Position: striker

Lincoln City career: 60+(13) appearances and 21 goals between July 2006 - June 2008.

Clubs: Derby County, Fulham, Bradford City, Preston, Wycombe, Notts County, Barnsley, Chesterfield, Shrewsbury Town, Lincoln City, Mansfield Town and Corby Town.

Mark Stallard joined The Imps on a two year contract from League Two rivals Shrewsbury Town in July 2006. Then aged 31, Stallard brought with him a wealth of experience having played for ten different clubs.

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 on a two year contract in July 2005.

Despite having a year of his Shrewsbury contract remaining, Shrews' manager allowed Stallard to join Lincoln City in July 2006 on a two year contract without asking for a fee. The move to Lincoln is also reduced Stallard's daily journey time from his Nottingham home.

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 Lincoln City's 2005/06 season's striker roster. It proved an astute signing, as Stallard would score 16 goals during the 2006/07 season, to help guide Lincoln City into the League Two play-offs. Unfortunately, his second season at Lincoln was plagued by injuries and he quickly lost his place to Ben Wright. Therefore it came as little surprise when he was released when his contract expired in June 2008.

A few weeks later, Stallard was signed by Conference club Mansfield Town along with fellow ex-Imp Adie Moses. The pair's experience was vital and in December 2008 that experience was put to the test when they were appointed as joint caretaker managers. However, a new manager was soon appointed leading to Stallard being told that he was free to leave Mansfield at the end of the 2008-09 season.

Stallard signed for Corby Town where he linked up with other former Lincoln City FC players in July 2009.

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Position: striker.

Lincoln City career: 40+(4) appearances and 9 goals between July 2007 - May 2008.

Clubs: Leicester City, Northwich Victoria, Rochdale, Lincoln City and Port Vale.

Louis Dodds is a former England Under-18 international and arrived at Sincil Bank in July 2007, with a glowing reputation at reserve level football. Over the three seasons prior to joining Lincoln he had scored 65 reserve team goals.

During the 2006/07 season, Dodds spent time on loan at Conference National club Northwich Victoria and League Two club Rochdale. During his time at Northwich, he scored three times in six appearances. While at Rochdale, he scored twice in twelve first team appearances.

Dodds joined Lincoln on a season's long loan deal from Leicester City. Although he had yet to make his first team debut for Leicester, he did feature on their substitutes' bench twice during the 2006/07 season.

During his season at Sincil Bank, Dodds became a fans' favourite by scoring 9 goals despite playing out of position on the left-wing. His contract at Leicester expired in June 2008 but he was offered a new deal. Despite Lincoln City being the favourites to sign Dodds, The Imps dropped out of the race and instead, Dodds joined Port Vale on a two-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

Despite being played mainly as winger for Port Vale, Dodds still managed to score seven league goals for his new club during the 2008-09 season. As events turned out, the loss of Dodds probably damaged Lincoln City's hopes of promotion.

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Position: left-back

Lincoln City career: 22 appearances between July 2007 - June 2008

Clubs: Grimsby Town, Blackburn Rovers, Ipswich Town, Wigan Athletic, Cardiff City and Lincoln City.

Gary Croft arrived a Lincoln City amidst negative publicity in regard to his age and a believed opinion that his signing showed a lack of ambition. However, Croft was a vastly experienced player who can play at both left-back and right-back.

Croft began his professional career as a trainee at Grimsby Town in 1992. He went on to make 169 appearances, scoring 4 goals, before leaving Grimsby in a £1,000,000 transfer to Blackburn Rovers in March 1996.

Injury blighted his Blackburn career meaning that he only played 52 first team games in three and a half years. He also scored one goal for Blackburn.

In September 1999, Blackburn agreed a £54,000 transfer fee from Ipswich Town for Croft. Once again, Croft failed to establish himself as a first team regular so made only 37 first team appearances, scoring one goal, in almost three years. During his time at Ipswich he spent periods on loan at both Wigan Athletic and Cardiff City.

He showed enough talent at Cardiff for the Welsh club to take a gamble on him in September 2002, when he joined Cardiff on a free transfer. It was at Cardiff that Croft got his career back on track, making a total of 88 appearances, scoring 3 goals, during three years.

Croft's career turned a full circle in August 2005, when he rejoined Grimsby Town. Despite being a first team regular at Grimsby - he made 70 appearance in two seasons - he was surprisingly released by Grimsby in June 2007. After a successful trial at Lincoln City, he joined The Imps on a one-year contract in July 2007.

Unfortunately, he endured an injury hit season and it was no surprise when Lincoln City decided against renewing his contract in June 2008. Despite having offers from non-league clubs, Croft decided to retire from football.

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