JAMAL LOWE is praying his fiancee holds off from giving birth this weekend so he can fulfil his Wembley dream. The Portsmouth winger is due to play the biggest game of his career tomorrow against Sunderland in the Checkatrade Trophy final. Among the 80,000-plus sellout will be his heavily-pregnant partner Holly and 18-month-old daughter Bonnie […]
JAMAL LOWE is praying his fiancee holds off from giving birth this weekend so he can fulfil his Wembley dream.
The Portsmouth winger is due to play the biggest game of his career tomorrow against Sunderland in the Checkatrade Trophy final.
Among the 80,000-plus sellout will be his heavily-pregnant partner Holly and 18-month-old daughter Bonnie – providing his other half does not go into early labour.
Lowe, 24, said: “I’ve got another one on the way and my daughter was born in the local hospital, Queen Alexandra in Portsmouth.
“Hopefully he’ll be born in QA, too. He is due on April 10.
“My missus is nervous he is going to come on Sunday while we’re getting ready for Wembley.
“She is ready to pop at any minute really. I’m just hoping he does not come and holds off.
“We’ll have to see if I can name him something Wembley related if we win the cup.”
Lowe was born and bred in Harrow, north-west London, just three miles from the Wembley arch.
As a schoolboy he would pass the famous stadium and dream of playing there one day.
I’m a bit of a late developer. It feels like I’ve been at about 1200 different clubs
Jamal Lowe
He added: “I’m a local lad and I used to go to the market a lot.
“I used to drive past and saw it being built when I was younger.
“I’ve always dreamed of playing there. It’s one of the best stadiums in the world and it’s an honour.”
Lowe took the long route into professional football, jumping from nine non-league clubs before getting his big break at Pompey.
He almost quit his pro dream as a teenager while juggling the demands of being a PE teacher and of non-league training.
The ex-Barnet scholar said: “I’ve not been in professional football for too long. I have an unorthodox upbringing with it.
“I’m a bit of a late developer. It feels like I’ve been at about 1200 different clubs.
“There were times I was thinking about packing it in. I was jumping from club to club for no longer than two months.
“I had to work and it just became a normal part of life — everyone’s got to pay the bills.
“There were stages where football was secondary in my life.
“I would not be able to make it to the 6pm training. That’s just the way it was but I’m thankful I finally got a chance in the end.
“I was a PE teacher a Coombe Hill in Kingston and I was travelling from Harrow every day.
“It took an hour and a half in rush hour. I did it the hard way. There’s a lot easier routes to take.”
His next stop is Wembley.
