McMaster: Jamie

1999-2005 (Leeds Player Details)(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 United in 1999 as a sixteen year-old where he joined several Australians in the squad and committed his international future to England. He made his debut for the England Under-Eighteen team on 8th March 2000, but finished up on the end of a 0-3 by France at Robin Park, Wigan. His second appearance came in a 3-1 away win on 1st September 2000 in Israel and his three further caps came in the 2001 UEFA Under-Eighteen Qualifiers in Italy, with games on 7th October 2000, when he started in a 4-0 win over Andorra in Osimo Ancona, but was replaced at half-time by Rohan Ricketts, then of Arsenal, and two days later he played the full game in a 5-0 win over Faroe Islands at Loreto Ancona and two days after that he started in the key game against the hosts Italy but was replaced by future Leeds loanee, Jermaine Pennant, then of Arsenal, in the fifty-eighth minute as England triumphed 2-1, again in Osimo Ancona. After five caps at Under-Eighteen level he made two appearances as an England Under-Twenty player. These came in the Toulon Under-Twenty Tournament on 10th May 2002, when he came on as a sixty-eighth minute substitute for Leon Knight, then of Chelsea, in a 1-0 win over Poland at Stade Pierre de Coubertin, Cannes, and two days later he started in a 1-0 win over Portugal at Stade Mayol, Toulon, but he was replaced by Craig Pead, of Coventry City, in the sixty-fifth minute in his second and final appearance at that level. McMaster was loaned out to Coventry City for a month in November 2002 and played twice for them. He made his debut in a 1-2 defeat at Ipswich Town on 23rd November 2002, when he started the game but was replaced by Jay Bothroyd after seventy-one minutes. Seven days later he again started in a 1-2 home defeat by Preston North End, but was replaced by the same player at half-time. Terry Venables gave him four substitute appearances in 2002-03, but all were well after the hour mark. He next went to Chesterfield on a month’s loan in January 2004 and made six appearances, including two as substitute and scored twice. He made his debut as a sixty-sixth minute substitute for Glynn Hurst in a 2-1 home win over Wrexham on 10th January 2004 and made his starting debut a week later in a 0-4 defeat at Bristol City, when he was replaced by Mark Hudson after sixty-eight minutes. His third game was as a substitute the following week in a 2-2 draw at home to Wycombe Wanderers, when he replaced Derek Niven after seventy-three minutes. He scored his first Chesterfield goal in the next game, on 31st January 2004, in a 4-2 in a 4-2 home win over Queens Park Rangers, when he scored Chesterfield's first goal in the thirty-first minute to put the scores level at 1-1. His second goal came a week later in a 2-0 away win at Peterborough United when he put the game beyond doubt with Chesterfield's second goal in the seventy-seventh minute. He played his final game on 21st February 2004 in a 2-0 away defeat at Swindon Town. Kevin Blackwell had taken over the reins at Elland Road and he gave him five games in the League and one in the League Cup as a late substitute on all occasions, but he included him in the starting line-up for the League Cup tie with Swindon Town on 21st September 2004 and Leeds scored a 1-0 win, with a rare goal from Michael Ricketts in the ninth minute. McMaster was replaced by Simon Walton after sixty-one minutes but he must have impressed the Swindon Town Manager, Andy King, as he moved to sign McMaster on a month's loan from Leeds 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 City on 25th September, Parkin's sending off in that game handed McMaster his chance the following week, when he scored the Town's second at Stockport County on 2nd October, in a match where Swindon threw away a three goal lead and McMaster was replaced by Andy Caton after seventy-eight minutes. The signing of Christian Roberts the following week kept McMaster out of the starting line-up, but he returned as a fifty-sixth minute substitute for David Duke in the following game, in a 1-0 home win over Oldham Athletic on 16th October 2004. Three days later he was recalled to the starting eleven, 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 sixty-seventh minute for Rory Fallon at Barnsley. He lasted little longer than ten seconds, an horrific collision following an attempted diving header leaving McMaster with concussion. He was replaced by Grant Smith in the seventieth minute. 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 had once again returned and after two final minutes substitute appearances in early December 2004, he was once again was loaned out, this time he went on loan to Peterborough United in January 2005 where the midfielder helped the team fight relegation and played four games. He made his debut in a 1-2 home defeat to Oldham Athletic on 22nd January 2005, when he played for eighty-two minutes befor being substituted for Wayne Purser. A Marlon King goal saw them exit the F.A. Cup a week later at Nottingham Forest and on 5th February he helped the Posh to a 2-1 home win over Stockport County before playing his final game in a 1-2 loss at Torquay United ten days later, when he was substituted by Ahmed Deen with nine minutes left on the clock. 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. McMaster never came close to fulfilling the huge expectations placed upon him. Upon returning to Leeds for the rest of the 2004-05 season he was once again loaned out, this time 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 ames, including two from the bench. He made his Chesterfield debut with his second game at Plainmoor within a month, and this time Torquay were held to a 2-2 draw on 5th March. Subsequently, he played a further seven games for Chesterfield. He started and played full games in the next two home fixtures as Huddersfield were beaten 2-1 and there was a 2-2 draw with Tranmere Rovers, but in the 0-1 lost at Colchester United he made way for Tcham N'Toya, after sixty-four minutes. This was repeated in the 0-0 draw with Bradford City at Saltergate on 2nd April, and then Adam Smith was his sixty-seventh minute replacement in a 1-0 away loss to Port Vale a week later. In his final two games he came on as a substitute, replacing Mark Hudson in the seventy-seventh minute in a 2-3 defeat by Bournemouth on 16th April and in the eighty-first minute in a 0-1 loss at Blackpool a week later. He was not retained by Chesterfield for the 2005-06 season and had trials with Bradford City and Danish club Aarhus GF. He joined Aarhus but did not stay long before returning home to Australia and joined 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 brought up 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 with 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 would force his way into the squad never came and he had to move on to further his career. McMaster was used as a squad player by the Mariners, making one start and five substitute appearances with playing time of just one hundred and forty-three minutes, before the end of the 2005-06 season but 2006-07 saw him make fourteen starts in nineteen appearances, in a twenty-one game competition, and he opened his scoring account with a goal in the sixth minute on 3rd November 2006 in a 3-3 draw at Melbourne Victory. Unfortunately, competition under the salary cap meant he was surplus to requirements in the "A" League and was released on 14th April 2007. After a spell out of the game where he went travelling, McMaster returned to action in the NSW Premier League and joined APIA Leichhardt Tigers in May 2008, who changed their name to Sydney Tigers in December 2008. Now twenty-five, he made his Lambert Park debut as a substitute and became an instant favourite as he scored a goal within minutes of entering the fray in a NSW Premier League clash between Apia Leichhardt Tigers and Sutherland Sharks on 18th May 2008. After being out of the game for so long it gave him renewed confidence. He stayed with them until the end of the season, and he scored five goals in ten starts and one game as a substitute. He stayed until he joined Wollongong (South Coast Wolves) in June 2009, where he scored 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 eight times in forty-two appearances, in a two season stay, before moving to Marconi Stallions for the 2012 season. Marconi beat his former team 2-0 in the Grand Final of the 2012 season and he scored twice in twenty-one appearances in the season. He joined Sutherland Sharks for the 2013 season and they finished fifth, with McMaster scoring twice in eighteen appearances.The first of his goals came on the opening day of the season on 16th March 2013 in a 4-0 away win over his former club, South Coast Wolves and the second came on 25th May 2013 in a 2-2 home draw with Rockdale City Suns.