Mark Stallard Joins Lincoln City

Lincs. UK Banner Exchange

19th July 2006

Lincoln City FC, as The Forgotten Imp reported yesterday, have signed striker Mark Stallard on a free transfer.

Stallard joins The Imps on a two year contract from League Two rivals Shrewsbury Town despite him having a year left on this Shrewsbury contract. Aged 31, Stallard has a wealth of experience having played for nine different clubs.

Despite Lincoln City FC calling a noon press conference to officially unveil Stallard, the news has already been released by Shrewsbury Town.

Shrews' manager Gary Peters confirmed: "We've allowed Mark Stallard to sign for Lincoln City.

"I don't want people thinking that Mark went because Andy Cooke is here, Mark went because it is a good deal for him and the right deal at the right time for Shrewsbury Town."

For more reaction on Stallard's departure, please click here to visit Shrewsbury Town's official website.

The Derby born player began his career as a trainee at his home town club Derby County in 1991. He spent 4½ years at Derby but only made 36 appearances, for which he scored six goals.

During his time at Derby, he spent a month on loan at Fulham where he scored three times in four appearances. Bradford City spotted Stallard's potential, leading them to pay Derby a fee of £110,000 for him in January 1996.

His stay at Bradford was just over a year, and he scored 13 goals in 48 appearances. He also spent a month on loan at Preston, where he scored once during four appearances. Immediately after his loan ended with Preston in March 1997, he was transferring to Wycombe Wanderers in a £100,000 deal.

It was while at Wycombe that he started to establish himself as a goal every three matches ratio of a striker. He scored 25 goals from 81 appearances for Wycombe.

He continued this ratio when he joined Notts County for a bargain £10,000 in March 1999. He scored 77 goals from 211 appearances for County during almost five years at the club. The man who signed Stallard for Notts County, was Sam Allardyce. While at Notts County, Stallard finished as the club's leading goalscorer for the 2000/01 and 2002/03 seasons and was also voted as Notts County's Player of the Season for 2002/03.

Since January 2004, Stallard's career has become that of a journeyman player because of a disappointing spell at Barnsley. Hopefully, the security of a two year contract at Lincoln City will help him regain his form shown at both Wycombe and Notts County.

After leaving Notts County in January 2004, he joined Barnsley on a free transfer. Over an 18-month period, he made just 16 appearances and scored just one goal for Barnsley. During this spell, he also played for Chesterfield on loan, where he scored twice in ten appearances.

A three month loan spell at Notts County from February 2005 helped restore his ratio, as he scored three times in sixteen appearances. This took him to his departure from Barnsley upon which he joined Shrewsbury, despite initial interest from Notts County, in July 2005.

Stallard's signing is to help bridge the striker gap left by the departures of Derek Asamoah, Gary Birch, Franny Green, Marvin Robinson and Simon Yeo from last season's Lincoln City's striker roster.