Kevin Austin
Maybe this is me indulging myself again, but I think you’d be hard pushed to find a more impressive physical specimen than Kevin Austin. During his time at City he was outstanding, genuinely a cut above the rest of the team and destined for far greater things.
In 1996 Lincoln hadn’t been enjoying the best of spells, but John beck changed all that. Love him or loath him, he had a plan and that involved a strong, athletic left-sided centre back called Kevin Austin. John Beck asked the crowd to buy him a player, we responded with coins in buckets. Back then, everyone trusted Beck, on this occasion they had every right.
Austin made 146 appearances for Lincoln, every one of them all-action and full of effort. He was a marvellous individual, a defender of such immense promise I often wondered how he’d rocked up at Lincoln.
He made his debut in a 2-1 defeat at lowly Torquay in a season where Lincoln missed out on the play-offs by just a point. Austin had it all, pace and power with a fearsome tackle to match. He was on the pitch for the Coca Cola cup wins over Man City and he was part of the team that took Premier League Southampton back to Sincil Bank.
The following season he was a key player in our automatic promotion charge. John Beck’s team at the time was built on strength and the ability to defend as if their lives depended on it and Austin looked every inch the leader and inspiration behind the clubs rise. Whilst in the third tier he scored what turned out to be the winning goal in our 2-1 home win over Manchester City, but could not stop the Imps sliding back into the basement division. He was only sent off once in his Imps career, a 76th minute dismissal in a tempestuous 3-2 defeat at Notts County during which former Imp Gary Strodder was sent off for punching Tony Battersby.
It came as no surprise when he secured a move to Barnsley on a Bosman after three stellar years playing for Lincoln and many fans felt that he’d quickly ascend the divisions in the same way Gareth Ainsworth did. Disaster struck in only his third game for Barnsley, ironically back at Sincil Bank in the Coca Cola cup. He suffered an Achilles tendon injury in a challenge with Peter Gain that ruled him out for the season and he never returned the same player. He had a plethora of clubs, most notably Swansea but was never able to recapture the scintillating form that had him voted at number 56 in the Imps all-time top 100 legends.
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!