Thanks – Jamie Forrester

Few transfers surprise me quite as much as the one we pulled off back in March 2005. When I heard we’d signed Jamie Forrester on loan from the Gas, I was shocked. He was a class act, we all knew that; how on earth had Keith pulled it off?

Jamie Forrester was a ‘proper footballer’. Sometimes you’ll talk to fans and they’ll describe a player as just that, a proper footballer. A player who can dictate a game, a player who can adjust their game to suit the opposition and adjust their game to suit their own physical decline. Forrester had lost pace by the time he came to Lincoln, but rather than fade into the obscurity of the non-league his footballing brain adjusted his game so he was always one step ahead. Jamie Forrester understood the game of football and what was needed to do well in it.

It took him just 16 minutes of his Imps debut to score a goal, and it was the second goal of a 5-0 win over Grimsby Town, our local rivals and his former club. That alone would be enough to thank Bristol Rovers for.

He ended the season on five goals having signed in March, and despite our failure to negotiate the play offs, he made his move permanent, thank you number two. The following year with Keith gone it was up to John Schofield to reap the rewards of some smart business.

Forrester hit four against Mansfield as we won 4-2. He hit a hat trick against Barnet in a 5-0 win, and then again against Rochdale as we won 7-1. He scored against Grimsby again as we beat them at Sincil Bank (2-0) again. Alongside Mark Stallard he looked as dangerous and as lethal as at any time throughout his career.

The following season he still managed to hit 14 goals as Schofield left and Jackson came in. He weighed in with his obligatory strike at Sincil Bank against the Cod heads (that’s three in three) and won us points singlehandedly against Notts County (1-0) and then a brace as we beat Chester (2-1). Even as Stallard faded away, Jamie Forrester was still on fire.

The following season there was no room at the Inn for Forrester, he was cast aside at the same time as Alan Marriott by Peter Jackson. Whilst two of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ weren’t scoring for us (Graham and Gall), Forrester netted eight for Notts County. Bravo Jacko, bravo.