My name is Jon Snow and I am bastard, it is as simple as that. My mum was Maggie Snow and she gave birth to me at the young age of 17 in Dunfermline, Scotland. She never had the chance to tell me who my father was, something she promised to do when I was older. She passed away a year ago. All I know was that he was an English footballer who had been very young at the time.
My mum had a rough life, orphaned at 3 with no family to take her, she grew up in foster care going from family to family. This is where she developed a love for the game as with each family she could find someone to bond with over their love of football.
In my younger years it was always just the two of us. She always made enough money to get me into football and always found the time to come to every game and almost every practice. We moved around Scotland never staying anywhere long, so I had no childhood friends that lasted long. I soon learned to distance myself as it was easier when we moved on to the next place.
When I was 14, after a game that I had played exceptionally well scoring a brace in the last 4 minutes to give our team a League championship, that she told me I played exactly like my father. That night she told me she believed in me and that one day I would be a great footballer just like my dad. She told me that he was just a kid when she met him but he went on to be the king of British football. We were mirror images on the pitch she said although facially different as I had her narrower face and dark hair, but she said if I ever saw him on the pitch I would instantly know who he was, as we had the same fire in our eyes and identical attitudes and movements on the pitch.
That was my only knowledge of him as I set out on a journey to find out who had fathered this bastard. I had just signed a youth contract with Dumbarton and was determined to make it to England where I presumed he still was playing. The chance to look him in the eye was the driving force that pushed me to my limits and drove me to put everything into every match.
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As a youngster I never played in one place long enough to really get noticed but I made my mark everywhere I went scoring at a pace of over a goal a game. The benefit of this was never playing just one position. I could play any forward position, as a winger, an attacking midfielder or even a central or box midfielder. I had good technical skills and I loved the physicality of the game. We were living in Dumbarton when I was approached by Ross Wilkie a scout for Dumbarton, after a 4 goal performance. Three weeks later I signed a youth contract.
I was determined to make my mark with this team but for the first three friendlies I sat unused. This just made me work harder during practice and it payed off as I was given a full 90 minutes in the last three friendlies. Against Dundela I scored the first goal of the game in a 4-0 win. At the end of pre-season the old gaffer posted up his depth chart and sat down with each one of us and went over his expectations for the upcoming season.
We played a 5-2-3 utilizing our wing backs more like midfielders when attacking, This kept the three forwards more in the center of the pitch just where I loved to play. I was listed as the third center or left side forward. We had 8 forwards so I was listed in two positions. I was billeted with 19 year old Ryan Clark where we stayed in two separate rooms in the Hutchinson household. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson had never had children but had been billeting for over 20 years. Their bedroom was on the main floor so Ryan and I had separate rooms upstairs and used the third room as a TV room. Ryan was a perfect companion for me, quiet and kept to himself.
My meeting with the old gaffer was pretty short but gave me hope of getting playing time. He liked my work ethic and ferocity for regaining possession of the ball plus he said I had a nose for the net. He told me I would get some Cup playing time possibly even a start or two but gave me a list of things to work on before I would be considered being used for League play. He was keeping Ryan, Tom Lang and myself with the First Team as he felt there was more value in us practicing with the First Team over playing with the under performing U-20 team.
Our first four games of the season were Scottish League Cup games. It was a new format placing 5 teams in a group and after 90 minutes teams went to penalty kicks for a bonus point. Our first two games were against Kilmarnock and Livingston and we would be lucky to get points from those two games. We surprised ourselves and managed to get 3 points versus Kilmarnock and after 90 minutes we were tied up 0-0 with Livingston but managed 2 points and we got the bonus point by winning on penalties. In both games I subbed on in the 80th minute and was told to go after the ball. I played with all the energy I had but really did nothing to attract attention other than harrowing every opposition player who touched the ball around me. Then against Annan a League Two team I was penciled in for my first start.
In the first half we built up a 3-1 lead, I managed to get a leading pass through two defenders and Grant Gallagher seized the opportunity to blast home his first goal of the season. Then in the 49th minute, off a corner from midfielder Sam Stanton, I managed to break from my mark and get to the ball taking it off my chest then after one bounce I fired a shot high and to the right of the keeper for my first professional goal. We won 5-1 and then went on to win in penalty kicks against Elgin City while I sat as a sub until the 54th minute.
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My mum had a rough life, orphaned at 3 with no family to take her, she grew up in foster care going from family to family. This is where she developed a love for the game as with each family she could find someone to bond with over their love of football.
In my younger years it was always just the two of us. She always made enough money to get me into football and always found the time to come to every game and almost every practice. We moved around Scotland never staying anywhere long, so I had no childhood friends that lasted long. I soon learned to distance myself as it was easier when we moved on to the next place.
When I was 14, after a game that I had played exceptionally well scoring a brace in the last 4 minutes to give our team a League championship, that she told me I played exactly like my father. That night she told me she believed in me and that one day I would be a great footballer just like my dad. She told me that he was just a kid when she met him but he went on to be the king of British football. We were mirror images on the pitch she said although facially different as I had her narrower face and dark hair, but she said if I ever saw him on the pitch I would instantly know who he was, as we had the same fire in our eyes and identical attitudes and movements on the pitch.
That was my only knowledge of him as I set out on a journey to find out who had fathered this bastard. I had just signed a youth contract with Dumbarton and was determined to make it to England where I presumed he still was playing. The chance to look him in the eye was the driving force that pushed me to my limits and drove me to put everything into every match.
As a youngster I never played in one place long enough to really get noticed but I made my mark everywhere I went scoring at a pace of over a goal a game. The benefit of this was never playing just one position. I could play any forward position, as a winger, an attacking midfielder or even a central or box midfielder. I had good technical skills and I loved the physicality of the game. We were living in Dumbarton when I was approached by Ross Wilkie a scout for Dumbarton, after a 4 goal performance. Three weeks later I signed a youth contract.
I was determined to make my mark with this team but for the first three friendlies I sat unused. This just made me work harder during practice and it payed off as I was given a full 90 minutes in the last three friendlies. Against Dundela I scored the first goal of the game in a 4-0 win. At the end of pre-season the old gaffer posted up his depth chart and sat down with each one of us and went over his expectations for the upcoming season.
We played a 5-2-3 utilizing our wing backs more like midfielders when attacking, This kept the three forwards more in the center of the pitch just where I loved to play. I was listed as the third center or left side forward. We had 8 forwards so I was listed in two positions. I was billeted with 19 year old Ryan Clark where we stayed in two separate rooms in the Hutchinson household. Mr. and Mrs. Hutchinson had never had children but had been billeting for over 20 years. Their bedroom was on the main floor so Ryan and I had separate rooms upstairs and used the third room as a TV room. Ryan was a perfect companion for me, quiet and kept to himself.
My meeting with the old gaffer was pretty short but gave me hope of getting playing time. He liked my work ethic and ferocity for regaining possession of the ball plus he said I had a nose for the net. He told me I would get some Cup playing time possibly even a start or two but gave me a list of things to work on before I would be considered being used for League play. He was keeping Ryan, Tom Lang and myself with the First Team as he felt there was more value in us practicing with the First Team over playing with the under performing U-20 team.
Our first four games of the season were Scottish League Cup games. It was a new format placing 5 teams in a group and after 90 minutes teams went to penalty kicks for a bonus point. Our first two games were against Kilmarnock and Livingston and we would be lucky to get points from those two games. We surprised ourselves and managed to get 3 points versus Kilmarnock and after 90 minutes we were tied up 0-0 with Livingston but managed 2 points and we got the bonus point by winning on penalties. In both games I subbed on in the 80th minute and was told to go after the ball. I played with all the energy I had but really did nothing to attract attention other than harrowing every opposition player who touched the ball around me. Then against Annan a League Two team I was penciled in for my first start.
In the first half we built up a 3-1 lead, I managed to get a leading pass through two defenders and Grant Gallagher seized the opportunity to blast home his first goal of the season. Then in the 49th minute, off a corner from midfielder Sam Stanton, I managed to break from my mark and get to the ball taking it off my chest then after one bounce I fired a shot high and to the right of the keeper for my first professional goal. We won 5-1 and then went on to win in penalty kicks against Elgin City while I sat as a sub until the 54th minute.
