By Nathan Jackson
December 6 2005

Disgraced former Imp, Marcus Richardson returns to Sincil Bank for the first time on Saturday, following his sacking in April. Richardson was sacked, along with Cairan Toner for not only fighting, but also racist abuse from both and vandalism. Just for a remainder, this was Marcus Richardson.

Richardson joined the Imps, initially on loan at the beginning of September in 2003 from Hartlepool United and his early performances, saw many fans dub him "Emile" because in an spookily similar playing style, he was a donkey and fell over quite a bit. However, Richardson's luck changed with an away trip to Southend United. Richardson scored his first goal for the club in the 10th minute with a close range header. He followed this with an impressive goal at Kidderminster and a vital goal at home to Rochdale. His loan was extended and he scored another impressive goal against Huddersfield but more importantly, helped the club onto a run of 7 wins in 8 games. However, when City tried to extend the deal for a 3rd month, Hartlepool recalled him.

2 months later and City were still going strongly in the division after a strong November, despite of Keith Alexander's collapse and subsequent abscence. After a 3-0 thumping, ironically at Southend in the FA Cup, caretaker manager, Gary Simpson decided to bring Richardson back on loan and he impressed again in a trip to Mansfield. A few weeks later, he signed for the Imps on a permanent basis and although City's form continued to improve, Richardson's motives for playing so well in his loan deal, suddenly all to evidently appeared as he put in some of the most lacklusture performances seen in a City shirt in recent years.

It took almost 2 months for him to score his first goal for the Imps, giving the Imps a point at home to Boston and 2 weeks later, came a nice local game against Huddersfield. Richardson did actually open the scoring despite almost missing an open goal with the keeper and defender flat on the floor. However, the goal seemed mere consolation but if you don't know why, you obviously haven't been paying attention for the last 2 years. The season went out quitely for Marcus who scored just 4 goals in the final 16 games, only one of those coming from more than a yard out and that was a penalty.

Richardson injured himself in a pre-season match against Watford after he stretched too far to win a cross and despite scoring, put himself out of action for 3 months. Richardson showed fantastic form upon his return. His comeback came in a match against Northampton, he came on at half time with the Imps 2-0 down, he inspired the Imps and City won 3-2, scoring the winner himself (another 6 yard classic). A return to his former club, Hartlepool in the FA proved fruitless but 7 days later, the Imps travelled back up north again and beat Darlington 3-0, again, Richardson was on target and he completed his impressive November by scoring the 3rd and final goal in a 3-1 win over Yeovil.

However, that's where all the good news ends. City start going into poor form and Richardson finds himself out of the side again. Then we get to February, it was training on a cold February morning, just a few days before we were due to travel to Rochdale. Richardson got into an argument with Cairon Toner, a midfielder who had taken his chance with both hands and had become a fan favourite in recent weeks. This argument spilled into racist abuse from both parties. They were seperated by team-mates and shook hands, as well as apologising to each other, however, when they got back to the ground, they started where they had left off and Richardson's mean streak left Cairan Toner with a broken jaw and Gary Simpson with a broken sideview mirror. Both players were told they would never play for the club again.

Richardson spent time on loan at Rochdale before eventually leaving the Imps on transfer deadline day, joining promotion chasing Yeovil. The men from Huish Park weren't impressed and Richardson failed to appear in their championship winning game.....against Lincoln and he was subsequently released.

During the summer, he joined Keith Curle's Chester City, he joined a flurry of ex-Imps including Justin Walker and Luke Dimech. Marcus hasn't exactly been in prolific form, however, he did get on the score sheet against Forest and his goal was a true sign of Forest's problems. Already 2-0 up, Chester played the ball to Richardson who sent an extremely week shot towards goal and the defence and keeper just stood watching it. To put it in relative terms, I could have run from Lincoln to Chester, climbed over the wall into the ground and reached the goal quicker than the ball did.

Saturday sees him return to Sincil Bank for the first time, although whether he will start is debateable. Richardson is in for a bad reception if this season's form is continued. Out of all the players who left during the summer, Peter Gain and Kevin Sandwith have both returned to Sincil Bank with their respective clubs and been heavily booed by the Imps fans, however, that is nothing compared to what is expected for Futcher on boxing day. However, Richardson could get the worst out of the lot because although he didn't have a choice whether he left us or not, no fan at Sincil Bank tolerates racism of any kind.

Although Richardson was a useful player, his overall lack of skill and resemblence in both looks and playing skill to Emile Heskey, meant that even if he hadn't got sacked, he would have probably left during the summer anyway. However, the best thing about Richardson was that he was always where you'd want him to be at vital times, out of his 14 goals for the club, only 3 came from outside the 6 yard box and 1 of those was a penalty.