2. Spencer Weir-Daley

11 games was all it took to put Weir-Daley on this list. Long before Tyler Walker, but long after Tony Woodcock, Spencer Weir-Daley was a gift from Nottingham Forest who found the net for City. Very rarely does a player impress so much during his loan spell that you want to keep him, but in his wider career he goes on to achieve very little. That is perhaps the best way to sum up Spencer Weir-Daley.

He signed on loan having scored twice for Macclesfield during a loan spell earlier in the 2006/07 season. It was under John Schofield and John Deehan we saw the pacey striker, a great addition to the Forrester and Stallard partnership that reaped huge rewards that season. We were looking for an injection of goals from somewhere to assist our automatic promotion push, and Weir-Daley looked the part right from the start. He had an air of arrogance about him in his playing style, but also a devastating burst of speed and the ability to finish coolly.

He scored on his second outing for City as we drew 2-2 with Mk Dons, then again a couple of games later against Notts County as we lost 3-1 with Forrester sent off. As our leading scorer contemplated a spell on the sidelines, Weir-Daly seized his chance. Every time he got onto the pitch he looked like a threat, and two goals live on Sky against Walsall to give us a 2-1 win meant he was getting noticed. He scored again as inconsistent City slipped to a 4-1 home reverse against Hereford, returning to Forest not long after Nathan Arnold’s winner for Mansfield in a 2-1 defeat at the Bank.

With no rules on the number of clubs you could play for, the forward went out on his third spell, this time in League One with Bradford scoring on his debut. He ended his short Lincoln spell with five goals, and although we wanted him back permanently it seemed the classy striker was destined for greater things.

Only it didn’t happen that way for him. The following season earned a permanent move to Notts County, but the goals dried up. He scored just three times before dropping into non-league and never getting another shot at league football. I’ll never know how he didn’t at least make a regular League One player, the grace and poise he showed to kill off a strong Walsall that night suggested he had so much more to achieve.