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Guess who's back at Sincil Bank on Boxing Day
By Nathan Jackson
December 17 2005
That's right, our old friend, Ben Futcher returns to Sincil Bank for the first time after leaving City in the summer. Futcher played 121 league games for the Imps between 2002 and 2005. However, his lack of quality saw better defenders being brought in and he left the Imps to go to Boston.

The picture on the right shows says what words

 never can, just how tall Ben Futcher really is. That players he is stood behind isn't exactly a small lad himself. Futcher was that tallest player in the division in 2002/3 and only Yeovil's former 6'8 defender, Rodreiguez and Grimsby's 6'7 mountain Rob Jones have challenged Futcher for that accolade in the past few years.

Futcher's history with the Imps begins in May 2002, the club had just finished 22nd in the league table, with only Bristol Rovers and Halifax finishing below them but off the field problems meant that half the squad and the manager had to be offloaded. Assistant manager Keith Alexander was promoted to caretaker manager before getting the role full-time, his second spell in charge of the club and just 3 days after being confirmed as the new manager of the Imps, he unveiled his first 2 signings. Keith, who himself is 6'4, was accompanied by 6'2 striker, Dene Cropper in a photograph, but both were being shadowed by an overwhelming Futcher. City had signed Futcher from Doncaster Rovers after he'd also had spells with Stalybridge Celtic and as an Oldham trainee.

Futcher and Cropper were joined by several other non-league players, Simon Yeo, Simon Weaver, Scott Willis and Adie Mike and City were installed by the bookies as certainties for relegation, especially as there were now 2 relegation spots. Futcher had to settle for a place on the bench for the first few games but then, he came on as a substitute, ironically against Boston and he quickly established himself as a permanent member of the first team after fellow defender, Richard Logan had failed to earn himself a spot after nearly 2 years out injured. Futcher went on to make several impressive early performances and he scored the winning goal in the 1-0 derby win over Scunthorpe in September. However, other than how tall he was, the thing that Lincoln fans will remember him most for is giving away free kicks for following the opposition in our own set pieces.

Futcher soon started showing why he's a good defender and arguably more than anything else, every time the ball came near him, he belted the ball as hard as possible up the pitch. The months progressed and Futcher rarely missed a game and he helped lead the Imps into their first playoffs. After sailing past Scunthorpe, City faced Bournemouth in the final. The Imps had won at the Fitness First Stadium just 5 weeks earlier but the Cherries took the lead via a Steve Fletcher volley midway through the half. However, Futcher's moment came a few minutes later as he headed the Imps level from a Bimson corner. However, it would be the only highlight of Futcher's day as the Imps went on to lose 5-2. However, it had been a great season for the club and Futcher deservedly took a lot of credit after ending the season as top goalscorer, with 11 league and cup goals.

The next season however and Futcher's distinct lack of natural talent started showing through. A talented player will let the opposition know their strengths but then adapt those strenghts to aid them. Futcher however, didn't change his style of play and whilst he was committing fouls at one end, he was hoofing the ball from one end to the other and there were few games where he impressed during the 2003/4 season, despite helping the Imps to a Playoff Semi Final. Interestingly, several Premiership teams such as Aston Villa and Bolton were reportedly interesting in signing the defenders.

Last season and not much had changed, the 6'7 defender with the mustard colour hair was still commiting fouls left, right and centre and if Mark Bailey hadn't left the Imps during the 2004 summer, it would be argued that Futcher wouldn't have featured a lot in the 5 man defence as out of the 4 centre backs at the club, the others were considerable more talented. The other 2 tall defenders, McCombe and McAuley really started coming into their own and even when the club signed a right back, Lee Beevers from Boston, the injury to Jamie McCombe kept Futcher in the side. His season would end disappointingly again as the Imps lost in the playoff final.

Then came June 7th. The Imps knew that several big clubs were after Futcher, Hull, Leicester, Crewe, QPR and Bolton were all reported to be interested in the defender but instead of going to one of those successful clubs, he went to Boston, a club who are not only City's deadly local rivals, but have never done anything noteworthy (other than a few financial irregularites) in their history. Whatever you say about Boston, rejecting the clubs previously mentioned to go to a club that have never finished in a higher position than the one you at, doesn't show a lot of ambition at all and the anti-Futcher mob started gathering pace. To be perfectly honest, I was delighted when Futcher left because as I mentioned earlier, we had 3 better centre halfs with McCombe, McAuley and Morgan, 3 players who easily surpass Futcher's overall quality.

Futcher began his Boston career in laughable fashion and the Boston fans who had gloated that they had signed Futcher a few months earlier, had suddenly gone very quiet indeed as the defender cost them goal after goal after goal and failed to impress any Boston fan. Despite an apparant upturn in performances, Futcher is still not regarded highly by a large number of Boston fans and after 3 years of giving away free kicks and knocking satalites out of orbit, I seriously doubt he'll recieve a good reception from Imps' fans on boxing day.

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