Jason Puncheon is a London football writer’s dream. Born in Croydon, he was a product of the pre-Milton Keynes Wimbledon academy who migrated North with MK Dons and has since returned to become the scorer of goals in all four English professional divisions, having found the net against Champions Chelsea earlier this term.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for Puncheon, though. Just six years ago the winger-cum-support striker was turning out for Portland FC in the Croydon District League after being released by Wimbledon and facing the footballing wilderness.
The then Barnet boss, Paul Fairclough, saw something in the mercurial attacker and signed him off the back of solitary appearances for Blue Square South side Fisher Athletic and Lewes of the Ryman Premier Division respectively and it was at Underhill that Puncheon finally got a taste of glory.
In 2007 he was acclaimed the Player of the FA Cup Third Round and helped his side to successive runs to the Fourth Round with a series of stunning strikes only to miss a penalty as the Bees crashed out to Bristol Rovers in 2008. However, that rare blemish was rectified before the campaign’s culmination as the former MK Dons man was named in the PFA League Two Team of the Year, earning him a lucrative summer move to Plymouth Argyle.
In the end, the quarter of a million pound fee was deemed money wasted and an unsuccessful stint which was largely spent on loan back at his former club in Milton Keynes where he also featured in the PFA League One Select XI, was cut short by a switch along the South coast to Southampton, where he became a regular until former West Ham United manager Alan Pardew was sacked then came under pressure for a starting place from young Arsenal transfer target Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at the start of this season.
Puncheon was sent on emergency loan to Millwall in November, where he notched a famous hat-trick against South London rivals Crystal Palace before arriving in Blackpool in January and scoring twice to date, most memorably against the Blues of West London in early March.
Now the 24-year-old is being linked with another trip north; this time as far as Newcastle or even Glasgow, as Pardew has reportedly hinted at a reunion with his former protégé at St James’s Park but may run into competition from Ally McCoist’s Rangers for his signature.
But the club who first put him on the map should not be forgotten and it is one with a proven promotion pedigree. The North-Londoners’ track record for nurturing forward talent is impressive when taking into account the careful development of players such as current Crystal Palace coach Dougie Freedman, former Watford striker/sex-pest Marlon King and chronic Wimbledon bench-warmer Andy Clarke, with even Chelsea, Tottenham, West Ham and England striking legend Jimmy Greaves managing to pass through prior to retirement.
Puncheon’s meteoric rise through the divisions provides further testament to that end and the Southampton star-in-the-making will be yearning for a place alongside Barnet’s greats in the future, even if it may be his understudy, Oxlade-Chamberlain, who will be the one featuring on the infamous slope itself as part of the Arsenal second string set-up.
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