RACIALLY abused on a football park. Sent off for protesting. This was the horror that was witnessed by poor Jennifer Austin as her son Nathan, then just a 14-year-old kid in Fife, endured being called a ‘n****r’ and a ‘black b*****d’ by opponents, parents and coaches of opposition teams.
It is a shameful tale that, quite rightly, brought this worried and heartbroken mum to desperation as she pleaded with the small boy in front of her, the small boy that dreamed of one day becoming a footballer, to turn his back on his life’s ambition and remove himself from this toxic and vile environment. A world a child playing for East Wemyss District under-15s surely should never be exposed to.
Eight years on, Austin has answered all the small-minded, backward bigots who stooped so low - and then some. On the back of a storming season for East Fife that has seen him net 24 goals in 39 appearances, the striker, who was signed by Falkirk in January and then loaned back to the New Bayview club for the remainder of the campaign, has also been nominated for the PFA Scotland League Two Player of the Year.
So, glad he ignored mum?
“Aye definitely,” said the confident 22-year-old. “Me and my mum are really close but sometimes we have a laugh and a joke with her saying ‘can you imagine what you would have done, .what kind of sport you would you play?’
“I haven’t a clue because I’m nae good at golf.
“It is in the past now but it is something that makes you stronger as a person, and when you look back it is something I overcome.
“You couldn’t understand how proud she is because my little brother as well has moved to East Fife and she comes down and watches us, even if he doesn’t play as much as he would like.
“She’s unbelievably proud and I love her to bits and that all I want to do, make her proud.”
It has been a season to remember for all the right reasons for this young man, who was the man of the match by a clear distance when his goal almost knocked Motherwell out of the League Cup earlier in the campaign. All those years on, though, and the troublesome memories from those dark days still linger, continually acting as a motivator to push himself forward.
“It was coming from players and coaches and I received a red card after reacting to a racial taunt and I appealed it, but the red card stood but that is when we went to the papers,” said Austin, who went public at the time of the incident to try and get his message across. “It was so people could recognise it for what it was and I think we did that. After that, I didn’t really receive anything at all.
“You know my friends were always there,. My team-mates, and the always stood up for me.
“Even my coach William Wilkie, who I am still really close to, he put his arm round my shoulder and said ‘you’ll be the one laughing when you’re still playing football and their not’. And I am.”
Nathan Austin was speaking after being announced as a nominee for PFA Scotland League One Player of the Year.
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