Peter Costello
A striker or midfield player, Peter Costello started his career with Bradford City playing around 20 games over two seasons and scoring two goals for the then second tier side. Transferred to Fourth Division Rochdale for £10,000 in the summer of 1990 he had scored 13 goals for them by the following March which prompted Peterborough United to pay £30,000 for him as they clinched promotion. Things didn’t work out for him at Peterborough and he had made only one substitute appearance in the following season before joining City on loan in early September 1991. The Imps had made a poor start to Steve Thompson’s first full season as manager, winning the first league game of the season but then losing the next three with a disastrous 6-0 home defeat by Barnet putting them in 19th place. With Paul Dobson, Tony Lormor and David Puttnam all on the injured list Thompson brought in the 21-year-old Costello on a month’s loan, saying he was a bright and nippy forward who would give the side more life in attack. The new man formed an effective partnership with big Jason Lee and there was an immediate improvement in results with two wins, but this was followed by a home defeat to Chesterfield which saw Costello forced to go off ten minutes from the end with a shoulder injury. That turned out to be the end of his loan spell, as with the shoulder found to be dislocated, he returned to Peterborough, but made no first team appearances for them in the remainder of the season.
At the beginning of the following season Costello had scored one goal from three substitute appearances and one start for Peterborough, now in the third tier, when City came in for him again just about a year after his loan spell. The Imps, after a poor start had improved to move into the top half of the table but were finding goals hard to come by. With the out-of-favour Paul Dobson allowed to leave and one-time Notts County striker Ian McParland given a brief spell on non-contract terms Steve Thompson, doubtless remembering Costello’s briefly effective loan period paid £15,000 for him.
Making his debut in a home defeat to Shrewsbury Costello’s first goal came in his fourth game as City beat Bury at Gigg Lane. This was followed by three goals in the next two games as his renewed partnership with Jason Lee blossomed, the big striker hitting three in three. A lean spell then followed for Costello although City moved up into the promotion places, with only a brace in a home win over Doncaster and a couple of goals in FA Cup and Autoglass Trophy games. He then suffered a dislocated shoulder again in mid-February which kept him out of action for just over a month. Meanwhile, new signing Neil Matthews had taken Costello’s place in the side, and on his return he made a series of substitute appearances before starting in the last four games of the season scoring one goal. He finished with 9 goals from 31 appearances for the season.
City’s failure to at least achieve a play-off place led to the departure of Steve Thompson and his replacement by Keith Alexander and although Costello started the first six games of the 1993/94 season the arrivals of new strikers David Johnson and Steve Mardenborough saw him down the pecking order. He made appearances off the bench in the next seven games before losing his place and in October he was allowed to join Conference club Halifax Town on a month’s loan. He made just two appearances for them before returning to Sincil Bank, soon afterwards putting in a transfer request. He was back in the side playing in midfield for three games at the beginning of February before the arrival of new signings such as Tony Daws, David Ridings and David Campbell saw him go out on loan to another Conference club, this time Kettering Town, joining them on a permanent basis before the end of the season. He then played for a string of non-league clubs before spending some time with Boston United as they won the Conference.
A skilful player, Costello’s permanent signing was not altogether a failure for City as for a brief period he formed a promising striking partnership with Jason Lee. However, after an initial burst of scoring he was never as prolific afterwards and after a spell out injured he became increasingly sidelined.