By Nathan Jackson
December 15 2009

Jamie McCombe played for the Imps between 2004 and 2006 and became one of the best defenders to represent City during the last decade. Joining and leaving in controversial circumstances, many believe that the way McCombe left the club was one of the worst pieces of business that club has done over the last ten years.  

Much like Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Jamie McCombe was a player that Keith Alexander signed that had gone from a under-used player at their former club to one of the best players in the division.

At the beginning of 2004 McCombe was told that he could leave Scunthorpe's Glanford Park for free. The defender had been trialed at Premiership clubs before eventually staying at Glanford Park and even played against the Imps in the Playoffs for Scunthorpe. He was deemed surplus to requirements at Glanford Park and Brian Laws told him that he could move to the first club that came along....guess who that first club was.

Brian Laws was prepared to get rid of McCombe to any club but seemingly not one within the local area. After 5 weeks of negotiating his transfer, the Football League said that Scunthorpe legally had to release McCombe to Lincoln City due to promising him he could move to anyone and he became a Lincoln City player...not before getting sent off in his final game at York City as a Scunthorpe player.

His debut for the Imps came in the 4-1 demolition of Mansfield Town at home, a game in which he hit the bar. However, after that the fans started turning on him for various reasons and his season ended on a low in the Playoff Semi Final 2nd Leg at Huddersfield Town. City were comfortably winning 2-0 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate, then McCombe was deemed to foul Booth and Huddersfield won the penalty that got them back into the game. Eventually Huddersfield would win the tie 4-3 on aggregate and go through.

The following season saw him take even more criticism as he gained the rather unflattering (and unfair) nickname of "McDonkey" after several dodgy performances. In all fairness though, he was being played in the attack at the time and you can't expect a defender to cope well up front. That said, he did score some really good goals during that season and the fans started getting behind him.

For a defender he had quite a tidy finish on him. His best finish was arguably in a 4-1 win at Rushden where he controlled the ball and half volleyed home from the edge of the box to give City their 3rd goal. The season ended with disappointment though as the defender couldn't prevent City losing out in the Playoff Final to Southend United.

The following season he turned into one of City's best players. His performances impressed many and he was given the captaincy following an injury to Paul Morgan, infact, it was when Morgan became injured that McCombe really stood out as an excellent defender. Even when Morgan returned, McCombe was kept as captain and was our best player during the 2005/6 season. He even had a mini-goal scoring spree when he scored 3 goals in 4 games, even some of the strikers weren't managing that.

City made the Playoffs again and McCombe thought he'd given the Imps an early lead when he headed through the goalkeeper's legs. Unfortunately the referee saw a foul (that no-one else managed to see) and the Imps eventually went out 3-1 on aggregate. It would be interesting to see how the tie would have turned out if that goal had been allowed.

Then came the moment that surprised everyone. When joining he had a clause put into his contract that was agreed by Keith Alexander and then chairman, Rob Bradley, that he had just a £5,000 clause that would allow any club to speak to him about a move, even to this day Steff Wright still gets blamed for that clause, even though he had nothing to do with it. Bristol City met that clause and McCombe left for Ashton Gate.

After leaving the club, McCombe criticised Lincoln heavily in the Bristol Evening Post. "I didn't want to smash it in the corners and flick things on but that's what got Lincoln success with the players they had. It wasn't pretty to watch and wasn't great to play in but you have to do what you are told"."

McCombe helped Bristol City win promotion in his first season and to challenge for automatic promotion the following year. He is still a regular first team player for Bristol City and they are yet again challenging for promotion.

Top 20 Players : 7th - Jamie McCombe

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 15/12/2009 14:39

theimps.tk
15/12/2009 14:39

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Dan_Baumber
15/12/2009 16:05

Should be the top man. Great player.

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