Thanks: Lee Thorpe

Lee Thorpe joined the Imps just prior to the start of the 1997/98 season from Blackpool. He was a classic ‘John Beck’ centre forward, strong and never one to shy away from a fight and was the Imps top scorer in all competitions in each of his five seasons at Sincil Bank.

Thorpe had a unique style that was perhaps best described as good ‘old fashioned’ centre forward play. He was definitely a player you wanted on your side rather than up against you, and all-too-often he found himself at the centre of confrontations. However, mixed in with that aggression was a decent centre forward, and in May 2000 he was named the first Player of the Year of the new millennium.

Whatever people thought about Thorpe, he did score crucial goals. In his first season, he netted 14, not only in the final game to seal automatic promotion, but also goals that gave us victories over Cardiff (1-0), Brighton (1-0) and Exeter City (2-1). The following season he scored twice at Meadow Lane to give us a 3-2 win over Notts County, and then found his shooting boots with just a handful of games to go. He scored six in five games to give us a fighting chance at survival, although we were ultimately relegated. In 2000 there was a famous 90th-minute equaliser against Peterborough which helped carve his name into Imps folklore. If you needed a crucial goal he had the capability to get it, but if you wanted a scrap then he could provide that as well.

He may have been amongst the goals for City, but he was often amongst the cards as well. He was sent off four times during his Lincoln career, two of these dismissals came in successive games in October 2001 leading to a seven-match suspension.

Despite his poor disciplinary record, he was still one of the key members of the City squad during our brief foray into the third tier, and in the seasons, afterwards. Our dire financial situation in May 2002 meant cut-backs, and it saw Thorpe move to Leyton Orient on a free transfer to save costs, on the same day that the Club went into administration. Keith Alexander stated eighteen months later that he would have loved to have kept Thorpe at the club for the first play-off season, but it was purely a financial decision.

Not only did Thorpe do well scoring goals for City, but he also enjoyed scoring against us. He netted against the Imps whilst playing for Leyton Orient, Bristol Rovers and Darlington. It was his goal that prompted the sacking of Peter Jackson in September 2009, so even seven years after leaving the club he was still doing us a service.

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