Asamoah On Form At Doncaster

Lincs. UK Banner Exchange

15th July 2006

Former Lincoln City striker Derek Asamoah is currently undertaking a trail at Doncaster Rovers, and he has been in fine form all week.

Asamoah was one of six Lincoln City players to be released in May, but so far, he is just one of two who has yet to find a new club.

This though might shortly change because Asamoah has been in exceptional form over the past week. In-between the training sessions at Doncaster, the League One club have played two friendlies.

The first friendly took place at Retford United on Tuesday evening, which Doncaster won 7-1; two of these goals were scored by Asamoah. Then, last night, Doncaster defeated Worksop Town by a 2-0 score line, with Asamoah scoring a controversial penalty. The penalty was won when Asamoah was fouled inside the penalty area. However, Worksop's players claimed that Asamoah had committed an earlier foul on his former Imps' team-mate Steve Robinson, who has recently signed for Worksop following his release from Lincoln City.

Asamoah was born in Ghana but began his football career at non-league Hampton and Richmond. He joined Northampton Town in June 2001 and stayed three seasons, making 132 appearances although he only started 38 matches. During his spell at Northampton, he scored 13 goals.

In June 2004 he joined Mansfield Town on a free transfer where he established himself as a first team regular. Prior to a falling-out with then manager Carlton Palmer, he had started 27 games while coming on as a substitute in 7 other matches. Two red cards and five goals were also added to his Mansfield career statistics.

Lincoln faced competition from several other clubs for Asamoah, including county rivals Boston United but he opted to join Lincoln in March 2005.

He became an immediate first team regular at Lincoln, although his lack of goals continued to prove a problem. It become so much of a problem, that in January 2006, he was loaned to Chester City for six months.

His time at Chester was mixed, as he was involved in a disagreement over a missed training session. He was in and out of the side before hitting a rich vain of form that saw him score seven goals in four matches. However, his career at Lincoln City was finished and upon returning from his loan, he was released in May 2006.

There was still one final twist in Asamoah's Lincoln City career because shortly before his release, he received a call-up to the Ghana international squad to win his first cap in a friendly against French club side Nice. Unfortunately, the Ghana side were dreadful during that match and Asamoah failed to make Ghana's 2006 World Cup squad.