Top 20 Players : 3rd - Alan Marriott

Alan Marriott was a fans favourite during his nine years at Sincil Bank. He is the only player who represented the Imps in every single Playoff game that the club have participated in, and his departure in 2008 caused controversy as Peter Jackson released him, much to the anger of the "Marriott Mafia"

Alan Marriott was a record breaking goalkeeper for the Imps between the 1999/2000 and 2007/8 seasons. In a home match against Swindon Town on March 25th 2007 he broke the all time appearance record for an Imps goalkeeper, unfortunately he couldn't prevent that game ending with Swindon taking all 3 points back to Wiltshire.

A few months later and in a home game against Accrington on August 25th 2007 he became the first goalkeeper in the club's history to make it 100 clean sheets.

It's amazing to think that he seemingly had no chance of securing first team football when he joined in the 1999/2000 season and was third in the pecking order behind John Vaughn and Barry Richardson. However, he got his chance in a home game against Torquay and the rest as they say, is history.

With only the occassional and injury preventing him from being constantly between the sticks, Marriott established himself as one of the best shot stoppers in the lower Leagues and was often been approached by other clubs higher up in the Football League.

However, he was far from undroppable as he was replaced by Chris Day and Paul Pettinger by Phil Stant and Alan Buckley represtively.

Marriott's finest season was the 2002/3 season. He was one of the key players in the Imps' first foray into the Playoffs as the team only conceded 37 goals in the 46 game League season. Marriott kept 18 cleans sheets in those 46 League games,  and didn't concede more than twice in a game during that time. He was helpless though as Bournemouth smashed 5 past him to win the Playoff Final.

Marriott was also the only player to have played every single Playoff match the club has ever been involved in (at the time of him leaving, making a total of 12 appearances in the end of season lottery. Unfortunately City have won just three of those games, drawn two and lost the other seven.

In the years since Marriott has continued to be the No. 1 at Sincil Bank without a serious challenger and that didn't change, other than the occasional time out of the squad when Peter Jackson prefered Ben Smith. Infact, it was probably that spell without a serious challenger that started spelling the end for Marriott as he became a bit complacent.

The Bedford-born keeper had many good games for the Imps, with many viewing his best ever performance in a City shirt in an away game against Fulham. Despite conceding five, Marriott made many, many saves from Premiership strikers and City would have easily scored double figures had it not been for Marriott.

Marriott left Lincoln at the end of the 2007/8 season and he was just shy of 400 appearances for the club. If he'd have stayed just one more season then it would have been likely he would have broken the club's all time appearance record. His final game came in a win at Chester City, although he went off injured before 20 minutes was up, his final contribution being a penalty save.

Below you will find a table that shows all the games Marriott kept a clean sheet in for the Imps. The below shows just what a class goalkeeper he was during the majority of his time at the Imps, and we'll probably not see a goalkeeper with this sort of record again for a long time.

*Although the game finished 2-1, it was 0-0 when Marriott went off injured.