Position: left-back or central midfield.

Lincoln City Career: 5 appearances during October 1999.

Clubs: Notts County Gillingham, Lincoln City, Chesterfield, Carlisle, Gretna and Hereford.

Mick Galloway joined Lincoln City in October 1999 with a view to a permanent transfer if funds permitted. Alas, funds were unavailable and just like in March 1999, when the then Imps' boss John Reames first tried to sign him from Gillingham, the deal broke down.

Galloway's favoured position was central midfield, although he played many times as an emergency left-back for Lincoln.

He started his career at his home town club Notts County in 1993 before transferring to Gillingham for £10,000 in March 1997 after a successful loan spell. He became a regular in the Gillingham side for the next two years before he left in a £15,000 transfer to Chesterfield in November 1999.

Galloway, after leaving Lincoln, played for Carlisle United and then Gretna of the Scottish League, before returning to England with Hereford United. He has since drifted into minor non-league football.

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Lincoln City career: 119+(28) appearances and 23 goals, between 1989-1995 and 2004.

Position: midfield or right-back.

Clubs: Boston United, Lincoln City, Bury and Burnley.

Dean West signed for Lincoln City in July 2004 thereby rejoining the club that had given him his break in professional football.

At the time, West's signing was seen as a major coup for Lincoln, as he had accepted a pay cut to join following his release from Championship club Burnley. Several other clubs, including Boston United, were interested in signing him. Unfortunately, he struggled to adapt to Lincoln's 5-2-3 system, although in his defence, there were doubts over his match fitness because his 2003/04 season had ended prematurely.

West was a very popular player for Lincoln during the early 1990's after graduating through the youth team. The youth team manager who oversaw West's transition to the first team was Keith Alexander, a fact that has proved instrumental in West's decision to rejoin Lincoln.

West made his Football League debut whilst on YTS terms in the final match of the 1990/91 season against Carlisle; he scored a debut goal. He became a regular under both Steve Thompson and Alexander but in 1993 he was surprising given a free transfer. Even more surprising was that no League club came in for him and a move to Boston United followed.

Boston deployed him in a more forward role which brought him a number of goals. However, while West was merrily scoring for Boston, Lincoln were going through a tough patch and The Imps quickly realised the folly of their ways and re-signed him from Boston. From then on, he played regularly as a wingback until a serious injury put him out of action for several months. When fully fit, West regained his place under Sam Ellis for the 1995/96 season, in what was a poor side.

Early season losses and poor performances cost Ellis his job and his replacement Steve Wicks arrived. Wicks had no cash to spend but the Lincoln team needed rebuilding and quickly if the drop to the Conference was to be avoided. West was the first casualty as Wicks set-up a swap deal for Bury's Kevin Hulme. Soon afterwards, Wicks was sacked and John Beck replaced him.

Beck though did not rate Hulme and Hulme left the club for nothing within a few weeks of his arrival. This all meant that West was effectively given away for free; the same mistake that had happened two years previously.

Two successive promotions followed at Bury and West was now playing Division One football, that was until he suffered an horrendous knee injury, which threaten his career. He missed nearly two whole seasons before returning to Bury's first team for the final matches of the 1997/98 season. His injury meant that Bury had postponed contract talks and his contract ran out at the end of that season. His form in those final matches persuaded Bury to offer him a new contract. Burnley though were also impressed and they too offered him a contract which he accepted thereby moving for free under the Bosman ruling. West made 122 appearances for Bury and scored 8 goals.

So in July 1999, he left Bury to join Burnley on a free transfer and went on to make 177 appearances and scored 5 goals. At the end of the 2003/04 season, his contract expired but he was left in limbo, as Burnley were managerless following the dismissal of Stan Ternent. In June 2004, Burnley appointed Steve Cotterill as their new manager but Cotterill's message to the out of contract players was to "take any offers available" as he would be unable to assess his squad until pre-season.

West made just four further appearances for Lincoln before moving to Boston United in September 2004 in exchange for striker Martin Carruthers. At the end of the 2004/05 season, he left Boston United and joined non-league King's Lynn, where he later became caretaker-manager.

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Position: left sided utility player.

Lincoln City career 60+(8) appearances and 11 goals between August 2005 - July 2007.

Previous clubs: Larne, Ballymena United and Lincoln City.

Present club: Crystal Palace.

International honours while at Lincoln City: 2 caps for Eire plus 5 Eire Under-21 caps.

Jeff Hughes eventually joined Lincoln City FC on the eve of the 2005/06 season after a long on-off transfer saga. He had originally joined on trial in July 2005 but quickly returned to Ireland after feeling homesick. This was a blow to Lincoln who had already offered him a contract after he had impressed during their pre-season victory over Coleraine.

Worse followed, as Linfield offered him the opportunity to train with them, which he accepted. At this stage, Lincoln seemed likely to miss out. However, then Imps' boss Keith Alexander dramatically rescued the transfer by offering him an improved one-year contract.

Hughes promptly gave his seven days notice to his current club Larne and was all set to sign at the start of August 2005. However, another stumbling block appeared as Larne were entitled to a transfer fee because Hughes was only 20 years of age. Lincoln did not wish to pay a fee and the transfer was in jeopardy.

After further negotiations between Larne and Lincoln City, the Irish club settled for a clause related transfer fee plus £5,000. Had Hughes moved to Linfield, or indeed any other Irish club, then Larne would not have received a fee anyway. These clauses were not disclosed but they were likely to relate to first team appearances targets, international caps and a sell-on clause.

Hughes has admitted that he came close to leaving Lincoln in October 2005 because he was again homesick. Thankfully, he decided to stay and since signing for Lincoln, he became a regular in the Northern Ireland Under-21 squad. He is also a former Northern Ireland Under-17 International, who spent two years at Ballymena United in-between spells at Larne.

Hughes ended the 2005/06 season on a high after he was voted the Lincoln City FC supporters' Young Player of the Season. His consistent form also impressed Northern Ireland manager Lawrie Sanchez, who included Hughes on an end of season tour to the USA. Hughes played in both of Northern Ireland's tour matches against Uruguay and Romania, thereby earning him his first two full international caps.

Also touring with Northern Ireland was then Imps' defender Gareth McAuley. Both Hughes and McAuley played in Northern Ireland's match against Romania - at the same time - thereby creating history of becoming the first pair of Lincoln City FC footballers to play on the same international side.

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