Ali Fuseini
Ah, here we go, now we’re talking non-league. Mind you, at the time, Fuseini looked like a good signing. He was combative and had played lots of League One football with Millwall. After they got promoted to the Championship he had trials at Leeds and Crystal Palace, before a short stint with Orient. In January 2011, he signed for us. He was virtually ever-present as we went down, although you could be forgiven for not noticing.
Steve Tilson’s sacking effectively ended Fuseini’s Lincoln career. He played his last game on October 18th, on October 24th David Holdsworth came in and (thankfully) we didn’t see him again. He wasn’t a wholesome figure off the field either: he stood trial for conspiracy to rape at Blackfriars Crown Court in February 2011, whilst playing for Lincoln, but was found not guilty. In late 2010, he was convicted of Aggravated Vehicle Taking and disqualified from driving for 12 months. He was further arrested after leaving Lincoln in November 2011 for driving whilst disqualified, and again on 5 December 2011. He was sentenced to 10 weeks’ imprisonment for these offences.
After leaving the Imps he played for a number of non-league sides in the south of England, including Bromley which meant a Sincil Bank return on Halloween 2015. How fitting.
Sam Smith
Smith was a big hope for the Imps, he’d been highly rated at Rushden as a youth and his move to City fuelled my belief we might be in for an immediate return to the Football League. Just 29 minutes into his debut, he scored his first Imps goal to put us 1-0 up against Southport. Game on.
Sadly, he scored just twice more in thirteen games as the Imps plummeted down the league. Steve Tilson was sacked and the very next game Smith hit a brace to bring back a 3-1 victory from Alfreton Town. He didn’t get a break with injuries though, and missed a chance to play himself into David Holdsworth’s little black book. He signed for Cambridge United on a free transfer at the end of the campaign but failed to really get going for them. He played for Hereford, Brackley, Woking, Telford and Bishop’s Stortford after leaving the Imps, but never made good on his potential
Simon Russell
Simon Russell was a strange one for me, because I still think of him as a decent player, even though he did nothing for us. He’d been Player of the Season for Cambridge the year before, as well as having several solid seasons at Kidderminster Harriers. Initially, he looked lively, impressing in a pre-season Lincolnshire Cup match against Scunthorpe United.
He scored just one goal for Lincoln, our second in a 3-0 win over Ebbsfleet shortly after David Holdsworth took over as manager. However, he never showed the form that had caused Cambridge fans to vote him as their player of the year and he made his last appearance in March 2012 as we slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Mansfield Town. After a spell at Gainsborough, he headed to North Ferriby, before returning to Gainsborough.