people say he should have restructured his deal so that he can play.

HE CANNOT PLAY AS IT WILL TRIGGER A CLAUSE TO WEST BROM (NOT HIMSELF) FOR £1.25M

Rant over. I wish people would learn things before criticising.

Note: I do not think he has earned his wages and I cannot wait to be shot of him.
Then he could have chosen option (a) And found a way to mutually terminate the contract such that no-one was owed anything.
The point is, he would have done something if he truly wanted to play.


Instead he was happy to collect his paycheck of an "unknown" large amount, "allegedly" show a poor attitude in training and rot in the reserves/on the bench. A real footballer would have shown more pride than that and he deserves criticism (no doubt cue a rant from someone on lack of opportunities, the manager, the pitch, the style of play...)

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not a regular says...
11:48pm Wed 12 Jan 11

Yeah cause you'd offer to terminate a £500k/year job with a 3 year probation period wouldn't you...

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GloryHornetBoys says...
12:11am Thu 13 Jan 11

He isn't on 40k a week mate,14-20k some1 at the club said, 40k would never have been offered,we were only i the prem for 1 year!Maybe with every bonus u can think of but I still very much doubt it

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Prof Plum says...
9:18am Thu 13 Jan 11

I find it hard to generate the same levels of loathing for Ellington as others clearly have. Noone can blame him for maximisng his income and he would have no influence whatsoever on the deal between Watford and West Brom that has effectively stopped us playing him for the past year. I certianly wouldn't claim that on the pitch he has been anything other than awful but I suspect that his initial underperformance was largely down to Aidy's primitive approach. The shame is that I think he would have thrived under Mackay and the current playing style, but we'll never know. Good luck to him, I say.

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Chris the Vic says...
9:22am Thu 13 Jan 11

Best of luck to Duke. Consigned to history

Signed by a clueless manager ( who is failing yet again)...A manager who so P****d off Marlon he wanted out to anywhere because the long ball didnt suit his style just as it didnt suit Dukes.

As for taking a cut in salary cept for JE I cant remember our heroes like King, Smith, Robinson and Heidar ever considering that. They did what I would have done maximised their earnings over their short career.

We signed him out of desperation and he failed, we eventually signed Collins John having ridiculed his demands over a salary of £1m, but managed to pay an injured Marlon £2m and seemingly Duke the same....Not sure what it tells us

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Watfordpete says...
10:34am Thu 13 Jan 11

Surely the contract is also with (Mark's Ashton's favourites) WBA so NE can't really do much about it. Good luck to him, I just hope we can get him off the wage bill.

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fairwater says...
10:36am Thu 13 Jan 11

Prof Plum wrote:
I find it hard to generate the same levels of loathing for Ellington as others clearly have. Noone can blame him for maximisng his income and he would have no influence whatsoever on the deal between Watford and West Brom that has effectively stopped us playing him for the past year. I certianly wouldn't claim that on the pitch he has been anything other than awful but I suspect that his initial underperformance was largely down to Aidy's primitive approach. The shame is that I think he would have thrived under Mackay and the current playing style, but we'll never know. Good luck to him, I say.
Tend to agree with most of what you say there Prof.
BTW, he is on £14k per week, not the sily £40K being mentioned above.
Also we have not triggered the final £1.25M payment to WBA re number of appearances.
Also we received a £1M "loan" fee from Derby (Paul Jewell), with a view to him signing perm at end of season.
Jewell got sacked, and we got Ellington back, but we still received the £1M.
I know he has been on excessive wages (but some retrieved by various loan deals), but overall his so-called transfer fee of £3.25M is much nearer the £1M mark.

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Watfordpete says...
10:40am Thu 13 Jan 11

And now it looks like PNE want him on 6-month loan according to Observer Twitter feed

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fairwater says...
11:15am Thu 13 Jan 11

PNE have taking the Duke on a six month loan according to Sky Sports News in the last half an hour!

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the sniper says...
12:37pm Thu 13 Jan 11

I think The Duke deserves another chance with Watford and form a partnership with DG,he got a raw deal under Boothroyd.Afterall Ellington was well liked by all at Watford especially for his commitment to the club and the fans.....only joking,but it got you reading this post.The sooner he moves to Preston or anywhere else the better...useless Tw4t

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