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The Ex-Files : The Curse of Justin Walker
By Nathan Jackson March 4 2007
We now review the career of one of our former players and this time, it's relegation battler, Justin Walker. The popular midfielder spent 2 years at Sincil Bank earlier this century but the Imps are one of only two Football League clubs that weren't relegated whilst he was there.

Justin Walker is an odd footballer, he is a good footballer, arguably better than League 2 standard and yet nearly every single season he's had for his 6 professional football teams he has struggled against relegation. He is a fan favourite at whichever club he plays for and despite spending half of every club's budget on hair gel, he would be a valuable asset if is wasn't for his curse.

He started his career with Nottingham Forest as a trainee along with two other former Imps, John Finningan and Paul Smith. In the 1997/8 season, Walker joined Scunthorpe United on loan and impressed them enough to pay an undisclosed fee to Forest for his permanent services and his first full season in 1998/9 with the Iron was his only successful season in his career so far and he was an almost ever present. In that season, he played 49 games in all competitions and helped the Iron to promotion via the playoffs. This was easily the high point of his career.

However, 12 months after celebrating promotion to Division 2, Walker faced another season in Division 3 after Scunthorpe were relegated back after just 1 season with Walker making 41 appearances for the Iron. Walker then made the trip south as he joined Lincoln City on a free transfer. He quickly became a fan favourite but his then undiscovered curse started popping through as the Imps slowly slipped down the table and into a relegation fight. He made 53 appearances in the red and white quarters that season and the Imps finished 18th. Walker won the Player of the Season award for the 2000/1 season.

Alan Buckley's Lincoln started the 2001/2 season slowly but appeared to be safe from relegation before failing to win the last 13 matches with the final victory coming with a Justin Walker thunderbolt against Carlisle. The Imps finished 22nd and despite being a favourite with the Imps crowd and arguably one of the better players for the Imps, Walker was released on a free transfer due to the financial difficulties at the club and travelled down to Devon to join Exeter.

Walker was often described as the only midfielder who seemed to care about what was happening down in Exeter and when he returned to Sincil Bank with the Grecians, he was greeted with a warm reception from the City fans and almost scored from 30 yards, however, he was one of the few players trying for Neil McNab's men. This didn't change for most of the season and Exeter were eventually relegated from the football league despite winning on the last day of the season in which they started just 1 point below 22nd place.

Walker left for Cambridge in the summer of 2003. Cambridge had just missed out on the Playoffs in the 2002/3 season but the Justin Walker curse continued and Cambridge slowly slid down the table and Walker joined York on loan. At the time, York were doing fairly well and were on the verge of the playoffs, 9 games and just 1 win later, York were in danger of being relegated and did end up being relegated. Meanwhile, Cambridge had showed mild improvement in his absense but the slump continued once he returned.

In the 2004/5 season, Cambridge became the laughing stock of the division as they quickly slipped ot the bottom of the league and when they visited Sincil Bank in February, they had just won 3 of their 30something games up until that point and despite a spirited fight towards the end of the season, Cambridge, with Justin Walker included were relegated.

So where then for Walker? Good old Chester City, a team who were full of former Lincoln and Mansfield players. Surprisingly, Walker didn't get a nosebleed when he discovered his team were in the title race for much of the early season, however, their form slowly dipped and they were bottom in March, only an extremely late good run (thanks to Derek Asamoah) saved them from a certain return to the Conference.

The curse eventually took it's toll and Walker found himself out of the League and now plays for Ilkeston Town. It's really odd because Walker is actually a good player but this curse could soon make teams at our level afraid to bring him in.

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