Iron memories: Mark Jackson

In an Iron career that saw him make 159 appearances over a five-year spell, Mark Jackson had plenty of highs and lows while with us.

Joining the club in 2000 from Leeds United, Jackson spent time as skipper before eventually leaving three months before the Iron secured promotion to League One in May 2005.

We caught up with him to get some of his football memories.

MY TRANSFER…
I’d been on trial at a few places and spoke to Burnley before I signed for Scunthorpe. My agent at the time told me Brian Laws was interested so I went over to speak to him. I had a look at the ground and the training, and just thought straight away that I’d fit in here. Even after I signed, after we’d been relegated, I had a clause in my contract saying I could leave but I loved it that much that I stayed.

MY IRON DEBUT…
That was against Cambridge United and we lost 3-0 so it wasn’t the best of debuts. It was difficult coming into a team that was struggling near the foot of the table, and I played in central midfield on the day. However, luckily for myself and the team, I was eventually put into central defence at the end of the season and I felt I improved the more I played.

MY FAVOURITE EVER GAME…
I enjoyed playing in the Leeds game in the FA Cup in 2003 because I started my career off there and I had a lot of friends and family watching. I remember that the atmosphere was great and despite us losing 2-0 it was fantastic to not only put on a performance for the fans, but because it was a full house at home.

THE BEST PLAYERS I PLAYED WITH…
Luckily when I was at the club we had a great team with some great players that would go on to play in a better league. Andy Dawson went on to the top flight and he was a great modern left-back when at Scunthorpe. On his day, Steve Torpey was a great striker and was unplayable but in all it was a great underachieving team that I played with, and all were quality footballers.

MY BEST UNITED MEMORY…
The game against Hull City in 2002 sticks out, not only because of my free-kick winner in the last minute but just the whole occasion and what it meant to the Iron fans. To score with a free-kick, something I’ve never done since, was just amazing and to do it against our local rivals was the icing on the cake. You could see from my celebration just how much it meant to me.

WHEN I LEFT UNITED…
I had a few injuries throughout my time at the club and if it hadn’t been for our superb physio at the time, a certain Nigel Adkins, then I don’t think I’d have played the amount of football that I did end up playing. However, that final season in 2005 I wasn’t playing as regularly, and Andy Butler had just gone on the scene and was playing fantastically alongside Andy Crosby. I love football and just wanted to play so I left in the February. It then turned out a few weeks later that there was injury and I might have perhaps played until the end of the season and been involved in the promotion if I’d stayed, but that’s football.

WHAT THE IRON MEANS TO ME…
When people ask me where I enjoyed my football the most, they expect me to say when I played for Leeds in the Premiership. However, I loved my time at Scunthorpe and it’s an amazing place to play your football. By far, Scunthorpe is where I played my best and got maximum enjoyment out of playing.