For one night only..........

Hello all

In August last year I retired from playing football. I was 26 at the time and felt my best years were behind me and given that I was quite crap anyway, it was the right time to call it a day. It was a sad day for football.

My old profile picture on the FC Vodafone website
Taken in August 2011, just before I retired

I remember being completely clueless when I was first asked to play football in the first few years of school. As I didn't really like football at the time, it was always going to be difficult and despite going to a few football matches early on in my life, it wasn't until I was about 8 or 9 that I finally got into the sport properly and became what could best be described as a "keen enthusiast".

Throughout my life I never really settled on one position on the pitch. Being left footed I did have a slight advantage as I was pretty much the only leftie where ever I played, and I was often used as either left back or left midfield, but ended my career playing as a striker.

As a defender I was actually quite reasonable. In one particular 6-a-side team me and Mark Lovely were placed in defence and combined with the goalkeeper, we kept nine clean sheets in a row. Without sounding big-headed but me and Mark were a brilliant defensive partnership and in 15 games together we only conceded 4 goals and that aforementioned nine game clean sheet run was ended when both of us had been substituted off of the pitch and the team conceded within two minutes of both of us going off.

As a striker I was very much a "behind closed doors goalscorer." My scoring record in training sessions was fantastic. I played for four sides in the Sunday Leagues of Lincoln and Newark and my record in training was an average of 3 goals a session, which I was highly pleased with......but in 27 actual games for those 4 sides, how many goals to you think I scored? Precisely zero.

I think I was a good passer of the ball and when I struck a ball correctly, I could score some of the most stunning goals you'll ever see. I scored with a volley from 40 yards once, which I was very pleased with. I'm not actually a half-bad goalkeeper either, granted not as good as someone who plays in goal on a regular basis, but I'm not awful.

However, I have some very big flaws as a player. My fitness levels have always been shocking and my effort on the pitch isn't great, but my worst quality on the picture is a lack of composure. My composure was shockingly bad and god knows I had plenty of chances to end that goalscoring drought. I was getting at least one opportunity every single game and the one that always haunts me came when I was representing Flintham in the Newark Alliance Division Two. We were playing Vodafone and it was 1-1 when we were awarded a penalty.

The 6-a-side team with which I had an excellent defensive record.
Top : Julian Soons, myself, Dan Taylor, Matt Harris
Bottom : Mark Lovely, Julian Burley, Rob Makepeace

A guy called Tom took it but I had little faith in him scoring so I decided to start a few steps back from the rest of the pack. As Tom started his run I started mine, which meant that by the time he kicked it I was already at near full speed running into the area......which meant that no-one would have caught me. As expected the penalty was saved and it fell to me.......I'm about 4/5 yards out and I could do several things with it.....I decide to boot it as hard as I could and it sailed high and wide....the goalkeeper was still grounded. It was about as open as an open goal can get. Even now I'm not sure how I missed it and it haunts me to this day. What made it worse was that from the resultant goalkick, Vodafone then went and won a penalty down at the other end and the game eventually finishes 4-1.

I left Flintham a few weeks later. Flintham were quite bad and in a six week spell our results were 0-9, 0-9, 2-4, 0-9, 1-12 and 0-9....infact we lost every single game from October onwards, the majority by a huge score. It was the final 0-9 defeat that saw the manager in the changing room slate the entire team saying that every single one of us was to blame for that defeat....which I took exception to as I only played 10 minutes at the end and we were already 8-0 down at that time. I subsequently quit the team in a less than amicable fashion.

My next port of call was Collingham FC. I had been promised games, which is something I never really got at Flintham. What followed was more frustration as I rarely played again, with two of the only three games I played for them coming against Flintham (winning 3-1 and 4-1).

They decided to use me only as a linesman, even when they had no other subs....and they did not understand the offside rule. Offside is not when the ball is received, it's when it's played, and the amount of times the opposition scored when the defence were stood claiming offside was ridiculous. Infact, it was the day of my 25th birthday that I quit as again I was the only sub and was asked to be linesman.....and even when someone got injured I still wasn't bought on.

That was it until May 2011 when a new Vodafone team were forming and I went along, scored ten goals in my first three training sessions before then tearing an ankle ligament playing a match with a few friends down a park. The worst part about that injury was it happened three days before I was due to have a trial with Gainsborough Trinity from the Blue Square North. I still turned up as one of the other Vodafone players also had a trial, but he didn't get offered a deal in the end.....nor did anyone else for that matter.

Sporting the Flintham FC kit
Taken in 2009.

It was six weeks before I was able to even start to run again but then no matter what I did, I couldn't score and the attitude of the manager was shocking. He was one of those "one rule for one, one rule for another" type of people and I hated it, and the last game I played in saw him decide to put me at right midfield, a position that I had never played in, and then he constantly abused me throughout the game for not using my right foot....even though he knows I'm left footed. I don't technically quit, what I did was tell him to shove his football team where the sun doesn't shine and I stormed off.

At that point I decide that due to the ankle ligament injury and always coming away from matches injured that it was time to call it a day. That was in August 2011 and I haven't even kicked a ball since. Now it's June 12th and I am now scheduled to play in a match on Saturday evening.

If you wish to see what will turn out to be the last ever football match Nathan Jackson will ever play, come along to Rustons on Newark Road in Lincoln on Saturday evening. Tickets are free, but I'd recommend standing behind the fence as my wayward shooting is prone to hit people in the face.