Grant Brown    

A player, and like Terry Cooper also a central defender, whose return to City following an earlier loan spell could be considered an unqualified success was Grant Brown. Coming through the youth ranks at Leicester City he made his first team debut in the Second Division towards the end of the 1987/88 season at the age of 18, continuing in the side from the start of the following season before losing his place after 14 games and appearing just once more in the last game of the season. Brown looked set to continue in the reserves at the start of the 1989/90 season until shortly afterwards he joined City on a two-months loan as part of the deal which saw centre half Tony James sold to Leicester for £150,000.

Going straight into the first team and looking a classy player he remained there, doubtless helped by playing alongside the veteran Steve Thompson who had returned to the club in the summer. As the loan period went on it became clear that following some faultless performances Colin Murphy saw Brown as a long-term replacement for the departed James but there was uncertainty over whether Leicester would sell the player or not, with their manager David Pleat coming in for some criticism. Eventually it was announced that Brown would remain on loan for a further month extending the period to the maximum allowed, after which he would either have to be signed permanently or return to his parent club. The loan period expired in November with Brown’s last appearance being in a 3-0 defeat at Exeter.

City had continued to negotiate for Brown’s permanent transfer, but somewhat ironically his good performances during the loan spell had seen the asking price for him begin to rise, with as much as £100,000 being quoted. He therefore returned to Leicester City’s reserves until the now 20-year-old arrived back at Sincil Bank in early January 1990 at a cost of a new club record fee of £63,000.

City had been in seventh place in the league table when Brown left them in November and were now still eighth and well in touch with a promotion place. After a boost following further new signings David Puttnam (also from Leicester), Tony Lormor and loanee John Cornforth they looked well-set at the end of March for a top four finish but eventually fell away to finish tenth.

This was not considered satisfactory by the directors and Colin Murphy lost his position to be replaced by Allan Clarke. This made no difference to Brown’s place in the team and he continued steadily on as an indispensable member of the defence, including a few games at right back, under Clarke’s successors Steve Thompson, Keith Alexander and Sam Ellis as City continued to fail to achieve promotion. However, Brown was injured for all the but the last game of the fortunately brief reign of Steve Wickes early in the 1995/96 season which left City rooted to the bottom of the league and the likelihood of a second relegation out of the league. He was fit again on the arrival of the controversial John Beck as his latest manager who pulled the Imps out of trouble. Brown’s style and ability clearly suited Beck as he held down a regular place for the rest of the season, being one of the few existing players at the club not discarded by the new boss.

Brown continued to be a regular in the side under Beck although missing all but the last third of the 1997/98 season through injury as he helped the Imps win promotion for the first time in ten years. This was achieved under Shane Westley who had taken over from Beck and with first Westley then chairman John Reames in charge of the team another injury-hit season saw Brown play in less than half the games in the third tier as City made an immediate return to the basement division. Injuries continued to restrict his appearances as Reames was succeeded by Phil Stant then Alan Buckley but the number of games continued to mount up and in the 2001/02 season he beat Tony Emery’s record for the most Football League appearances for Lincoln City. Having won that year’s Player of the Season Award it was ironic that it was his last with the club being one of several players released for financial reasons. But after a few years in non-league football Brown was back at Sincil Bank to spend several years in coaching roles including four spells as caretaker manager.

Up there with Terry Cooper as one of the greatest successes in this list of players, Grant Brown featured much higher in the 2007 poll than the Welshman, coming in at no. 3 in the top 100 players.