Club Career
He first joined Blackburn Rovers after having been a trialist at Celtic and made his debut against West Ham United in the Worthington Cup on 31 October 2000. A cruciate ligament injury in 2001 hampered his progress, and he was out for many months, managing to make it back in early 2002.
In March 2003, he was loaned to Chesterfield for six weeks, in which time he played seven matches and scored once against Blackpool. Ironically Blackpool were his next loan destination, joining them for three months, where he made a significant impact, playing in 16 league games and scoring three goals.
Despite being a tenacious central midfield, whose strengths focussed on energy and aggression rather than technical skill, Blackpool manager, Steve McMahon used the on-loan Douglas as an emergency left midfielder. This unexpected role was to prove a stroke of luck for Douglas. Not soon afterwards, Graeme Souness, manager of Blackburn Rovers, found his side struggling near the bottom of the Premier League and missing a left midfielder due to injuries and inadequate transfer dealings.
Jonathan Douglas was recalled by Rovers and promoted straight into the much re-jigged Rovers side, which adopted very defensive tactics to grind out results. The unheralded collaboration of Jonathan Douglas, Martin Andresen, Jonathan Stead, Lorenzo Amoruso and others, eventually proved successful in eking out results to guarantee Rovers safety in the Premier League. Douglas first Blackburn goal, a spectacular volley, came during this time, in a 4–3 victory over Fulham.
Douglas had shown his potential as a utility squad player for Blackburn and Rovers awarded him a three-year contract.
However, manager Souness departed to Newcastle United and under new boss, Mark Hughes, Douglas soon fell down the pecking order and moved out on loan to Gillingham of the Championship, along with Rovers' youngster, Jay McEveley. Douglas was a regular in the side that so narrowly got relegated. However, he had once again impressed with his tenacious work-rate.
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