Shortly after Morgan Rogers scored for Aston Villa in their impressive Europa League final victory, a friend of mine suggested that he must be the best to have ever played for Lincoln City.
Before the inter-generational debate begins, he meant the best in terms of where their career took them post Sincil Bank.
The Restricted View has compiled a list of six players who have gone up the footballing pyramid following their time at the Home of Football.
6 – Gareth Ainsworth
I could start nowhere else but here!
The oversized shirt and bangles around the wrist are perhaps an odd memory to have of a player who lit up Sincil Bank in the mid-90s, but Gareth Ainsworth’s short-lived spell in LN5 created a cult hero.
Ainsworth was clearly a John Beck favourite, having played for the City boss at Cambridge United and Preston North End before teaming up again at the Bank.
The fee to bring him to Lincoln was a paltry £25,000, and he would eventually be sold for £500,000 to Port Vale less than two seasons later.
Ainsworth had been named Player of the Year twice with the Imps and claimed the award again at Vale, with his form helping to secure a £2 million move to the Premier League and Wimbledon.
His time with the Dons was beset by niggling injuries, and he was unable to get a consistent stab at the top flight. The winger spent a short time with Cardiff City before finding himself at Queens Park Rangers.
QPR were in the Second Division (now League One) at the time, but Ainsworth helped them back to the Championship in his first season.
There were over 150 appearances and several stints as caretaker manager across six years at Loftus Road before embarking on his journey with Wycombe Wanderers as both player and manager.
As exciting as he was at Sincil Bank, Ainsworth never quite got the Premier League breakthrough and so doesn’t make a challenge for top spot in this list.
5 – Gary Taylor-Fletcher
Gary Taylor-Fletcher joined Lincoln City on a free transfer from Leyton Orient in the summer of 2003 and scored 19 times in his first season to cement himself as a fan favourite.
He added another 12 strikes the following season, including a goal in each of City’s opening six league matches before moving to League One with Huddersfield Town.
His personal success continued with Huddersfield and was soon making the move to the Championship, joining Blackpool in 2007.
What followed stunned most football fans as the Tangerines booked their place in the Premier League thanks to playoff success, but were quickly predicted to be the worst team seen in the division.
Despite eventually being relegated, Blackpool proved their doubters wrong, and Taylor-Fletcher managed to score against champions Manchester United on the final day of the season at Old Trafford.
From Northwich Victoria to scoring against the English champions to the Welsh Premier League, Gary Taylor-Fletcher enjoyed an incredible career, but it’s not enough to challenge the top three in this list due to to the top flight longevity of the others.
4 – Darren Huckerby
The first player of my era to get a huge move, and it was a huge move at the time, was to Premier League title-chasing Newcastle United.
Having debuted for the Imps in March 1994, adding a goal on his first outing, Huckerby went on to feature in 28 Football League matches and contributed five goals.
After his £400,000 move to St James’ Park, the youngster went on to feature on just a couple of occasions for Kevin Keegan’s side as the Toon Army were challenging Manchester United for the title.
Huckerby enjoyed a long career in the upper echelons of the English pyramid, joining Coventry City from Newcastle and forming a dangerous partnership with Dion Dublin as the Sky Blues battled against all the odds to stay in the top flight.
The striker-cum-winger is perhaps best known for his long spell at Norwich City, representing the Canaries in the Premier League and at the Championship level. Huckerby also represented Leeds United and Manchester City as well as Nottingham Forest and Millwall on loan before retiring in America with the San Jose Earthquakes.
The Nottingham-born player made over 200 English Premier League appearances and featured in another 200 second-tier contests across a career that included England B and England Under 21 honours.
Huckerby’s career is the one for me that comes closest to the top three in the list, but they all have that something extra in common that elevates them.
The former Imp netted 14 top-flight goals for the Sky Blues in the 1997-98 campaign and enjoyed the most fruitful season of his career when he scored 20 and assisted a further 12 to help Manchester City back to the Prem in 2001-02.
He spent several years terrorising Premier League defences as he and big Dion rescued Coventry City every season, and had his Leeds United spell got the spark it needed, who knows where he would have ended up.
The Past And Future
Before tomorrow’s top three, there’s a couple of extra mentions to a couple of others who have graced the Sincil Bank turf.
Looking to the future, Carl Rushworth looks set for a stellar career. The former loanee keeper wins Player of the Year everywhere he goes and has just been a hugely important cog in Coventry City’s promotion wheel.
Special mentions must also go to Trevor Peake, who left the Imps in 1983 and would win the FA Cup with Coventry City four years later, Tony Woodcock who won the European Cup with Forest after a brief loan at the Bank, as well as Graham Taylor, who went on and had a half-decent managerial career!