Thanks – Rene Howe
This might seem an odd one – he bagged five goals in 21 outings for us and perhaps didn’t have the same impact as some other loan players who I won’t be mentioning (Lee Angol for instance). Bear with me though.
Howe came on loan from Peterborough after struggling to break into their team having stepped up from prolific spells at Kettering and Bedford. He arrived with a growing reputation as a potential lower league goal poacher, but his short spell at Lincoln was tarnished by turbulence off the field.
Peter Jackson brought him to the club after failing to land a striker on a permanent deal over the summer and I think Posh deserve some thanks for that. His arrival did seem to complete a squad which Chris Sutton had decimated by Christmas.
Early into Howe’s spell Jackson was (thankfully) dismissed. He scored a brace in the subsequent 3-0 win over Darlington, but then went 13 games scoring just twice, one a winner in Chris Sutton’s second game in charge. After the 3-1 cup win over Northwich he picked up an injury and went back to Peterborough.
Howe never looked comfortable in the Lincoln side, but I think we missed a great opportunity. If he could have worked longer with a striker of Chris Sutton’s calibre, he may have been able to score a few more goals. Later in his career, he had a ratio of one in three at Torquay, which suggests the ability was always there. Maybe at Lincoln the desire wasn’t.
Gary, I went to the Barry Fry evening at the Theatre royal and he said that the only reason they let Anderson go was the current Manager at the time played the Diamond formation and had no room for Wingers but I know that Barry Fry Rates Anderson very highly and thinks he will play at an higher level.