1. Davide Somma

Not much can be said positive about the reign of Chris Sutton, nor of the 2009/10 season which acted as an opening act to our humiliating relegation from the Football League. What we will all remember though, is the impact a certain South African striker had on shining some sunshine and joy on Sincil Bank.

He signed on loan from Leeds and immediately earned the Imps a point against Crewe with a debut goal as we stared relegation in the face. After a couple of games, he really began to fire earning a draw at Dagenham (1-1) and scoring twice to earn a win away at Torquay (3-2). In effect, his goals were the difference between staying up or going down.

Sutton was quick to enthuse about his new striker in his March programme notes for a clash with Northampton; “Since Davide has come in he’s not just scored goals he’s offering us so much more in terms of his link up play and awareness. He offers a genuine goal threat. The one thing he can do is finish but there’s still parts of his game, by his own admission, he can work on and I’m confident I can help him with his game.”

From the cold February through to his final day sending off against Macclesfield it really felt like ‘Somma time’ at Sincil Bank. Unsurprisingly fans were clamouring for him to be signed full time and despite Chris Sutton signalling his interest in the player it seemed like Leeds rated him highly and he didn’t return to Sincil Bank. Their intuition was right as he scored 12 Championship goals for them the following season, but after that, his progress was blighted by injury.

Somma was a player who should never have found himself playing in the basement division, he had an air of poise and class that simply wasn’t at home amongst the hatchet-men and has-beens. Shortly after the World Cup of 2010, he was called up to the South Africa side for three games, scoring once.

Maybe, just maybe, the loan of Joe Morrell might top this come the end of the season, who knows?