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The last month has seen players up and down the country putting their boots away as another football season comes to an end.

One local player, however, is probably more thankful to see the back of 2018/19 than any other.

With 29 goals, you would be forgiven for thinking this would be a season Bristol Manor Farm striker Owen Howe would look back on with fondness.

(Image: Dan Regan)

Yet the goals column of his stats only tell a portion of the story - the 24-year-old also missed 16 games through suspension.

A combined total of five reds and 10 yellows meant Howe was forced to sit out what can only be described as a sizeable chunk of the season.

After a couple of early season reds for violent conduct, however, Howe feels he started to get a reputation among referees - so much so all the officials in the Southern League Division One South were on first name terms with him.

He added: "The first two, I can hold my hands up for, but, after that, I think I started to get into the book before the game had already started.

"I had referees calling me by my first name and things like that.

"My manager said to the referee once that I hadn't done anything before, and the referee said we all know that's a lie.

"So they knew who I was before the game had started and that was down in Portsmouth as well - I got sent off after 20 minutes when I didn't put a tackle in but got two yellows.

"I was getting targeted by referees and, obviously, when a team starts to know you've got that side to you and a temper, they do get onto you a little bit."

Howe is easy to talk to an a popular figure among fans and teammates alike, so how has this reputation managed to develop?

He admits that his competitiveness can sometimes get the better of him, but feels he is becoming a bit of a Joey Barton-esque figure in the division.

"I'm quite a mellow person off the pitch, I don't get into any trouble or anything like that," he added.

"On the pitch I am passionate and do like to win, so at times I do get teams taking advantage, and referees sometimes don't give me a chance.

"They think I'm every other player that has that side to them, you've got your Joey Bartons and people like that, I think I'm classed as one of them now.

"It's a tough one for me now, no matter what I do, I always seem to get booked.

"Once you get booked, you can't do anything else then, and it could be for the slightest offence."

He added: "The way I am, I always have that chance of winning a game as well as maybe losing a game by getting sent off.

"The manager has stuck by me through thick and thin and says he likes the way I am and can work with me like that - he said he couldn't take me off because I'm too valuable on the pitch."

Bristol Manor Farm's manager, Lee Lashenko, says that Howe could play at a higher level than the eighth tier of football they currently ply their trade in - provided he loses the hot-headed reputation.

Lashenko said: "He's got time on his hands.

"He needs to try and lose that reputation and try really hard next year to act in a way that stops referees from looking for decisions to make.

"No matter how unfair some of the red cards were, I still believe he could do a lot more to not put himself in that position.

"Not only will he benefit from that, but whoever he's playing for will benefit as well."

Howe's disciplinary issues have already rendered him suspended for the first seven games of next season, prolonging the mundanities of effectively pre-season training for at least six extra weeks, and he could face even more punishment.

The striker is facing an FA investigation into alleged historical betting offences, stretching back to when he was playing for Tiverton Town.

He said: "It's ongoing - it's a weird one, as I've not bet for years and for some reason they've gone back to 2014 and 2015 and bets placed on Premier League and England and things like that.

"I don't get why but I think, once again, it was a target on my back due to red cards.

"We don't get given rule books and talks like the pros do, so as far as I knew, as long as you didn't bet on your own team, I thought we could, but clearly we couldn't."

So, after a season like that, many would presume Howe must have been happy with his goals total, which also saw walk away with Bristol Manor Farm's golden boot.

He, however, feels he could have done better.

He said: "The weird thing about it was I was disappointed.

"I wanted to get to 30 at least but obviously with the games I missed, from my own doing, I'm a bit gutted because I wanted to see what I could have achieved if I had a full season."