Lincoln City had a good last season with former Leicester assistant and caretaker manager Michael Appleton in charge. The team also had a fomer fox on board, Tom Hopper, leading the line. Hopper never appeared in league football for Leicester but has since leaving been around playing a great number of games for clubs such as Scunthorpe, Bury and Southend. To lose out on promotion was sad, but new challenge will be on this season.
Stefan Oakes and Mark Wallington are the past that also had their spells at Cincil Bank, with the midfielder Oakes being at Lincoln from 08 to 10, adding up 43 league games, and this being his last club in EFL football, also having spells at Wycombe, Notts Co and Walsall. The goalkeeper and fox legend Wallington also had his last spell in EFL with Lincoln City playing 88 league games over three years, 1988 to 1991.
Current N Ireland manager Ian Baraclough did his trade as well at Lincoln and Leicester, being on the field once while at Filbert Street, and later from 92 to 94 playing 73 league games and scoring 10 goals.
Embed from Getty ImagesOne major traveller was Guy Branston on the books at Leicester, during a short loan spell in those days he did appear in four league games for Lincoln. Branston later had a long life in the lower parts of EFL representing a great number of clubs including Rotherham, Sheffield W and Oldham.
Carl Cort during his days at Wimbledon did a short loan with Lincoln playing 6 league games and scoring a single goal. Cort later had a year at Leicester from 07 to 08, playing 14 league games but no goals scored. In that same season Louis Dodds joined Lincoln on loan from Leicester adding up 41 league games and scoring in 9 occasions.
Lawrie Dudfield is another forward moving on loan from Leicester to Cincil Bank, a short spell playing 3 league games but never hitting the net. Dudfield made his league debut at Premier League level for Leicester and made one more appearance, adding his total to two, before his loan spell at Lincoln came into place.
Paul Groves is a midfielder that appeared for Leicester and Lincoln. His total at Leicester ended at 16 and during his loan spell with The Imps, he added up 8 league appearance and at both clubs scoring a single goal. Groves later had a grand career at Grimsby, two spells, and Blackpool, and in total played 627 league games for his clubs in the EFL system, scoring 101 times.
Trevor Hebberd had his best years in football playing for Southampton and Oxford, and during that period of time also representing Leicester during a loan spell back in 1981, playing four league games and scoring once, his last couple of years in the league, from 94 to 95, were spent with Lincoln, playing 25 league games.
Geoff Horsfield had his best years in the game with Fulham, Birmingham and West Bromwich, but also a loan spell at Leicester playing 13 league games and scoring 2 goals, this was back in 07, later joining Lincoln for a short time playing 17 league games and scoring once.
A player making history at Leicester, Tony James, after scoring that very important goal keeping the club in the second tier of the football divisions back in 91. James was signed from Lincoln and had spent three years at Filbert Street. He added up 107 league games and scored 11 goals. For Lincoln it was 29 and never scoring the EFL. James later played for Hereford and Plymouth.
Embed from Getty ImagesLeicester made a good addition when signing Gareth McAuley from Lincoln and after just two seasons sold him to Ipswich and made a good profit as the N Ireland international cleverly established himself as a special late bloomer in Premier League moving to West Bromwich. He ended his playing career in Scotland with Rangers. A total of 74 games for Leicester, 72 at Lincoln.
Trevor Peake started his league career at Lincoln, signed from Nuneaton and later moved to Coventry were he was part of the team winning the FA Cup in 87. Later as we all know a long and impressive career at Leicester coaching in the academy and being vital for many of the players we have seen at Leicester over a long period of time, to mention, Ben Chilwell, Harvey Barnes and Hamza Choudhury. Peake played 179 league games while at Lincoln from 79 to 83.
Nicky Platnauer and Lee Philpott are two players that also had a life in both camps, Platnauer with Leicester from 91 to 93 and later with Lincoln from 94 to 96. Philpott appeared for Leicester from 92 to 96 and Lincoln from 98 to 00. Dave Putnam is another former fox and imps, with just 7 appearances for Leicester City being signed from Leicester United, also known as Enderby Town. Putnam then moved to Lincoln and added up 177 league games before setting sails for Gillingham and ending his EFL career at Swansea in 98.
Steve Sims played for Leicester during those great years of Jimmy Bloomfield and he was born in Lincoln. The talent was early spotted as he was among the first players to be capped at U.21 level for England, adding up 10 caps and scoring 2 goals. Before he moved to Watford, and later had spells at Notts Co and Aston Villa, he played 79 league games at Leicester. His last years in the EFL was with Lincoln as a non contracted player playing 5 games in all.
Going far back and into the 60’s we do find Bobby Svarc who started with Leicester playing 13 league games and scoring 2 goals before a move in 69 to Lincoln appeared. He later had spells at Blackburn and Colchester. Gary Taylor-Fletcher is more current and as we all know played a part in getting Leicester promoted back to the Premier League in 2014, he also had a spell with Lincoln from 03 to 05, playing 85 league games and scoring 27, at Leicester his time were shorter with a total of 22 and scoring 3.
Julian Watts played for both clubs also, the defender that joined Leicester from Sheffield W, added up 38 league games at Leicester scoring one time, and later had a short loan spell at Lincoln playing twice. This was back in 98-99, at Leicester from 95 to 98.
Players in both camps;
Goalkeepers: Mark Wallington
Defenders: Julian Watts, Tony James, Gareth McAuley, Steve Sims, Guy Branston
Midfield: Stefan Oakes, David Puttnam, Ian Baraclough, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Trevor Hebberd, Lee Philpott, Nicky Platnauer, Paul Groves
Forwards: Bobby Svarc, Tom Hopper, Louis Dodds, Lawrie Dudfield, Geoff Horsfield, Carl Cort
TCF - FILBERT WAY 
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