Ellington: My worst season in football

Ellington arrived in August for a club record fee of £3.25m amid a huge fanfare. Nine months later he joined Derby County on a season-long loan deal after making just 21 starts in a yellow shirt and scoring four goals.

The forward, who turns 27 on Wednesday, believes he has lost none of the ability that saw him score at a ratio of nearly one in every two games at his three previous clubs and plans to reward the faith Paul Jewell, his mentor, has shown in him by featuring prominently in "I'm very disappointed at how things worked out at Watford,” said Ellington, who recently returned from a two-week break in Orlando.

“I wanted the Watford fans to see I was a good player but they probably view it that I was the worst player they have ever had. I’m disappointed people feel that way but there is nothing I can do about that now.

“If I get to play every game at Derby I’ll be up there in the top-scorers charts and the fans will see what they don’t have anymore.”

If Ellington proves wrong those people who feel his best days are behind him and scores freely at Derby then Boothroyd will be forced to shoulder the blame for the striker’s ignominious time at Vicarage Road.

The Watford manager always seemed reluctant to use Ellington, despite regularly hailing him as the best all-round player at the club.Boothroyd finally made the striker the centre piece of plans in the final three games of the season and adopted a game-plan to suit his talent.

But by then Ellington had already made his mind up that he wanted to be re-united with Jewell and it suited the cash-strapped Hornets to sell one of their most valuable assets.“I’ve got nothing against the manager, we’ve not fallen out, but to get the best out of me I need to be under a manager who knows me,” said Ellington who, like Boothroyd, was born in Bradford.“I told him that. I went in and saw him three or four times during the season and told him I wasn’t happy at not playing and that I needed to play.

“I got a few starts towards the end but it was too late,” he added.

“If I was playing regularly then it would have been a different story. But the way the season panned out meant it was my worst season in football. I was only playing now and again and they didn’t play the right way to get the best out of me. The best thing was to move on and start a fresh.”

Ellington was aware of Derby’s interest in January and would have jumped at the chance to strut his stuff in the Premiership and be reunited then with Jewell.

“I knew Derby were interested in me but it wasn’t going to happen in January as Aidy said there was no chance of me going anywhere,” he said.

“I didn’t say anything as he said he was going to play me and I believed him.”

Boothroyd kept his word and gave Ellington his head following the controversial sale of Marlon King.

The forward responded, scoring three goals in five games and started to look like the player who had scored 44 goals in 95 games for Wigan Athletic.

The zenith was the winner he got at Portman Road, ending the Tractor Boys’ unbeaten home record.

“I felt that game was as well as I played,” he recalled. “It was probably the game where I was most fit and I went into the game knowing we were going to win and that I was going to play well. My match fitness was up and if had I carried on playing I, and the team, would have been fine. It didn’t work out that way.”

Ellington scored just once in the final 17 games and found himself kept out of the side by a half-fit Collins John and the laconic Tamas Priskin.

When he did start he was, more often than not, substituted and made the scapegoat for a poor team performance – as was the case at the KC Stadium in March.

The nadir, according to Ellington, was the 1-1 draw at home to Norwich City, with his withdrawal that evening effectively sealing his fate.

“I felt I played really well but I missed three chances in the first 20 minutes,” he recalled.

“I got taken off and we drew the game. I was pleased I got that many chances and I was feeling dangerous and felt I would score. Others will view it as a bad game because I didn’t score. At Wigan I missed a few chances but the manager knew I was going to score the next one. That’s maybe the big difference.”

Ellington, though, did not excuse himself from blame.

“There are times when I didn’t play well – it wasn’t always someone else’s fault – but I felt it was like buying a petrol car and putting diesel in it. I played a few games, got my fitness up, got a chance and put a few away.

"But I went a few games where I didn’t score which is what people will remember.”

The striker admits he is hurt by the boos that enveloped his final two months at the club.

“Of course that hurts – I’m not used to getting booed,” he said. “But that comes with football, I guess.

“When you are scoring goals everyone loves you. If you are not people start booing. I just had to take it.

“I knew what was going on and I had to trust my own ability and keep my head up. If I didn’t then I would have no chance. I’ve never lost faith in my ability. I’ve always felt I was good enough, I know what I’m good at and I’m only 26. I’m just waiting patiently again for the chance to play.”

Ellington hopes Derby will play a brand of football that suits him after admitting the game-plan at Watford was an alien concept to him.

“It definitely didn’t suit me at all, to be honest,” he said. “I did the best I could but it just didn’t suit me.”

The key, however, to kick-starting his mis-firing career will be regular football.

“Why was I not playing? You’ll have to ask Aidy Boothroyd that,” he said.

“I can’t answer that. I told him three for four times I was not getting any games and need to move on and find someone who is going to play me.“I just never seemed to get settled and get a decent run in the side. It was very hard for me, not playing regularly.“ "I think that’s all any footballer wants and when you’re not playing, you’re not scoring goals and it just gets harder and harder.

“If I play, I know I’ll score – but I didn’t get to play at Watford. I’ve always scored wherever I’ve been – even when I was at West Brom – but at Watford it was always a struggle just to get games.“When you look at my career so far I do the job when I play,” he explained.

“My record at Watford is pretty bad and that’s down to me not playing often and not getting match sharpness and playing a different way to what I’m used to. I know how good I am and what I can do. I’ve played the same way as I usually play, but the way we played was completely different to what I’ve been used to.”

In fact, Ellington draws comparison with his plight to that of Andrei Shevchenko, who looked a shadow of the player who won the Ballon D'or at AC Milan when he joined Chelsea.

“He’s a top player and still a top player,” Ellington said of his fellow striker. # “But he doesn’t play enough and people think he’s lost it. I don’t see that. Perhaps he’s lost his pace but you don't lose that ability.

“That’s just an example. Some people are good at one club and things don’t work out the same way at another club.”

Ellington hopes the move to Pride Park, initially on a season-long loan deal, will herald a renaissance in his faltering career and believes Jewell is the man to bring the best out of him once more.

“I’m pleased to have it sorted and be back with my old manager,” he said. “He knows me best and knows how to get best out of me.

“He knows me inside and outside as he’s been with me for so many years. I had the best time of my career under him and don’t see any reason why I wont do same again.

“I believe I’m the same player, I haven’t any big injuries and haven’t had chance to play week in and week out. Under him if I play well I play every week. Since I left him I haven’t had chance to play every week, despite how well I played.“I hope I get chance to play more often and everyone will see the real Nathan Ellington.”