By Nathan Jackson
January 5 2007

Lincoln City flop, Jamie Sherlock is not the only player in recent times to join the Imps and fail to play a single game. Not counting players who came out of the youth team, 3 players other than Sherlock have joined the club and left before even playing a minute in the first team in recent years.

The first of the no-appearance wonders is a player who most of you will have never heard of, Mark Ward. This stiker joined the club on transfer deadline day in the 2002/3 season along with fellow Belper Town team-mate, Niall McNamara. Often cofused with Chris Ward, another striker who made a limited number appearances for the Imps during the playoff season, it is no surprise that most of you reading this will have never heard of him.

A few months later and Keith Alexander dipped into the loan market to bring in 6ft 8 defender, Ben Martin from Swindon Town. Keith told everyone, in his old reliable way of telling people, that he was excited about getting the youngster, so excited infact that he never even let Martin get off the bench and get warmed up. It proved to be about as successful as Darren Dykes, a loanee we have from the Robins in the previous season.

Omari Coleman, yet another younger Keith had been looking forward to signing. He played a bit during last year's pre-season, scoring a good goal as he wrapped up City's 4-1 win at Gainsborough. He was quickly loaned out to Aldershot and was released at the turn of the year.

Peter Folkes was the next to be dubbed as a player that Keith had been, and I quote, "Looking at signing for a long time and very excited to have him at the club." Folkes was quickly shipped out on loan once or twice, and he only made a very very brief appearance in the Carling Cup last season against Crewe as he came on for a whole 3 minutes at the end of the game.

So Jamie can always be safe in the knowledge that he isn't the first, and is highly unlikely to be the last.