Position: midfielder.

Lincoln City career: 38+(3) appearances and 5 goals between October - November 2000 and May 2001 - October 2002.

Clubs: Luton, Nottm. Forest, Sheff Utd, Millwall, Grimsby Town and Lincoln City.

Kingsley Black was a vastly experienced player who originally joined Lincoln City on loan in October 2000.

He began his career as a trainee at his home town club Luton Town and became a vital member of their successful team of the late 1980's. This Luton side won the League Cup and appeared in two other Wembley Cup finals thereby earning international recognition for several of their players; Black went on to represent Northern Ireland.

As the players began to achieve international recognition, the bigger clubs began to recruit Luton's players. Black was one of these to leave and after five years at Luton, he made a £1.5 million pound move to Nottingham Forest. He immediately fitted into Brian Clough's young but successful Forest side, which earnt the club huge praise for its passing and skilful football. However, some of that skill was lost when Clough retired from management and Black soon found himself as a squad player rather than a first choice.

It was during this latter stage of his Forest career that he opted to join both Sheffield United and Millwall on loan in a bid to play regularly. Grimsby though were impressed by his loan performance and offered the ridiculously low price of £25,000 for him, which Forest accepted in July 1996.

During 2000, he suffered an injury thus losing his place in the Grimsby side. As he returned from injury in October 2000, the then Lincoln manager Phil Stant persuaded Grimsby to allow him to join Lincoln on a month's loan to regain his match fitness. The month was mixed but he obviously liked Lincoln sufficiently to quickly jump at the chance of returning in May 2001. By now, Lincoln had appointed his former Grimsby boss Alan Buckley; the deal was swift despite Grimsby offering him a new contract. As he was out of contract he was able to join City on a free transfer.

The 2001/02 season began well for Black, that was until he lost his place through injury. He never recaptured his early season form and in October 2002, his contract was terminated by Lincoln City via a severance payoff.

Position: cental midfielder.

Lincoln City career: 161+(14) appearances and 19 goals between March 1998 - March 2002.

Previous clubs: Nottingham Forest and Lincoln City.

Present Club: Cheltenham Town.

John Finnigan spent six seasons at Nottingham Forest where he played in the reserves. Despite being named as captain, he was unable to break into the Forest's first team, so Finnigan decided to follow Paul Smith to Lincoln City in May 1998, after initially joining The Imps on loan.

Although John Beck spotted him and arranged a loan deal with Forest, he was dismissed as Lincoln's manager before the deal was completed. Finnigan would became an essential and influential player for Lincoln City even after Beck's departure.

John Finnigan was named as Lincoln's captain for the 2000/01 season following the departure of Terry Fleming in May 2000. He combined well with his former Nottingham Forest team-mate Justin Walker in the centre of Lincoln's midfield but the rest of the team lacked direction and quality in places.

Finnigan made a shock departure to Cheltenham Town on a free transfer in March 2002, when cash-strapped Lincoln agreed to release him. His presence at Cheltenham has helped inspire them to promotion from League Two on two occasions.