McMaster: Jamie

1999-2005 (Player Details)

Midfield

Born: Sydney, Australia: 29-11-1982

Debut: v Blackburn Rovers (a) (Substitute): 22-09-2002

5’10” 11st 12lb (2003)

Though born in Sydney, McMaster was brought up in Gosford on the Central coast of New South Wales and played football for Umina United. Like Harry Kewell he was a product of the Westfields Sports High School and the Australian Academy of Sport. He began his professional career at Leeds Unired in 1999 as a sixteen year-old where he joined several Australians in the squad and committed his international future to England. He was capped by England at Youth and Under-Twenty-one levels. He was loaned out to Coventry City for a month in November 2002 and played twice for them. Terry Venables gave him four substitute appearances in 2002-03. He next went to Chesterfield on a month’s loan in January 2004 and made six appearances, including two as substitute and scored twice. Swindon Town Manager Andy King moved to sign McMaster on a month's loan from Leeds United in September 2004, as cover for front duo Sam Parkin and Rory Fallon and, though he signed too late to play in a home match with Bradford, Parkin's sending off in that game handed McMaster his chance the following week, when he scored the Town's second at Stockport on 2nd October, in a match where Swindon threw away a three goal lead. The signing of Christian Roberts the following week kept McMaster out of the starting line-up, but he returned for the following game, this time playing on the left side of midfield at Port Vale. It was his last start for the Town, his next appearance being one of the shortest ever in a Town shirt, after coming on in the 67th minute at Barnsley. He lasted little longer than ten seconds, an horrific collision following an attempted diving header leaving McMaster with concussion. The following week, he was recalled to Leeds, bizarrely due to an injury to James Beattie at Southampton! Beattie's injury meant that the Saints recalled Brett Ormerod from his loan spell at Elland Road, and in turn, McMaster returned there as cover. McMaster never came close to fulfilling the huge expectations placed upon him. Upon returning to Leeds for the 2004-05 season he was once again loaned out, this time to Chesterfield for the entire season. McMaster once again returned and once again was loaned out, this time he went on loan to Peterborough in January 2005 where the midfielder helped the team fight relegation and played four games. Upset with the amount of times he had been loaned out, McMaster requested he be transferred from Leeds, while still on Peterborough's list. His only start in the first team had come in the League Cup Second Round tie against one of the clubs he had been loaned to, Swindon Town, in September 2004, even then he was replaced by Simon Walton on the hour mark. He completed a loan move to Chesterfield with a view to making it permanent. The loan made him available for the match on Saturday and on Monday 7th March 2005 he was given a free transfer and he joined the Spireites. It was scant reward for either the club or the player after so many years of hard work and unfilled promise. He played eight games, including two from the bench. Following transfer negotiations, McMaster moved to AGF Aarhus in Denmark for a very brief period of time before returning home to Australia and playing for the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League. McMaster was the most high profile of the three signings the Mariners made close to the end of the 2005/06 season. McMaster, while born on the Central Coast had gone on to represent England at youth level while at Leeds United. Despite this, McMaster was determined to make the Socceroos squad and had come back to Australia to restore his career and move foward in that goal. His time as a Leeds player had been more commonly spent at other clubs on loan, however he had show plenty of promise towards the end of his time there and had pushed hard for a starting spot. Many Leeds fans were dissapointed that McMaster left Leeds, however the day that the fans kept saying he'd crack into the squad never came and he was forced to move on. McMaster was used as a squad player by the Mariners and had been solid in his starts for the club but didn't really stand out in the 2006/07 season and was let go. He gained a runners-up medal in his first season there but only had a hundred and forty two minutes on the pitch from fourteen starts and five substitute appearances, and he scored one goal. He joined APIA Leichhardt Tigers in May 2008, who changed their name to Sydney Tigers in December 2008, where he scored five goals in ten starts and one game as a substitute and stayed until he joined Wollongong (South Coast Wolves) in June 2009. He stayed with them until the end of the season, scoring once in three starts and one game from the bench. He joined Bonnyrigg White Eagles in the New South Wales Premier League for the start of the 2010 season and had scored five times in nineteen appearances by July 2010.