‘I’ll Drive You There’ – Ten Lincoln City Players We’d Have Happily Got Rid Of Who Later Excelled

Alan Judge

Alan Judge’s City career amounted to just two appearances on loan from Oxford United in 1985, one of which was a 7-0 defeat at Derby County. Contemporary reports still credited him with several fine saves, although conceding seven is hardly the sort of introduction that encourages supporters to remember a goalkeeper fondly. His spell was brief enough to be little more than a footnote in a much longer career, and fans might have felt driving him back to Oxford was a good idea. How could they have known they could have driven him to Wembley?

Five months after the Baseball debacle, he was part of the Oxford team that won the Milk Cup in 1986. As we dropped into the Fourth Division, he kept a clean sheet at Wembley as the Us lifted the cup. That, on the same dya as Trevor Hebberd was Man of the Match, a player we’d happily have driven off a cliff ten years later.

Judge also became notable for his longevity, returning to Football League action with Oxford in his forties and becoming one of the oldest players ever to appear in the competition. So, while he might be judged harshly for those seven goals at Derby, his wider career suggests City saw a very unrepresentative snapshot.