By Nathan Jackson
April 9 2007

Long-serving Imps defender, Paul Morgan, has handed in a transfer request to the club after a frustrating season for City. The defender has fallen out of the club's plans in recent months, only making a handful of appearances and now seems to have made his final appearance for Lincoln City.

Morgan signed from Preston North End in the summer of 2001 by Alan Buckley. He had a relatively quiet first season as City struggled against relegation to the Conference. When Keith Alexander replaced Buckley as the manager of Lincoln City, Morgan found himself as the team captain after a few months of the 2002/3 season and he improved drastically. Fitting in a 5-3-2 system with Ben Futcher and Simon Weaver as central defensive partners, he went on to be a part of a defence that shipped just 37 goals in 46 League games in the 2002/3 season, easily the best record in the division at the time.

The season ended with the Playoff Final in Cardiff against Bournemouth. Morgan led the team out onto the Millennium Stadium pitch and despite a 5-2 defeat, it was a tremendous achievement for everyone involved with the club.

Morgan continued as captain during the 2003/4 season but missed out on the playoff games against Huddersfield due to an injury. He did again lead the Imps out for the 2004/5 Playoff Final against Southend. Unlike the previous game against Bournemouth, this was a game that was dominated by the Imps and only an incorrect decision by the linesman prevented the Imps from being promoted in normal time. Southend went on to win 2-0 in extra time after being second best for the entire game.

Injury ruined the 2005/6 season for Morgan, making just a handful of appearances and when he did return, the captaincy had been handed over to Jamie McCombe. The Imps went on to again lose in the playoffs, this time to Grimsby.

This season saw Morgan start with an unusual act for him, he scored a goal in the 92nd minute at Torquay. It was just his second goal for the Imps, coming 4 and a half years after the last one. Again an injury saw him lose his place in a side and he struggled to get back into the side after enjoying a good partnership with Adie Moses early on.

Morgan's last appearance for the Imps seems to be the game at Swindon just over 2 weeks ago when Morgan was partly responcable (along with Nat Brown) for Swindon scoring thrice from unmarked positions. It seems almost unfortunate that the Swindon game is likely to be his final game for the Imps after several years as a great servant to this club.

Although no official interest has come in yet, early favourites for his signature are Peterborough United, although Keith Alexander might make a bid for the defender if he finds himself another job before end of the summer. Fortunately Morgan still has a year to go on his contract so the Imps will be due a fee if Morgan does leave before the end of the deal.