By Nathan Jackson
March 23 2005

Keith Alexander has praised McCombe for getting his contract sorted now and has encouraged the others to follow his lead. McCombe became the first of 18 players who have been offered contracts to sign, however, worryingly, Simon Yeo is still adament he hasn't been offered one.

McCombe will now be at the Imps until the summer in 2007 and is now one of a few players on long term contracts, something that City players aren't used in the past as Keith only kept on offering 1 year contracts, this was the cause of several key departures from the squad such as Bimson who was offered a longer deal down at Cambridge.

"People panicked because we have a lot of players out of contract at the end of the season," said Alexander to the Echo, "But I'm not one of them. Football has been in a situation for about two years now where more and more players are out of contract each season because finances dictate clubs can only offer short-term deals. Offers have been made to a lot of players at this club.

"One or two will hang on and wait and I accept that because they will want to know what division we'll be playing in next season. We've been in this position before and since I've been at Lincoln City every player I've wanted to re-sign has done. The only exception was Mark Bailey, who went to Macclesfield last season because they doubled his money. There was no way we could compete with that."

"Jamie has been very consistent this season and has become a key member of the side," said Alexander. As a manager, you always look for your players to show improvement and this season I would say Jamie has come on 100 per cent. I can't ask for any more than that. He's not a player who is on megabucks but I'm pleased we've been able to offer him a two-year deal."

"It would be nice to think he's the first of many to sign. But I have no idea what the rest of the lads will do. We will have to wait and see what happens over the next few weeks.

The biggest worry however is that despite Keith's claims, Yeo is adament that Keith hasn't offered a him a new contract. If Keith let's him go, this would prove a massive mistake as Yeo has finally broken the 20 goal barrier, something Keith has been looking for and rumours are now circulating that Donny Rovers are going to offer him a contract of almost double the wages he's on now.