Jae Martin

Jae will be remembered at Sincil Bank for always being the player who had a great loan spell, but went sour after moving here permanently.

He was a striker-cum-winger who came on loan from Birmingham City at the beginning of John Beck’s first full season in charge, He had an impressive loan spell, scoring in a 3-2 win against Hartlepool and then getting the winner against Barnet which prompted Beck to hold him aloft on his shoulders in a ‘sign him up’ gesture to the board. The money for that deal then materialised as Martin played a role in the 4-1 demolition of Manchester City in the League Cup, featuring as we won at their place 1-0 in the second leg. He scored one more during his loan spell as we beat Colchester 3-2 at Sincil Bank. Eventually the board agreed to put £1 on the admission prices to fund the transfer, and he came in for the princely sum of £30k. The future was bright….

He faded almost as soon as he came on board permanently, and after scoring twice in his loan spell added just two more all season, including our consolation goal in the 7-1 hammering away a Colchester. The following season he declined even more with a combination of injuries and poor form contributing to him making just seven appearances, scoring once at home against Doncaster. He was released as we achieved promotion and unfortunately didn’t represent the same value for money as Beck’s other ‘sign him up’ player, Kevin Austin.

He signed a two-year deal with Peterborough upon his release, scoring once before spells with Welling on loan and Woking. Perhaps John Beck didn’t know how to spot a player after all.