3. Kevin Ellison

Kevin Ellison is a player who has seen some real peaks and troughs in his popularity over the years but, in my eyes, he’s one of the best full backs of the last two decades to pull on a Lincoln shirt and his injection into the side back in 2003/04 made a huge difference to our promotion push.

He came in on loan from Stockport County as we pushed towards a possible Millennium Stadium return, turning in 13 strong and notable appearances on the left side of defence/ midfield. He had an all-action and full-blooded approach to the game. His arrival coincided with a nine-match unbeaten, with his tenth game a 3-1 defeat against Bristol Rovers, before we lost 3-2 to Yeovil at the Bank. Sadly, that became three defeats on the spin as Huddersfield beat us in the play-off semi-final first leg and despite our spirited display at theirs a few days later, we fell at the penultimate hurdle. Still, as we went out to Huddersfield, he had a little spat with a Terriers fan on the McCalpine pitch, epitomising his aggressive and passionate personality.

He didn’t return, but whenever we did get to see him back at Lincoln he was usually scoring or sullying any memories we had of him. There’s no doubt Ellison is a talented player, but he’s also a horrible bugger as well. He celebrated wildly when scoring against us for Chester, something he repeated at Rotherham for Morecambe. You get the impression Kevin Ellison would willingly wind himself up in a mirror if he could. In two matches against Lincoln the following season he not only scored but was also booked, once in each game. However, as he’s got older (and older, and older) he’s become widely respected as a great professional and a true character of the game.

We should also remember that after a £100k move to Hull he fell out of favour and Scunthorpe had a bid accepted, but sensibly he refused to move. He wasn’t all bad, and if he’d signed for us in the 2004/05 season he would have been a massive asset for the club.