Position: striker.

Lincoln City career: 109+(6) appearances and 40 goals between July 1977 - December 1980.

Clubs: Lincoln City, Newcastle, Bristol City, Birmingham City, Luton, Derby, Chelsea, Sunderland, Coventry and Wimbledon.

International career: 2 caps for England.

Arguably, Mick Harford is probably the most famous find of Lincoln City's successful scouting network that operated in the 1970's and early 1980's. Harford was spotted in 1977 whilst playing for Lambton Boys Club; the setting-up of the deal was to be one of the final acts of then Lincoln manager Graham Taylor's reign. George Kerr had taken charge of Lincoln by the time that Harford officially turned professional, and it was Kerr who helped retrain Harford from a midfield player to a striker.

Harford made his debut five months later and quickly established himself as a first team player in a side, which over the next eighteen months would often be described as one of the worst sides ever to play for Lincoln City. Harford was one of the few exceptions, and when Colin Murphy arrived as manager in 1978, Harford's career and potential would be highlighted.

Murphy rebuilt Lincoln's side with Harford as a vital striker in Murphy's free-scoring City side. Three hat-tricks during the first half of the 1980/81 season brought Mick to the attention of the talent scouts but it was Newcastle United who signed him for £180,000 in December 1980. The fee was a record for Lincoln City and would remain so for almost fifteen years.

Harford found life hard to adjust to after leaving Lincoln, and he played for Newcastle, Bristol City and Birmingham, all within the next fifteen months. It was only in December 1984, when he signed for Luton Town that his career took off, as Luton were a similar sized club to Lincoln except that they were in Division One. Harford, in his six years at Luton, represented England twice and played in two major cup finals; he, eventually moved to Derby but would later return to Luton for a brief spell.

He ended his playing career at Wimbledon after signing for four teams in less than two years and once retired, he joined the coaching staff at Wimbledon. Since leaving Wimbledon, he has managed both Nottingham Forest and Rotherham United.

Harford was linked to the vacant Lincoln City managerial post in June 2006 but declared that he had not applied for the job. Instead, he was appointed as the Colchester United assistant-manager in August 2006. He stayed at Colchester for just one season before quitting to join QPR as their assistant-manager.

After a spell at as caretaker-manager of QPR in 2007, he departed the London club following the appointment of Luigi De Canio as manager. Harford was not out of work for long as his former club Luton Town appointed him as manager in January 2008. Unfortunately, events off the field at Luton hindered the club and they were successfully relegated from League One in 2008 and then out of the Football League in 2009. However, Harford did enjoy some success on the field as Luton won the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2009.

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Position: winger or striker.

Lincoln City Career: 321+(12) appearances and 96 goals between December 1997 - June 1985 & September 1988 - July 1990.

Clubs: Lincoln City, Grimsby Town, Southampton, Exeter, Walsall, Farnborough and Salisbury.

Gordon Hobson was another successful find of Lincoln City's scouting system, as he was spotted while playing local league football in Sheffield.

He was signed in December 1977 by George Kerr, and made a goal scoring debut in April 1977 against Cambridge United. That was sign of things to come as Hobson would end five of his ten seasons at Sincil Bank as the club's top scorer. This was a tremendous achievement because Hobson played as a winger although as his career progressed, he became more of a striker.

Hobson left Lincoln in June 1985 for Grimsby Town in a £35,000 deal; the following season, Lincoln were relegated to Division Four. As Lincoln City began falling through the divisions, Hobson was climbing and joined Division One club Southampton in 1986.

Lincoln, having recaptured their Football League status for the 1988/89 season, were paired with Southampton in the League Cup. Many people anticipated Hobson's return to Sincil Bank in a Southampton shirt but they received a pleasant surprise when his former mentor Colin Murphy, now in his second spell at Lincoln, resigned Hobson before the tie took place. Lincoln paid £60,000 to Southampton for Hobson, which was a record transfer fee paid by City and he lined-up against his former team-mates and made a goal scoring return to Lincoln.

Hobson's second spell at Lincoln lasted two years before he was released by new manager Allan Clarke. He finished his career at Salisbury after short spells at Exeter City, Walsall and Farnborough Town.

He is now settled in the Southampton area, where he owns and runs a successful yachting business.

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Position: striker.

Lincoln City career: 89+(4) appearances and 30 goals between August 2003 - June 2005.

Clubs: Northwich Victoria, Hull City, Leyton Orient, Grays Athletic, Dagenham & Redbridge, Lincoln City, Huddersfield Town and Blackpool.

Gary Fletcher joined Lincoln City in August 2003 but changed his name to Gary Taylor-Fletcher in June 2004 following his marriage to a Miss Taylor.

Taylor-Fletcher was a former player of then Lincoln City manager Keith Alexander at their former club Northwich Victoria. During his time at Northwich, Taylor-Fletcher also played alongside former Imps Mark Bailey, Lance Key, John Robertson and Adie Mike.

Taylor-Fletcher became one of highly rated non-league strikers around; a reputation enhanced when he scored two goals against Leyton Orient in the 2000/01 FA Cup second round tie that ended 3-3. Those goals earnt him a £150,000 move to Leyton Orient in the following July, having ended the 2000/01 season on loan to Hull City where he made five appearances.

Unfortunately, his two-years at Leyton Orient were blighted by injury, meaning that he only made 13 starts for the club plus another 11 substitute appearances, scoring 2 goals. As a result, he was languishing in the Leyton Orient reserve team in August 2004, when he was rescued by Alexander.

A skilful and strong striker, Fletcher also spent four months on loan at Conference club Dagenham and Redbridge in 2002/03, scoring one goal in nine appearances. He later joined Grays Athletic where he scored three times in four games.

As well as being an out and out striker, Taylor-Fletcher can also play on the right side of midfield if requested. He spent two years at Lincoln City, but with differing results. During his first season, he was an exceptional player and he had stayed longer at the club and recreated this form, then he would have become a Lincoln City legend.

His second season saw him endure several injury problems but he still remained a prolific goal scorer. It was somewhat surprising when Alexander decided to release him at the end of the 2004/05 season. A few weeks later, he joined Huddersfield Town of League One, where he remains.

In August 2006, he became a history-maker by scoring the 500,000th goal scored in the Football League. Five months later, and Taylor-Fletcher performed another goal scoring feat by netting against Chelsea in a FA Cup tie.

His goal scoring brought him to the attention of newly promoted Blackpool in July 2007 and Taylor-Fletcher made a switch for an undisclosed fee. The Blackpool fans were a little sceptical as Taylor-Fletcher was not a familiar name to them. However, after several excellent performances, the Blackpool fans were won over.

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