In the 1998/99 season, my last at Scunthorpe United, we had players who you really want in your team. Our captain Chris Hope was Mr Reliable. He never missed a game or even a training session and was one of the nicest people you could wish to meet. Our midfield had a mix of legs, skill and goals with Paul Harsley, Justin Walker and Spaniard Alex Calvo-Garcia. John Eyre brought some pace to the attack so we had half a decent team.
"The club insisted that I make a formal public apology. I honestly didn't say what they were quoting and I had to apologise. I was fuming."
The goals were going in at a regular rate, which was great. I started the season in scoring fashion and my confidence grew. This brought a bit more media attention than I'd had for quite some time. I was asked to do an interview with Loaded magazine. Loaded was the magazine of the day and it was a real buzz for me to be in it. The interview turned out to be a nightmare though for all of the wrong reasons. During the interview I was asked the question: So do you live in Scunthorpe then because it's a bit of a shed isn't it?
Now although I was only relatively young, I was fully aware of how the media sometimes had a different agenda when interviews were being conducted. My answer was: "I don't live in Scunthorpe. I just drive in, train, and go home so I don't see too much of it."
The article quoted me as saying that I had replied "yes" to the question. It got worse too. A local supporter read the magazine and then wrote in to the Scunthorpe Telegraph saying how appalled he was that I had disrespected his home town and that I was a disgrace. This then grew to becoming a major news story on Calendar, the regional ITV news programme. They stopped people in the town centre to ask them if they thought Scunthorpe was a 'shed' and that it was me who had said that it was. The club insisted that I make a formal public apology. I honestly didn't say what they were quoting and I had to apologise. I was fuming. I was booed by a section of the home crowd at our next home match and felt that my relationship was never the same after that with the Scunthorpe fans. In fact I have received a horrible reception every time I have gone back with different teams.
I finished my Scunthorpe career with a decent amount of goals to games and with a promotion thrown in: I don't think that this was too bad a return. Still, people are entitled to their opinions so I just have to live with it.
On the deadline day in March Brian Laws, the manager, asked to see me in his office. Ian Atkins, Northampton manager had offered £50,000 for me. He wanted to know if I was staying beyond the end of the season. That was a decent sum considering I was on a Bosman free transfer a few months later. I think that I could have taken the Northampton offer if I had wanted. I wasn't really sure about Northampton though at that time. I had heard some negative things from other players about Ian Atkins and I was in a pretty strong position with a decent season behind me.
I'd had contact from an English agent working in Holland with interest from Dutch Eredivisie side FC Utrecht as well as interest from Stockport County, Hull City, Rushden and Diamonds, who were the non-league big spenders. There was also interest from Peterborough and Leyton Orient although it seemed like their interest was not as keen as the others. Although there was no 100 per cent offer by any of these teams I was confident enough to see out the season and see what panned out in the summer.
Jamie Forrester played in 121 competitive games for Scunthorpe United between March 1997 and June 1999, scoring 43 goals and helping the Iron win promotion from Division Three. He spent 18 years as a professional footballer, playing in France and Holland as well as in the English leagues. His Beh1ndthescences blog and Twitter pages offer an insight into life as a professional player, he also runs an energy saving company and is a regular expert summariser on BBC Radio Humberside.