By Nathan Jackson
December 26 2006

June is very rarely a busy month for Imps fans but July saw several regular first team players join the club and others leave. These two months saw a new management team announced, a new shirt released and the youth team throwing away all the good work of the first team in the pre-season friendlies.

June wasn’t exactly the busiest month at Sincil Bank as with no manager, the only real bit of information early on was some names being linked with the vacant management seat. This included several names including Danny Wilson, John Deehan, Paul Hart, Steve Bleasdale, John Ward and Imps’ coach, John Schofield.

The first major news of the month was that the successful loan spell of Jamie Forrester was made permanent as he signed a 2 year deal with the Imps but as one man came in, another left as Gareth McAuley signed for Championship side, Leicester City. It wouldn’t be long until he returned as the Imps had announced previously that we had a pre-season friendly against the the Foxes.

City announced a new sponsorship deal with "Dennis Horton and Son’s Skoda," that deal will mean that a huge circular banner would be laid in the centre of the pitch before each game.

The biggest news of June saw the news that City fans had been waiting for, the announcement of the new management system. John Deehan is appointed as Director of Football, and John Schofield would become head coach. The announcement was met with a mixed reaction from City fans, especially as most had never heard of John Deehan.

City find out that the 1^st Round of the Carling Cup will be played at Glanford Park as the Imps made the short tip up to Scunthorpe. With Scunny being the lowest ranked seeded team, it is viewed as a very winnable game for the Imps as they aim to get another tie against a Premiership side. This is followed by the announcement of the fixture list and City have a start which going by last season’s table, was an "easy one" as City will play Notts County, Hereford, Torquay, Walsall and Mansfield, only one of whom had a good season the year before.

In between those announcements, the club said that Marvin Robinson had agreed a new contract with the Imps, the next morning and the Macclesfield website had a picture of him shaking their chairman’s hand and they announced that he’d left Sincil Bank for Moss Rose.

July started with Shane Clarke, Ayden Duffy, Tom Kemp, Leon Mettam, Andy Toyne, Owain Warlow, Phil Watt and Tom Wilkinson all signed the first year contracts that had been offered to them. Former Barnsley and Huddersfield defender, Adie Moses joined from Crewe Alexandra, and Lee Crooks joined on a trial basis.

City’s first pre-season friendly sees the Imps take on Stamford Town and thanks to goals from Scott Ker, Lee Frecklington, and Leon Mettam, the Imps race into a 3 goal lead before the Daniels pull 2 back. This game saw theimps.tk be the first Lincoln fans to say that we would be playing football on the ground this season.

A few nights later and it was 3-2 again at Lincoln United, Gary Birch’s impressive double sandwiched Lee Frecklington’s effort to secure the win for City. However, the good start to the pre-season ends with an embarrasing showing by the youngsters sees City lose 3-1 at Gainsborough. In the previous friendlies, the Imps were comfortable until the youngsters came on and we’d almost given the lead away twice and this showing at Gainsborough showed that we definitely didn’t have a youth team full of more Lee Frecklington’s.

Lincoln City then secure the signature of well-travelled striker, Mark Stallard from Shrewsbury Town. Just as he’s joining, it appears that Gary Birch is leaving as it is announced that after weeks of him trying to decided whether to sign his new contract, the club withdrew the offer before strangely, the club said he’d signed a new contract just 24 hours later.

Ollie Ryan scores twice (no, seriously!) As the Imps progress in the County Cup at the expense of Grimsby Town. Around 60 miles down the road, City were beating Grantham 3-1 with an own goal coming after efforts from Kerr and Frecklington. City’s game at Kettering was called off.

David Beck is elected as the Vice Chairman at the club just days before the Imps reveal the new home shift on Community Day. It proves to be a popular design with Imps fans after the previous effort of industrial sized collar shirts.

Just before the friendly with Leicester City, Ryan Semple completes a transfer from Peterborough United and he is billed as the next big thing in a Lincoln shirt. City quickly dominated the first half, taking a 3-0 lead into half time as Forrester, Kerr and Frecklington all score with neat efforts. However, as soon as the youngsters come on again (with Marriott in goal), the performance falls apart and the game finishes 3-3 thanks to some questionable defending.

Just before the friendly at North Ferriby is cancelled, trialist Ryan Amoo signs a contract with the Imps. The month ends with 2 friendlies, the first was a well deserved 1-0 win against Nottingham Forest as Forrester scores with an unstoppable shot from the edge of the area. The other friendly sees a 3-2 defeat to Ilkeston, Birch and Hughes get City’s goals.