The local lad.......from London

                                   “Fans Favourite”

It's a term used so often in football but what are the credentials that elevate someone from being just a humble player to a 'fans favourite'? Scoring lots of goals sure helps, as does posturing around regularly in front of your adoring fans, maybe a gimmicky celebration or two but in my experience the most devoted of praise and adoration from fans often goes to the local lads, think Gary Neville at Manchester United, Steven Gerrard or Jamie Carragher at Liverpool, Andy Carroll at  Newc...oh, never mind but you get the idea, there seems to be a special place in the hearts of fans reserved for the home town boy. Like the first 3 examples, this Scunthorpe United fan favourite, prior to his move last summer, only played for one club but Matthew Sparrow was not actually born anywhere near Scunthorpe; Wembley, (the district not in the actual ground!) to be precise but having moved to the area and started his Scunthorpe United career as a schoolboy, he was very much considered one of our own.



Missing his Wembley penalty



One of a number of players alongside the likes of Nathan Stanton, Andy Butler and Marcus Williams to make the first team grade with Scunthorpe from Paul Wilson's talented youth set up, Matthew Sparrow first came to Iron fan's attention in the 1999/2000 season as Scunthorpe struggled following their promotion from Division Three in May 1999. An injury crisis had seen Brian Laws name 17 year old trainee Sparrow as a sub in a League Cup tie, he went on to make 2 starts and 9 other sub appearances, with tantalising glimpses of his potential, never looking overawed on the big stage but couldn’t stop Scunthorpe being relegated. There was also heartbreak for Matt that season as a member of Scunthorpe's youth team that played West Brom in the Football League Youth Alliance Cup Final, just a year after celebrating promotion on the pitch at Wembley with the senior team, Sparrow's youth team suffered penalty heartache with personal agony for Sparrow as one to miss a penalty. He could never have known then, the amazing twists of fates that would see him repeat a vital penalty miss but go on to make up for it fine style almost ten years later in the 2008/2009 season.

A young lad makes his impact
on the first team

 After a cameo role in the 1999/2000 season, the stage was set for young Matthew to make a bigger impression with the Iron as they attempted to bounce back from relegation at the first attempt. Unfortunately things didn’t turn out the way Sparrow or the fans had hoped, with injury restricting his appearances, it was a great shame for Sparrow as the games he did take part, he made a big impact in. He made an appearance in an unfamiliar right back role in the League Cup and as a sub in the 2^nd league game against Kidderminster but didn’t appear again until March when he made a spectacular impact, scoring both goals against Torquay to give the Iron a crucial away win and breathe life into their stuttering promotion campaign. He kept his place for the next game and added to his burgeoning reputation when he netted again but unluckily picked up an injury that saw him ruled out for the next few games. He did manage to appear in the closing games and bag another goal in the process, ensuring that a fit and ready Matthew Sparrow would be in the thoughts of all Scunthorpe fans the following season. The personal reasons why Matthew did not appear in the Iron team again until early November 2001 are well documented and it’s safe to say he had some serious growing up to do and consider what was important to him,but Matt came back from his misdemeanour an improved player and went on to make 20 starts for the club that season and it’s safe to say hasn’t look back since, becoming a permanent fixture in the Iron midfield.



Celebrating promotion in the Wembley sunshine

It is safe to say that since then Matty Sparrow has wrote himself into club folklore, with some memorable and very important goals for the Iron, as well as becoming a firm fan favourite for his dedication and whole-hearted performances for the club, he was a participant in the Iron’s recent purple patch of achievement, a key individual in the 2005 promotion from League Two, he made that centre midfield spot his own and won a championship medal as an instrumental figure in the Iron’s phenomenal League One Champions run. Matty has a happy knack of scoring important and memorable goals, and racked up over 40 in his Scunthorpe career. Some of my personal Sparrow highlights are a spectacular goal against Luton Town, powering in a header against Huddersfield Town after Cleveland Taylor had hit the bar, and a fabulous late 3-2 winner against Sheffield United after the Blades had looked like stealing a point. It’s pretty fitting though that Matty is responsible for scoring arguably the most important goal in our history. You would think bagging a brace in the Football League Play Off Final at Wembley Stadium, earning Scunthorpe instant promotion back to the Championship would rightly be as good as it possibly could get for Sparrow and make no mistake about it, those goals were special. Quick off the mark, Matty completed what was surely a boyhood ambition for the ‘Wembley’ lad when he opened the scoring in the epic 3-2 play off final victory against Millwall. Although it was ultimately Martyn Woolford that bagged the magical late winner, the victory owed a large part to the endeavours of Matty Sparrow with the opener and the crucial equaliser that got Scunthorpe back into a game that had threatened to run away from them. These two goals should have been the crowning moment of Matty’s Scunthorpe career and were probably a close second but then he did something that even eclipsed them. It’s probably a good thing that Matty featured so strongly in the Wembley victory as it helped Scunthorpe fans forgive him for one of the two missed penalties in the epic shootout against MK Dons which gave watching fans everywhere, near heart attacks, well it did to this Iron fan!

Celebrating THAT equaliser !

So then it is fitting that Matty signed off his incredible Iron career with an amazing contribution, and in true Sparrow style, it was yet another dramatic late strike. Desperate not to be one season Championship wonders again, Scunthorpe went into the game against in form Reading knowing that, with two games to spare, just a point would be enough to achieve their target. Unsurprisingly with the Royals chasing a play-off berth, they raced into a 2 goal lead, and looked good for the win but with so much at stake, Scunny were never going to give up that easily. With time ticking into the final 10 minutes, top scorer Gary Hooper pulled one back, and hopes rose again, in the 89^th minute, Scunthorpe get their huge award, when Sparrow fired home. The Iron’s longest serving player getting the vital equaliser that meant so much, merely staying up doesn’t seem much of an accomplishment to some but as it ensured Scunthorpe’s first consecutive stay  in the Championship for 46 years, this was pretty much a big deal. As manager Adkins quipped “It's the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, swimming the Channel and taking part in the Tour De France all at once”, there was no doubting the enormity of what Scunthorpe had achieved and for Sparrow, who had given so many years great service to cap it was the icing on the cake. He was rewarded for his services with a testimonial game, which saw a whole host of legendary ex Iron’s turn out in support including Billy Sharp, Alex Calvo Garcia, Andy Keogh, Peter Beagrie, Nathan Stanton, Andy Dawson and Jack Cork. He moved on to join Brighton last summer, where he helped the Seagull’s to promotion and another championship winners medal, as well as another crack at Championship football, I don’t think any Scunthorpe fan will begrudge him that opportunity.

by Nicola Kilmore aka @Footychick25