Jon Football

Jonathan Bateson' Football Career Page

Action photo's from some of Jonathans's games are below the brief description of his career as a Proffesional Footballer Jonathan started his proffesional football career at Blackburn Rovers, signing a 3 year contract at the age of 16, having spent 5 years at the Rovers Academy. With Blackburn Rovers Jonathan was fortunate to play against some of the Worlds great clubs. He played in games against Juventus, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusan and also took part in The Dallas Cup in The USA where the Rovers Youth Team faced opposition from Mexico and Brazil as well as Europe. The Dallas cup is a competition that many of the worlds greats have played in including Messi, Beckham, Ronaldo and Ronaldihno. In a match for Rovers reserves against Liverpool Jonathan had the "pleasure" of marking Dutch International Bolo Zendan, also playing for Liverpool in that match were Robbie Fowler, Javier Mascherano (Wordl cup Winner), Pepe Reina, Daniel Agger, and one or two other International players whose names escape me at the moment. Needless to say Liverpool won that game 4-0 with Rafael Benitez watching from the touchline at Wrexham. Jonathan also played for Rovers Academy and reserve sides in Belgium, Portugul and on the Island of Jersey While still at Rovers Jon went out on Months loan to Buxton FC in the Unibond Premier League making 4 appearnaces for the Derbyshire club. Following his release at the age of 19 Jonathan attended the end of season "Premier League" League trails and received offers from AFC Bournemouth and Bradford City. Jonathan opted to sign for Stuart McCall at Bradford City and made his proffessinal debut in the League Cup 1st round against Nottingham Forest at The City Ground. Having made an impressive debut, it ended on a sour note in the 89th minute when he recieved a red card for a lunge at Forest forward Nathan Tyson. Having served a 3 match ban he made his Football League debut in an away game against Shrewsbury Town at the New Meadow on the 5th September 2009. He made his full home debut at Valley Parade on Sept 26th against Chesterfield.. Jonathan made 27 appearances for Bradford City in that season before Stuart McCall left the club to be replaced by Peter Taylor. Jonathan didn't figure in Taylors plans and was released at the end of the season. Having rejected an offer to join the Glen Hoddle Academy in Spain, Jonathan accepted an offer from Accrington Stanley and started the 2010/2011 season in the famous Red of Accy Stanley. The season started superbly for Jon and Stanley. Playing at right back Jon was part of a back 4 that conceded only 1 goal in the first 7 matches of the season. During this period of games, Jon also played in the League cup match at Championship club Doncaster Rovers which Stanley won 2-1 and earned a home tie against Newcastle United. The match with The Magpies was live on Sky Sports and Jonathan played his part in a terrific match which Newcastle won 3-2. The atmosphere that night at The Crown Ground is regarded by Stanley fans as their best ever in Accrington. Unfortunately, the good run didn't continue and following a red card in a match against Bury at Gigg and a 3 game ban Jon struggled to regain his place in the team. Later in the season he went out on Loan to Altincham FC in the Conference. He played 9 games for Alty helping them avoid relegation but his season was ended with a knee injury in a match at Fleetwood Town. With no contract extension on offer at at Stanley, Jonathan signed for Macclesfield Town for the 2011 /2012 season. Jonathan played 31 times for Macc, the highlights being a terrific 2-0 win away at Hull City in The League Cup. In the FA Cup Jon played his part in a terrific run that ended at The Reebok Stadium. Having held Bolton Wanders to a 2-2 draw at the Moss Rose, a game that Macc where just 5 minutes away from winning, The team went to Horwich and were beaten 2-1 by the then Premier League side having put up a terrific fight. The season ultimately ended in disater though, as a terrible run of results after the 3rd round FA cup defeat led to Macc finishing 2nd bottom of League 2 and being relegated to The Conference. Prior to the matches aginst Bolton, Macc were just 4 points off a play off position The clubs reaction to this was to release the entire squad, the right decision? who knows, but the squad that replaced the relegated team are still languishing in the bottom half of the Conference. At the start of the 2012 /2013 season Jonathan was invited for a trial with newly promoted Scottish Premier League outfit Ross County. Following a successfull tour of Holland were he played in a match against FC Den Bosch, Jon was offered a contract. Having moved up to the North of Scotland, he found it difficult to settle and made only 4 appearances for County before agreeing a release. Having returned home Jonathan agreed to sign for AFC Barrow in the Conference, only for that to be scuppered due to Barrow having a transfer embargo enforced on them. At the start of the 2013 / 2014 season Jonathan was agin approached by AFC Barrow and agrreed to do Pre season traing with the Conference North club. Jonathan played in 7 pre -season matches for the Cumbria team including an impreesive 2-0 victory against League 2, Accrington Stanley. A deal was agreed and jonathan was due to sign a contract when the club suddenly announced that due to a Sponsorship issue, they were unable to commit to their offer. Following this disapointment, Jon decided that Football was possibly not the career he had hoped it would be. He has since decided to pursue a career as a Personal Fitness Trainer and has successfully qualified in this field. At the same time he has started playing Rugby League for Bamber Bridge Rugby League Club along with his brother Daniel and is enjoying the oval shaped ball game Below are several photo's of some of Jonathans' matches for the clubs he has played for. Maybe he will return to the round ball game at some stage. To have played more than 80 games in Proffesional football clearly demonstrates that he has the ability. However, If Jonathan doesn't play agian, He has acheived more than 99% of football fans will every do and should be justifiably proud.
Playing in the FA Cup against Bolton Wanderers for Macclesfield Town	Jon taking a shot at goal for Bradford City against Notts County
Jon in action for Bradford City against Macclesfield	Celebrating a goal for Macclesfield
Knocking the ball into the box for Macc	Ariel Battle defending for Bradford City
Playing for Ross County	Altrincham FC v Cambridge Utd
Jon playing for Accrington Stanley against Newcastle United in the league cup, live on Sky Sports	About to take a throw in for Blackburn Rovers

Ross County Squad Jon back row, 3rd from right
Not one of his better moments, recieving a 2nd Yellow and ultimately a Red card against Bury	defending fro Macc against Morecambe
FA Cup for Mac against East Thurrock	Celebrting a Bradford City goal
Agianst Bolton Wanderers for Macclesfield Town in the FA cup	In action for Bradford City
Jonathan playing for Ross County against Raith Rovers	Raith Rovers v Ross County Scottish League Cup