Gavin Gordon
We all know Gavin Gordon as chair of the Former Player’s Association, a top bloke who backs the Imps, week in, week out. He’s a brilliant person around the club currently, but we should never forget what a footballer he was. The talented Manchester lad started his senior career at Hull, and in a rare instance of City spending in the late nineties, we paid a £30,000 fee to bring him to the Bank in 1997.
It took him a while to get warmed up, but as a big, physical presence with an eye for goal, he began to make a name for himself. He scored five in our promotion season, and just five the season after, but then began to really get going. 13 followed in the next campaign, and then he had 11 before we’d opened two doors of the advent calendar. City were skint, so when Cardiff came in offering £500,000, he went. John Reames told him the money saved the club.
He started well at Cardiff, but began to suffer a persistent back injury. They were promoted to the third tier, and Gav was among the goals, bagging five in one game against Rushden. Appearances were limited due to that injury, just 19 in 2001/02, before a loan to Oxford and a move to Notts County. After another injury-hit spell at Crawley, he retired, aged just 27.
If he had stayed fit, who knows. A big, mobile front man, he was discovering an eye for goal after showing early promise, but sadly only once got more than 30 league games in a season.
I missed the Tony James days because I was working abroad, which from a supporters view point is disappointing. As for the rest I’m glad I’ve been a part of.