Sky One - The Match

In October 2004 Jonathan was one of 18 celebrities to take part in Sky One's tv show 'The Match'. The show saw the famous faces train and live together at Newcastle United's Football Academy. The team, led by old England manager Graham Taylor, had to keep their wits about them after a gruelling week of training when they played against a team of legendary football stars, including Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne. Every night 3 of the celebrities faced a public vote and the player with the least votes was evicted from the team and wasn't allowed to play in that final match.

Jonathan did an amazingly good job at the Match. He was chosen as the captain of the team by Graham Taylor and scored the only goal for the celebrities. The team unfortunately lost 2-1, but could walk off the pitch feeling very proud of themselves as they were undeniably the better team.

The Match was on telly for a week and had evening shows every night and live streams during the day. To read what was shown, please read the 'daily updates' below:

Launch Show
Sunday 03.10.04
In this first episode the players introduced themselves to the viewing public with Jonathan telling about his Everton past, beating Michael Owen with 1-0 in a match, and how he's been waiting for this moment all his life. The viewers were given a look around the training complex where the celebrities will be spending most of their week training, sleeping, eating and having massages. Footage was shown of the lads' first day where they picked their room mates (Jonny's in a room with Ben Shephard and Dane Bowers), and shared some of their beauty secrets. Jonny escaped the first round of nominations by the team manager Graham Taylor, so he'll be staying in the team for at least another day!

Day 1
Monday 04.10.04
This show had footage from what happened when the previous show ended last night. The lads went out on the 'Toon', Jonny had a massage and showed off Darren Campbell's (one of his team mates) Olympic Gold medal from Athens, looking very impressed. He wasn't put on the bench by Graham Taylor, so tune in again tomorrow!

Day 2
Tuesday 05.10.04
Not a lot happened concerning Jonny in the show tonight, he showed the newly arrived lads from Blue the complex, and is safe for tomorrow's eviction as he wasn't nominated!

Day 3
Wednesday 06.10.04
They showed how Jonny and some of the other players went for a round of golf yesterday and how Jonathan was chosen as one of 11 players to compete against the Newcastle United's under 18's team today. Graham Taylor seems impressed with Jonathan so far, he said: "Jonathan Wilkes is a very very talented player, good left foot and he's a team leader. I've got a lot of time for Jonny." Jonny said: "I'm a winner, that's the way I've always been. I'm not coming here to be rolled over. I'm really not." He's still in the game, without having received a single nomination so far!

Day 4
Thursday 07.10.04
This evening the practice match against the under 18's was shown, which the celebrities lost with 4-0. Jonathan said afterwards: "I don't think we discouraged ourselves at all. I'd say if the legends played against them they'd get beat. We've all got our dreams; like in the last minute I'm gonna knock one off to Harvey to score a goal, or I'm gonna get a penalty and score the penalty. Let's wait and see."

He had some words of encouragement for his team mate Gary Lucy who is finding the experience of being on telly 24/7 very hard. And after the training match this morning the lads had to predict how many goals they'd score in a penalty shoot-out and ended up having to run to the other side of the pitch in just their underpants.

Let's hope Jonny will be one of the 11 starting players on Sunday so he can realize his dream of being involved in the winning goal!

Day 5
Friday 08.10.04
Tonight Graham Taylor announced Jonathan will be wearing the captain's band in the final match on Sunday! He said they had done personality tests on all of the players and Jonny showed most leadership qualities, so he gave it him. The players went to St. James' Park yesterday to get a feel for the stadium, and to make sure they'll know their way around on Sunday. Jonathan looked around and said: "Scary..."

Being captain, Jonny is sure to play on Sunday so if you don't have your tickets yet, please hurry as they're very close to be sold out!

Day 6
Saturday 09.10.04
This morning some of the players - including Jonathan - joined Graham Taylor, Sir Bobby Robson (the other team's manager) and some of the legends including Paul Gascoigne for a press conference. Jonny was asked what it's been like this week and how they're feeling about tomorrow. Jonny answered: "It's been amazing. We're not here to get our arse kicked, we're really not. We've worked really hard this week. We might have a laugh about it, but come kick-off time we're for serious. We want to beat them, we really do."

Jonny sneakily watched the legends train despite being told not to after the press conference today.

He had a message for the opposite team tomorrow: "Right. Game on. I hope you've trained hard, cos we have."

Jonathan will be playing with number 8 on the back of his shirt tomorrow, playing in a midfield position. Fingers crossed it will all go well for the celebrities!

Day 7 - Match day!
Sunday 10.10.04
After a very exciting match the celebrities could go home feeling very proud of their achievement! Although they lost 2-1, they gave the legends a true run for their money and were considered the better team by a lot of people. Jonny scored the one goal for the celebs, and what a beauty it was! Well done Jonny!