Four Former Imps Featuring In The Recent Baller League

Matthew Briggs – SDS FC

Matthew Briggs was only a trialist at City, and after Neal Eardley impressed, Briggs was let go. However, I have a picture of him in an Imps shirt, so he gets an honourable mention.

He plays for Deportrio, a team owned by Gary Lineker, Micah Richards and Alan Shearer. He’s only played twice, but has a duel success of 62.50% and is listed as a wild card, alongside former England defender Joleon Lescott.

Briggs progressed through Fulham’s academy from 2001 and made his senior debut for the club in May 2007, becoming the youngest player to appear in the Premier League at that time. Over eight seasons, he recorded 13 league appearances for Fulham, with further outings across domestic cups and Europe. For experience, he undertook a series of Football League loans: Leyton Orient in League One during January 2010, Peterborough United in the Championship in February 2012, Bristol City later that year, and Watford in spring 2013, where he scored his first league goal and featured in their run to the Championship play-off final.

Released by Fulham in 2014, Briggs signed for Millwall, debuting in August with a match-winning goal in the League Cup. First-team minutes were limited and he moved to Colchester United on loan in January 2015, helping them avoid relegation on the final day. A permanent move to Colchester followed that summer, yielding 41 League appearances across two seasons. A hip injury curtailed his availability in 2016–17 and he was released in May 2017.

Briggs trained with us in July 2017 while on trial but did not agree terms. He subsequently joined Chesterfield in August 2017 on a short-term deal, making 11 League Two appearances, and had a brief spell at Barnet in March 2018. Dropping into non-league, he spent 2018–19 with Maldon & Tiptree, where he was a regular and scored five league goals, with a short interlude at Coggeshall Town in 2019.

In August 2019 Briggs moved abroad to HB Køge in Denmark’s 1st Division, making 14 league appearances before departing in March 2020. He briefly signed for Dartford the same month, then returned to Denmark with Vejle in September 2020, adding three Danish Superliga appearances prior to a mutual departure in July 2021. Back in England, Briggs joined Gosport Borough from July 2021 and made 59 league appearances over two seasons. He signed for Horsham in July 2023 and retired from football the following month.