Geoff Horsfield Training With The Imps

Veteran striker Geoff Horsfield has today linked up with City in order to try and earn himself a short term deal with the club.

Horsfield is returning to the game after beating testicular cancer, and at 35 was considering retiring from the game. However Peter Jackson has brought him to the club after a shortage of goals (until Friday night of course).

Horsfield has had a good career, starting out as a prolific goalscorer at both Halifax and Scarborough. His form at Halifax earned him a move to Kevin Keegans Fulham for a reported £500,000. Kevin Keegan loved the bustling, classic English centre forward. Continental managerial flop Jean Tigana didn't and he arrived at Fulham and dispensed with Horsfields services.

His next stop was Fulham's first division rivals Birmingham City for £2.25 million in 2000. In two seasons at St Andrews his goals helped fire Birmingham to a League Cup final, and then to a play off final against Norwich City, which they won. It's reported that Horsfield promised a donation to his first club, Athersley Rec if he ever made it to the Premiership, and sure enough the day after the play off win they received £25,000 to improve facilities.

Horsfield scored a handful of Premiership goals for Birmingham, his first in a win over rivals Aston Villa. He also scored in the return leg of that game as well, earning himself cult status at Birmingham. Towards the end of the season he found himself playing alongside Christophe Dugarry in an unlikely strike partnership.

He soon found his chances limited though, and made a £500,000 move to Wigan. His stay at the JJB was a short one, and after just 3 months he doubled his value and found himself at WBA for a £1,000,000 fee. Once again he helped fire a Birmingham club into the Premier League, and once again he helped keep them there with typically robust displays. In February 2006 he found himself loaned to Sheffield Utd, but didn't click with manager Neil Warnock and Sheff Utd tried to cancel the loan. However WBA had already agreed a £1.2m price and wouldn't go back on the deal. Therefore in May 2006 he signed for Sheff Utd.

In August 2006 he signed on loan for Leeds Utd, but found himself in and out of the team under Dennis Wise. He spent time on loan at Leicester and Scunthorpe, impressing with his no nonsense displays at both his latter clubs. At the end of his contract with Sheff Utd he was released.

He then had trials at Chesterfield but rejected a move as he wanted to be closer to his home in Leicester. There were rumours of a trial at mid table conference side Kettering Town, but this never materialised as it would be unlikely a player of Horsfields standing would need to drop into non league football.

On October 10^th this year Horsfield revealed he was retiring as he was suffering from testicular cancer, but a month later said he'd be looking for a route back into football as he'd successfully beaten the condition.

Peter Jackson said of Horsfield joining up with City "I've known Geoff for a long time since we worked together at Halifax. He's without a club and we need a striker so we'll have a look at him. In January I'll be one of 50 or 60 managers looking for a striker. It'll be a coup for this club if we can get Geoff Horsfields career back on track"