Darren Rogers

We’ll ease you in gently with a player you might not have heard of. Darren Rogers was a centre-half, and in 1993, the Imps were dead keen on him. He’d been here on trial, and Keith Alexander was keen to get the deal done. A fee was agreed with Barry Fry and Birmingham for £50,000, and the club expected Rogers to sign. In fact, they even gave the Echo the story, announcing him ahead of his arrival.

Rogers was expected to turn up on a Friday for a game against Wigan. The transfer fee was sent to the FA, Birmingham signed the papers, and Keith had got his man.

Only he hadn’t. He waited on Friday morning, but Rogers never turned up. He had apparently felt he could do better than Lincoln and decided not to bother. “It seems we’ve had a lucky escape,’ commented chairman John Reames. 24 hours later, we lost 1-0 to Wigan.

As for Rogers, he did leave Birmingham not long after for our Division Three rivals Walsall. He appeared 58 times for them, helping get them into Division Two, before rupturing an ACL back in the days when it effectively ended your career, ending his professional career.