Exeter City expressed their delight on Twitter yesterday as two of their former academy products were on the pitch during Aston Villa’s 1-0 win against Sheffield United.
Ollie Watkins, who moved to Villa for a club-record fee of £28 million from Brentford this summer [BBC Sport], started the encounter, whilst Chelsea loanee, Ethan Ampadu came on as a first-half substitute.
That meant that two graduates from Exeter were on the same field, which promoted the League Two side to send this message from their Twitter account:
It was actually Watkins who played a part in Ampadu coming onto the field because John Egan was shown a straight red for pulling back the Villa man as he was running through on goal.
Even though it was a controversial decision by the on-field referee, it forced Chris Wilder to make a change which saw Ampadu come onto the pitch.
Both have made big strides in recent years from coming through the lower leagues to now competing against the best of the best in England’s top-flight.
Whilst Ampadu has had a taste of that with Chelsea, not forgetting his loan spell with RB Leipzig last season, this is a new world for Villa’s new centre-forward.
Watkins was actually signed by Dean Smith from Exeter when he was at Brentford and his talents have now seen him make an even bigger jump up.
He didn’t score on his debut for Villa, but he was mightly impressive, especially with his movement in and around the penalty area.
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