A case of mistaken identity – Who’s the Daddy

On Saturday morning I picked up a copy of The Sun to see whether there was a preview of the Swindon game as I had been asked at the last minute to help a colleague out.

Each week there is a brief piece on each of the sides and this lets readers know who’s in and who’s out of the respective teams - sometimes there is larger article previewing the game. Given the postponed fixtures on Saturday due to the weather, Swindon v Sheffield Wednesday suddenly became the most interesting game in League One as it was … er, the only game in League One.

Sure enough there was a short item about the Swindon midfielder Jon-Paul McGovern, but to my horror the reporter (an agency freelancer by all accounts) mentioned that J-P was the son of former Nottingham Forest’s European Cup Winner John McGovern. ‘Horror’ because I’d spoken to J-P on a number of occasions, covered numerous Swindon games and so should have known that they were related.

So I was pleased when he told me they weren’t and joked:

“I was surprised to read that John McGovern was my dad this morning, but not as surprised as my real dad was. ‘I didn’t realise he was your father,’ he said and so I told him to go and speak to mum – I was staying well out of it!”

While J-P took that in good humour, he was a little more put out that many of the papers that morning had described him as “baiting” Sheffield Wednesday and felt a spin had been put on his comments that wasn’t intended. He said:

“My partner lives up in Sheffield and I get along to Hillsborough on a regular basis. It’s a great club and I wouldn’t say or do anything to upset them, or the fans, who were always good to me.”

In fact J-P took the time to applaud the visiting support before leaving the pitch (and muted his celebration after scoring the winner) and they appeared to reciprocate, but if any fans have lingering doubts about him, I can guarantee them that he was genuine in his concern that it be known he wasn’t Owl baiting.

P.S. Should have been off to the re-arranged Bristol Rovers v Exeter JPS game tonight, but it has been postponed a second time and will now take place on December 14th ... weather permitting.