Former Aston Villa youngster, can you remember him at Rovers?
Well you probably can't, certainly didn't make much of an impact at the Keepmoat.
Rovers signed Jon Paul Pittman on a short term contract, from Nottingham Forest in January 2007 as a 20 year old. Despite never making a league appearance for Forest, he had made 2 appearances in cups, he also had loan spells at Hartlepool and Bury.
As a youngster, he had shown signs of promise, and the American born striker was also known in parts of his native country as his progress and career has been discussed on a number of American soccer forums, especially under the subject of American players abroad. People who was familiar with his career saw his move to Doncaster, who were playing in League 1 at the time, as a chance to restart his career and move onto bigger and better things. Unfortunately it didn't really work out this way.
Jon-Paul's uneventful time at Doncaster saw him play for just 1 minute plus injury time, as he came on as a 89th minutes substitute, in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, against Darlington in the Northern semi final, a game in which we won 2-0 with goals from Paul Heffernan in the 54th minute and Jason Price in the 89th (Pittman came on following this goal).
Pittman did two things in his time on the field, he cleared the ball and fouled David Wheater.
We later went on to win the Trophy at the Millennium stadium. However, I think it is a long shot to say Jon-Paul's 1 appearance helped us win this.
Jon-Paul was also seen making 3 unused substitute appearances overseeing a win, lose and draw.
As expected, there was no contract extension following the expiry of his short deal at the end of the season and he left Rovers. He found himself a move to Crawley who were playing in the conference, this drop in league proved much more successful for him. Playing at the club between 2007 and 2009 he scored 22 goals in 61 appearances, his improved form also earned him a call up to the England C team, the non league national squad.
In 2009 former England national team caretaker manager Peter Taylor, who was managing Wycombe Wanderers at the time, places a successful 5 figure bid for Jon-Paul Pittman, and he signed at the end of January 2009. Jon had a good first season here, and helped the club achieve promotion into League 1. The following season the team was relegated back to League 2 with Jon scoring 7 goals.
With the team back in League 2 for the 2010-2011 season, he scored on the opening day however, he picked up an injury during September keeping him out for 6 months. Upon his return he played an important part in Wycombe's promotion and had an impressive record of scoring 4 goals in just 6 starts.
At the end of the season he was not offered a new contract and moved to Oxford United, his goal scoring record here was not impressive scoring just 6 goals in 30 appearances between 2 years. His time here also saw him make a return to previous club Crawley on a 3 month emergency loan.
At the end of the 2013 season, he was out of contract at Oxford, and returned to Wycombe where he plays now.
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