Strikers

Geoff Horsfield

Feed the horse and he will score. That was often said on Soccer AM at the time (along with Shaun Goater) and for a while, it was certainly the case, but before he reached the radar of such a show, he wrote a story not unlike Jamie Vardy’s. Geoff Horsfield started his life as a bricklayer, playing for Scarborough, Guiseley and Witton Albion, before joining Halifax and finding success. He bagged 51 goals in 98 matches, helping them back into the Football League, before Fulham paid £300,000 for his services, plus add ons. After 31 goals in 74 appearances for them, Birmingham City paid £2.25m for his goals. He appeared in the top flight for the Blues, playing alongside French World Cup winner Christophe Dugarry. He also played in the top flight for West Brom, who paid £1m for his services from Wigan. He had a disastrous spell at Sheffield United, whom he joined on loan with a view to a £1.2m transfer. Both him and Neil Warnock didn’t want the move to go through after the loan spell, but the Baggies insisted. He played five times for the Blades, scoring once, and enjoying loan spells with Leicester, Scunthorpe and Leeds.

He arrived at the Bank after successfully beating cancer and despite not being a huge hit, was a well-liked individual. If only we had seen him with us in his prime, netting regularly, maybe Peter Jackson’s bluster would have delivered some actual results.

Bob Latchford

Who else, but Bob Latchford to lead the line in this team. We started with a player known on the world stage in Bruce Grobbelaar and we finish with an established England international and just missed out on being a member of the Euro 80 squad (he was included in the official Panini sticker album). He scored four goals in qualifying, keeping Trevor Francis out of the team, but in October ’79 Ron Greenwood swapped them over and Latchford did not appear for England again, finishing with five goals from 12 caps.

Latchford was an FA Youth Cup finalist with Birmingham in 1967, winning promotion with them to the First Division in 1972 and twice finishing as top scorer. In 1974 he left the Blues for Everton, commanding a fee thought to be worth £350,000, a British transfer record at the time. whilst at Goodison, he was a League Cup runner up, and leading scorer four years in a row. He moved to Swansea where he twice won the Welsh Cup and finished as leading scorer in 1982, then went to the Netherlands where he helped NAC Breda into the top flight.

Of course, he came to Lincoln and was poor, but if we had bagged Latchford three years earlier, we would have been laughing all the way to the Second Division.

The Reserves

If we were picking a squad, rather than a team, then I think some of these players would get a special mention.

John Burridge, Garry Croft, Peter Daniel, Jim McCalliog, Lee Philpott, Alick Jeffrey, Albert Scanlon, Gary Bannister

What do you think? Have I missed anyone? Have your say on our forum here