Ben Hutchinson
Hutchinson is an easy target for fans, especially for me as he brought Imps’ shame down on my name. He bagged four for City, one which had my Dad calling me a hypocrite, but we’ll come to that.
Hutchinson first appeared for Celtic against us, a £1m striker with a big reputation. Chris Sutton got him in on loan, doubtless hoping to see the same return we got from Davide Somma. Early indications were good too, he scored two in two matches, helping us beat Barnet 1-0. He earned us a point at Wycombe in late October to take his tally to two in 14 matches. Then we played host to Northampton.
We were woeful and some fans, as you know they do, booed Hutchinson after a poor touch. He responded by shouting at them, and although there is no official record, I know he called us the worst fans in the world. We won our next two games, so the pressure was off, Hutchinson coming off early in both. When he scored in our 3-1 win against Hereford in front of the Stacey West I cheered him, minutes after telling my Dad what a cock he was. I got called a hypocrite and felt about three inches tall. Hutchinson didn’t score for us again, I dare see he never looked like doing so. He was stupidly sent off, picking up a second yellow for dissent as we drew 1-1 with Macclesfield in a game we led until injury time. Had we won that game, we would have finished on 49 points and stayed up.
Could we have won it with 11 men? Almost certainly. Could we have stayed up with a striker who scored more than four times in 40 games? You would think so.
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