The Year of Hell : The Summer Months

By Nathan Jackson
December 30 2007

In the summer months, if you can call that a summer that is, the Imps lost just twice in the pre-season friendlies but were far from active in the transfer market. It was a few months that inevitably showed that John Schofield isn't capable of being a Football League manager as he yet again failed to adequately replace the outgoing players.

The month started with Paul Mayo leaving Sincil Bank for a second time. He joined Notts County after being treated badly by John Schofield in the previous season. He would eventually be joined by ex-Imps Richard Butcher and Spencer Weir-Daley.

The weeks following were slow until the second week in June when it was announced that the Imps would travel to Doncaster Rovers in the Carling Cup. The fixture list was also revealed with City having a very tricky opening day game at home to Shrewsbury, a meeting of two teams who both outplayed Bristol Rovers in the Playoffs but both managed to lose.

City then announced a third part of the season review DVD would be released, prompting people to order. However, the club eventually decided not to produce the DVD without telling anoy of those that ordered it, infact it seems that if you hadn't phoned up to ask where it was then you wouldn't have recieved a refund at all.

The first arrival of the summer came in the form of Steve Torpey. Torpey became yet another player to join the Imps that had played against them for Torquay in the Playoffs. However, the club agreed to release Paul Morgan from his contract, that despite him having over a year left on the deal. It was no surprise that he joined Keith Alexander at Bury.

Jeff Hughes became the next player to leave SIncil Bank, but this was viewed with ambivalence from the majority of City fans who had grown frustrated with him only putting in a good performance when the Sky cameras were around. He joined Crystal Palace but would later join Peterborough United on loan following Crystal Palace also noticing he doesn't turn up when the cameras aren't around.

Rayn Amoo signed a new two year contract 2 days after the players returned to training and he was joined by several trialists, including Anthony Tonkin, Fiston Manuella, Kevin Smith and Michael Roddy.

The first pre-season game saw a youthful City well beaten at Retford United, being beaten by a 3-0 scoreline with the Imps barely registering a shot on target. 24 hours later and a 2-1 victory over Lincoln United was followed a 4-2 win at Grantham Town.

City's pre-season tour of France saw late goals from Frecklington and Forrester come from behind to beat Genets D'Anglet. City completed a 100% winning record in France when Torpey headed in against Pau FC to give City a 1-0 victory.

Gary Croft was the next to join the Imps, signing a one year deal but City fans weren't impressed as Schofield seemed to only be signing players over 30 years of age. This aged side did manage a 1-0 victory at Boston United in a friendly thanks to a late Nat Brown header.

The final day of July 2007 saw Louis Dodds join on loan from Leicester City and Michael Roddy become the only trialist to be offered a contract.