Midfield

Steve Foley

Foley started his career at Liverpool, back in the early eighties when they were the dominant force in English football. He never made a senior appearance for Liverpool, despite spending four years with the club between 1980 and 1984. He did have a short loan spell with Fulham, before appearing for Grimsby Town, Sheffield United and Swindon, all in what would now be the Championship. His best seasons came at Stoke City, where he was a part of the squad that went from the Third Division to the First Division in three seasons (once courtesy of the divisions being renamed, but hey-ho).

By the time he arrived with us, he could be described as a veteran. He was brought in by Sam Ellis to add some experience to his struggling side but we saw the shadow of the player he was as he headed towards the end of his career. Bear in mind, he played 54 times for Stoke in what is now the Championship in 1993/94, but just 16 times for us the following season in what is now League Two. I think even if we had got Steve Foley a year before he arrived we would have had a decent player, but it never worked out for him at the Bank.

Trevor Hebberd

Hebberd, like Foley, is a player I’ve never written too fondly of. 25 times he appeared for the Imps, but you would be hard pushed to recall one of those games where he did anything exceptional. That is in complete contrast to the earlier part of his career, where he became a club legend of sorts at the Manor Ground, Oxford. He started at Southampton, scoring once in 12 games as they were promoted to the top flight in 1978. He struggled to establish himself at the Dell and moved to Oxford United in the Third Division. In 1984, they won the Third Division, and in 1985 they won the Second Division. In 1986, Hebberd was a key figure for them as they lifted the League Cup at Wembley, scoring the opening goal and bagging the Man of the Match award. Yup, it is fair to say Hebberd was a handy player in his day. He later moved to Debry County, helping them finish fifth in the top flight. Sadly, had English clubs not been banned from Europe, he would have had a chance to test his skills twice on the continent.

By the time he arrived at the Bank, he had experienced three years of gradual decline at Chesterfield, meaning his addition to our squad did little to get pulses racing.

Kingsley Black

To a degree, this is personal for me. Some of you may know that as a kid, I was ‘forced’ to support a big club too and I plumped for Luton Town, as Mick Harford played there. I followed Luton and Lincoln through until maybe 1991 but saw the emergence of one Kingsley Black. He was something else, a young winger with pace, poise and an eye for goal. He won the Littlewoods Cup in 1988, a wonderful moment which cemented my love of football (the Imps won the GMVC you may recall, and Luton thrashed Hebberd’s Oxford 7-4 and 5-0 too). I felt like both my teams were invincible and I eagerly watched as young Kingsley turned into an exciting player. He moved to Forest where he finished as a League Cup runner up, and he made plenty of appearances for Northern Ireland too.

Painfully, he spent five years at Grimsby, winning the Football League Trophy and the Second Division play-off in 1998. I could have forgiven that if he’d been half decent when he arrived with us, but he wasn’t. In two years, he scored five times from 32 outings. It doesn’t seem that bad and maybe I’m being a little harsh, but Black never did it for me at City. If only we had got that flying young winger that thrilled the wide-eyed 11-year-old me.

Dave Phillips

17 lacklustre performance in the appalling 1999/00 season is all Phillips has to show for his time with us, but his career was a solid one. He was a sensational player at times with a penchant for the extraordinary. He helped Plymouth to the FA Cup semi-final in 1984, then moved to Manchester City where his eye for a spectacular goal saw him feature several times in their Goal of the Month competition.

After Manchester City, he moved to Coventry, whom he helped to the FA Cup in 1987, in a side also featuring Trevor Peake. That 3-2 win for the Sky Blues is one of the greatest finals of the era and earned him a £550,000 move to Norwich City, their record purchase at the time. During his time at Norwich, he helped them to t third-place finish in the Premier League, then moved to Forest whom he helped to Premier League promotion, winning Player of the Year. It is fair to say Phillips was no slouch, and 62 caps for Wales further attests to that.

Between forest and us came a spell at Huddersfield as he wound down his career and sadly, he was a shadow of the player he once was for us. Still, Dave Phillips in his pomp would have been a huge asset to the Imps.