‘I’ll Drive You There’ – Part 2: The Players Lincoln City Saw Turn To Gold

Jamie McCombe

Jamie McCombe’s move to City in 2004 was anything but straightforward. He had fallen out of the first-team picture at Scunthorpe United, spent time on loan at Halifax Town and appeared set to leave Glanford Park on a free transfer. City agreed terms with him at the beginning of February, only for the move to be blocked and the whole situation to drag on for another five weeks.

Eventually, a Football League tribunal ruled that McCombe could join the Imps once the required seven days’ notice had been given to Scunthorpe. The circumstances were so messy that, as part of the deal, McCombe was made to sign a confidentiality agreement preventing him from discussing the details of the transfer. In the game prior to his exit, he came on at half time, picked up two bookings in five minutes and was sent off.

McCombe went on to make 87 league appearances in his first spell at Sincil Bank, scoring seven times, before earning a move to Bristol City in 2006. There he helped win promotion to the Championship and was named the club’s Player of the Season, which rather underlined how well the move had worked out for a player Scunthorpe had been prepared to let go.