Sincil Banks forgotten men are preparing to leave town

Hospitalised in vicious brawl - Toner

Northern Ireland international Ciaran Toner will not be playing for the club again and is currently on loan at Cambridge Utd. Toner was involved in a bust up with team mate Marcus Richardson following a night out in the City which culminated in violence on the training ground. Signed from Leyton Orient on a free transfer Toners form suggested he could become an integral part of The Imps promotion push. After an indifferent start he benefited from an injury to Peter Gain by forcing himself into the side, scoring twice. Toners last game for the Imps was back on the 5th February when Oxford Utd were beaten 3-0. In recent weeks he’s been linked with a move to Grimsby but on Friday signed a loan deal until the end of the season with relegation haunted Cambridge Utd.

Fellow brawler Marcus Richardson will not feature for

The fans campaigned to sign him - Ciaran Toner wishes they hadn't.

the Imps again either. Keith Alexander has taken a tough stance with the towering striker and declared that he will not be selected again. His team mates seem behind him and although it was universally accepted that Toner did not fit in with the rest of the team it appears Richardson did. He signed on loan from Hartlepool on loan in August 2003 and promptly scored five goals in thirteen outings. He returned briefly to Victoria Park before resigning in December 2003 on another months loan. This season has been a struggle for Marcus despite showing early promise. A goal against Watford in a friendly resulted in an injury that ruled him out until mid August. When he finally got a chance in the first team he was harshly red carded in the tempestuous 1-1 home draw with Chester City. Despite regaining his starting place and bagging winning goals against both Northampton Town and Yeovil at the Bank he once again lost his place last being seen in the 2-1 defeat by Kidderminster. He recently spent a month on loan at Rochdale but only featured once. It seems likely he’ll be gone in four days time with Kidderminster a likely venue. If this were to be the case it would pit Toner and Richardson against each other in a relegation battle, although thankfully the two sides won’t have to meet each other.

Scored freely at other clubs, but the striker curse struck again and Carruthers will end his Sincil Bank stay goal less.

Martin Carruthers is very much the forgotten man of Lincolnshire after being discarded by Scunthorpe, then Boston and now it appears the Imps. Carruthers had scored thirty nine goals in two years at Scunthorpe and arrived at Boston via a ten goal stint at Macclesfield. He managed seven goal less games for The Pilgrims before a shock transfer swap saw him move to Sincil Bank in exchange for Dean West. Imps fans pulses raced as Carruthers legend arrived at the Bank before him. An excellent goal scorer and a quality linking forward had finally chosen to lay his hat in Lincoln. It seemed that the prayers of Imps across the City had finally been answered. Not so. Twelve outings in an Imps shirt yielded no goals. It wasn’t that he played badly, on the contrary he proved to be a tenacious and patient forward always holding the ball up and looking for players runs. As the games racked up the lack of goals began to count against him, and while players like Yeo, Green and Taylor Fletcher found the net Carruthers continued to misfire. It was only a matter of time before a goal hungry Keith Alexander dropped Carruthers and an injury in the 0-0 draw with Grimsby acted as a catalyst for his demise. Once he regained fitness Yeo was scoring with the regularity of a £30 million forward and there was no vacant spot alongside him. Steve Thompson swooped to take Carruthers on loan to Cambridge where his barren spell continued in five further blank outings, He returned to City at the beginning of March eager to regain his first team slot, but it seems unlikely he’ll be successful. A possible target for Grimsby Town as they look to fire themselves to the fringes of the play off fracas.