Paul Morgan
Did somebody say Imps heavyweight? Okay, this may be indulgent, but in my life time I haven’t seen a better centre half at this club than Paul Morgan. Kid’s brought up in the Keith Alexander era will be hard pushed to ignore him and, for my money, he was a better defender than Gareth McCauley. The only thing Morgan lacked was those additional inches that could have turned a great defender into an international.
Irishman Morgan came through the youth ranks at Preston North End and despite his obvious potential, he made only one senior appearance during his four years there. He joined City on a free transfer in 2001. Once he found regular first team football he developed into one of the most talented defenders in the lower leagues. He did receive his call-up into the full Northern Ireland squad, but it was cruelly taken away after he picked up an injury just four months after his arrival at Sincil Bank.
Keith Alexander made Morgan his captain at the start of ground breaking 2002/03 campaign, and he led an unfancied side all the way to the play-off final, earning himself the nickname ‘Ireland’s Bobby Moore’ from City fans. He made the decision to sign a new two-year contract at the end of March 2003 ahead of the match against Bournemouth, much to the delight of fans who held him in such high esteem. There were few surprises when he was named player of the year for that historic season.
It wasn’t hard to pinpoint what Paul Morgan did for the team. As well as organise and encourage the defence he was a match for any centre forward when it came to pace, and often found a clever and fair tackle in situations where only a foul looked possible. He led fiercely and unflinchingly with a commitment to the cause that truly epitomised everything Keith was trying to achieve.
The following season he was named 2004 BBC East Midlands ‘Footballer of the Year’ ahead of the likes of Nottingham Forest’s Andy Reid and Leicester City’s Ian Walker, a real honour for a Lincoln City footballer. Once again we challenged at the right end of the table and once again Captain Morgan was at the heart of our success. He signed another new deal, this time for three-year in 2005, and it looked very much like our inspirational captain was around for the long haul. Against Macclesfield Town on New Year’s Day, meanwhile, he made his 200th Football League appearance for the Imps.
Sadly, with Keith leaving the club his captain also felt he needed to move on. Shortly after our fifth play-off defeat at the hands of Bristol Rovers he informed Head Coach John Schofield that he wished to leave the Club, and he left by mutual consent in June 2007. Twenty-four hours later he re-joined his former boss Keith Alexander at Bury before following him to Macclesfield on a season-long loan a year later, although in fairness to Paul it did coincide with his wife being relocated to Manchester with the police force.
Paul Morgan was one of only a couple of players to feature in each and every single one of our play-off appearances, and his departure did leave a huge hole in our defence. He was consistently linked to sides much higher up the Football League and was widely regarded as one of the best defenders in the lower leagues. There’s no doubt Paul Morgan deserved to progress in the same manner as our other successful defenders, and perhaps that injury just four months in to his Imps career robbed him of the opportunity to show the football world what he could do on the international stage.
No Terry Cooper? Shocking!!
As talented as Paul Morgan was – and he’s my choice – I do recall how comically bad he was at knocking the ball forwards from the back!
He rarely made a mistake though and always had the pace and skill to recover if he did.
Jamie McCombe was every bit as good for us as McAuley & Morgan.
I can’t vote for Morgan, as we never saw him in a traditional back four. He was always in the sweeper role, mopping up what the two giants in front of him didn’t.
I’ve voted for the duo that I think complement each other the best, Austin for his pace & power & Raggett for his aerial prowess.
Peake and Thomson were the best pairing I’ve seen in an Imps team but you can’t ignore McAuley for the time he has lasted in the top league. So Peake and McAuley for me.
Not sure if I am just biased against Morgan because the journalist prior to Curtis always referred to him as Baresi, and although he was decent he was never that good. My personal feeling is that he is thought of as better than he was because he didn’t just hoof it, but I don’t think he did enough of the key stuff well. Unlike McCauley and McCombe he also didn’t play at a higher level after
I’ll vote for Peake, given he was brilliant, but also because he told me to get off the pitch on my third lap of the centre circle as an over-keen, seven-year-old mascot. Happy memories!