Jon McCracken came to Boro’ on a short-term basis in March 2023; plugging a gap at the back that we’d been struggling to fill. He actually became the third lad to arrive at the Lamex on a loan deal from Norwich City in the 2022-3 campaign. So, you could argue that boss Steve Evans was working his network hard there. Mind you, it doesn’t matter where he came from so much. After an injury to Taye Ashby-Hammond, we had found it hard to find someone to step into the breach between the sticks.

McCracken stood to become the sixth goalkeeper that Boro’ had used that campaign. It’s not quite the record looking back. But it does show the difficulties that Evans was having in replacing TAH. The Scottish goalkeeper was brought to the Lamex after Accrington Stanley’s Toby Savin had to go back up north; Accy losing their own number one to a red card. Boro’s form hadn’t been all that great when McCracken arrived. So, the odds were a bit stacked against him; coming in to make a name for himself and restore confidence to our defence.

Jon McCracken: Before Boro’

McCracken was earning rave reviews at the Canaries as a member of their younger teams at the time he arrived at the Lamex. Admittedly, his only senior action (we think) was on loan at Bohemians across the water in Ireland. Prior to that, the stopper was on the books at Hamilton Academicals at U16 level.