No surprise at Grimsby Town concerning 2024/25 Watford FC developments: View | OneFootball

Defender Mattie Pollock is now an important part of Championship club Watford's defence, which is no surprise to fans of former club Grimsby.

Central defender Matthew Pollock has cemented his place in Watford's first team in the early part of the 2024/25 Championship season, and while he was very young when playing for Grimsby Town previously, his potential was clear to all.

23-year-old Pollock joined Grimsby in 2018, initially linking up with the youth team after being part of various age group sides at both Middlesbrough and Leeds United as a youngster.

A first-team injury crisis led to the big defender being drafted into the Mariners first-team later in the year by manager Michael Jolley, Pollock making his debut as a substitute in December's (2018) 2-1 win at Exeter City.

Signing professional terms a few months later, the Surrey-born player would have to wait until the following campaign to get his first start in a Grimsby shirt, that coming in August 2019's home success over Doncaster Rovers.

From that point onward, Pollock was considered a part of the first-team squad at Blundell Park. The defender had the physical profile of a defender at a young age; strong, aggressive and uncompromising, and while a little inconsistent on the ball at that early point in his career, showed the vision and ability to pick out accurate long range passes to get his side on the front foot.

It was a mixed time for the Mariners on the whole, however, with a couple of midtable and bottom-half finishes in the League Two standings preceding an awful 202/21 campaign that saw Grimsby finish bottom of the EFL and relegated into non-league once more.

Despite spending much of the latter part of that season on the substitutes bench, the potential and ability that Pollock had shown over the previous three years had caught the attention of sides higher up the pyramid, and it was little surprise when the young defender departed for Watford, who paid an undisclosed fee to take Pollock to Vicarage Road ahead of their 2021/22 Premier League campaign.

Pollock was quickly loaned out by the Hornets, joining League One side Cheltenham Town for the 2021/22 campaign.

The young defender made 39 appearances in league and cup for Michael Duff's side, helping them to achieve a 15th placed finish in their first season in the third-tier following their promotion a year earlier.

While it was Pollock's first season at the higher level, he acquitted himself well, gaining the trust of his manager, his teammates and the supporters, as he made himself a first-team regular at Whaddon Road.

The defender continued to improve and develop, making his Watford debut in an EFL Cup clash with MK Dons at the beginning of the following season, before joining Scottish top-flight side Aberdeen in January 2023, spending the remainder of the season in Scotland.

Pollock impressed north of the border, and has since made himself a regular part of the Hornets first-team squad, starting most of their Championship fixtures this season and excelling once more at a higher level, showing that same determination and a willingness to learn he's displayed throughout his relatively short career to date.

Pollock's career remains on an upward trajectory

Having just turned 23 years of age, and already having good experience of both League Two and League One football, as well as sampling the Scottish top-flight, becoming a regular in the Championship has maintained Pollock's continuous upward trajectory over the last six years.

The defender has all the natural attributes required of a centre-back; strong, aggressive, decisive and proactive.

Comfortable playing as part of a back four or in a three-man rearguard, the former Grimsby man is improving on the ball all the time, with, perhaps, a yard of pace the only thing missing from the youngster's armoury.

Pollock makes up for that with his positioning and reading of the game, however, and there's nothing to suggest the Watford man can't continue to reach new heights. Something Mariners fans had little doubt about when he started out at Blundell Park in 2018.