By Nathan Jackson
December 24 2009

Just missing out of our top three was arguably the best defender at the club during the decade. Having joined City from Preston North End during Alan Buckley's time at the club, Morgan went on to become team captain during Keith Alexander's reign and he spent six seasons at Sincil Bank. He hasn't has quite the same success since leaving City though.

Paul Morgan was a rarity, a decent signing by Alan Buckley. Morgan was one of Buckley's first signings when he joined the club from Preston North End during the summer of 2001. At just 22 years old he was also one of the youngest signings that Buckley made.

Morgan's first season with the Imps was one of indifference. He didn't put in many bad performances but you'd have been hard pushed to find him actually doing anything noteworthy during the season. Having signed a 2 year contract for the Imps he was one of the few that weren't faced with the mass exodus that occured at the end of the season for many reasons.

During the pre-season of the 2002/3 season he was to see several new defenders come into the club, such as Simon Weaver and Ben Futcher. Morgan's first game of that season saw him part of a back 5 also containing Mark Bailey, Stuart Bimson, Simon Weaver and Richard Logan. Logan was obviously the weak link in all this and he was quickly dropped by new manager, Keith Alexander.

During the pre-season Keith had been experimenting with who his new captain would be. He at first went for experience in the form of Ben Sedgemore, but Sedge's impact as a captain was minimul and after one or two more attempts, Keith found his captain in Morgan.

Morgan excelled as captain and lead from the back. He formed part of a formidable defence that you'd have a very hard job of getting past. Morgan was the star of the team though, easily the best player we had at the time with his calm and collected defending that saw him impress the City crowd.

At the end of the season Morgan had lead the Imps to their first Playoffs campaign in history. City hadn't conceded more than 2 in a League game in more than a year, a Playoff game against Scunthorpe changed that though as the Imps conceded 3 for the first time since a 4-1 home drubbing by Mansfield in February 2002. Not that it mattered as City scored 5 that day and went through 6-3 on aggregate.

So there was Paul Morgan standing at the entrance to the Millennium Stadium, leading out his non-league legion that had been guaranteed relegation by the pundits. Although City were well beaten by Bournemouth, the Imps took pride in all they had achieved that season and we showed that you don't have to spend a lot of money to stand a decent chance of getting out of this division.

The next season was much of the same as the Imps didn't concede many goals but vitally, Paul Morgan was injured in a 2-0 win at Carlisle. He missed the second set of Playoffs for the Imps through injury and the Imps went out. 12 months later and more disappointment as the Imps lost out to Southend in the Final.

The summer of 2005 could be considered a turning point for the Imps. An exodus of players left the club and by now, Paul Morgan was the only defender left from the 5 that only conceded 37 in a League season just 2 years earlier. His new defensive partners were the returning Paul Mayo, Gareth McAuley, Jamie McCombe and Colin Cryan.

The difference was immense as the Imps struggled against relegation early on, but Paul Morgan's long term City career effectively came to an end when City's game at Torquay had finished. With just a few minutes to go he let his frustrations get the better of him as he swung out a vicious leg at Alan Connell and was given a red card.

Injuries soon started keeping him out of the side and Keith Alexander appointed Jamie McCombe (and his lucky pants) as the new captain. Morgan's absense from the team saw City improve from relegation candidates to promotion hopefuls, but as soon as he returned we were back to where we started and the Imps fell out of the Playoffs again thanks to two limp displays against Grimsby.

John Schofield was the next in the managerial hotseat and Morgan had seemingly been given a breath of fresh air as he got a long run in the team at the start of the season. He was back as the captain due to Jamie McCombe leaving for Bristol City earlier in the season but this wasn't the Morgan from before.

His defending had become sloppy and if anything he had become a reliability. The news he had handed in his transfer request was met largely with ambivalence due to his generally poor form since the second Playoff Final. Morgan left the Imps at the end of the 2006/7 season as his contract was terminated by mutual consent.

Paul soon joined up with Alexander on two more occasions, once at Bury and now his current club, Macclesfield Town.

Top 20 Players : 4th - Paul Morgan

Discussion started by theimps.tk (IP Logged), 24/12/2009 16:02

theimps.tk
24/12/2009 16:02

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