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Wishmakers grant wishes to children who have been nominated to them.
One young Lincoln City fan who has undergone life-changing injuries and operations and still has more to go through would love to watch one match from an executive box if a generous boxholder could allow that. Wishmakers would make a donation towards this.
Contact us here at the Trust if you think you can help this young man have a dream afternoon watching his beloved team.
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As part of our ‘Focussing on Young Fans’ initiative for 25-26 we gave out 500 flyers about it at the open training session and WBA and Reading games. It included a competition for Under 18s to predict which Imps player would score our first League One goal of the new season.
Finlay Burns generously scored our first goal in our 2-0 win but he’s a Reading player of course so the first Imps player to score for us was…. Reeco Hackett.
Well done those who picked Reeco – five of you in all. The winner of the £50 voucher to spend in the Lincoln City shop picked out of our Red Imps Community Trust bucket hat was Austin Meechan aged 7. Well done Austin and we’ll see you before the Plymouth Argyle fixture to hand you your prize.
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thanks to Donald Nannestad
The FPA host for tomorrow’s home game against Reading is Gavin Gordon. The guests are Matt Carmichael, Paul Mayo and Tony Cunningham.
Gavin Gordon
Gavin Gordon was a striker who made his senior debut for Hull City just two months after his 16th birthday and went on to make regular first team appearances for the Tigers before he was sold to the Imps in November 1997 when he was still just 18 years old. In his first season he helped City win promotion and was a first team regular. In 2000-01 he scored 10 goals by early December and was the sold to Cardiff City for a six-figure fee. He later played for Notts County. Gavin is chairman of the Former Players Association.
Debut vs Swansea City, away 8 November 1997
Lincoln City Record
Football League: 87 appearances plus 12 as substitute, 28 goals
FA Cup: 9 appearances, 2 goals
Football League Cup: 2 appearances, 1 goal
Other: 4 appearances plus 1 as substitute
Matt Carmichael
Matt Carmichael was signed by Colin Murphy in August 1989. At the time he was planning to join the Met Police after having previously served in the British Army but Colin offered him a professional contract and his career changed track. He was initially used as a striker and scored on his debut against Scunthorpe United but later converted to centre back. He was voted the supporters player of the season in 1991-92 and made over 150 first team appearances before moving on to Scunthorpe in July 1993. Matt later played for Preston, Mansfield, Doncaster and Darlington. Matt is vice chairman of the Former Players Association.
Debut vs Scunthorpe, home 19 August 1989
Lincoln City Record
Football League: 113 appearances plus 20 as substitute, 18 goals
FA Cup: 4 appearances plus 1 as substitute
Football League Cup: 9 appearances plus 1 as substitute, 1 goal
Other: 7 appearances plus 1 as substitute, 2 goals
Paul Mayo
Paul Mayo is a local lad who was initially on the books of Nottingham Forest before signing for the Imps in the 1999-2000. Although he mainly appeared at left-back, wearing the number 46 shirt in his first season, he was also occasionally used both in midfield and in the forward line. He played in the 2003 play-off final against Bournemouth at the Millennium Stadium and continued to appear regularly until March 2004 when he was sold to Watford, then in the Championship.. Paul later returned to Sincil Bank for two more seasons with the Imps and finished his senior career with spells at Notts County and Mansfield Town. In total he made almost 200 first team appearances for City.
Debut vs Swansea City, away, 4 February 2000
Lincoln City Record:
Football League: 145 appearances plus 23 as substitute, 10 goals
FA Cup: 7 appearances plus 1 as substitute, 2 goals
Football League Cup: 5 appearances plus 1 as substitute
Other: 10 appearances plus 2 as substitute, 2 goals
Tony Cunningham
Tony Cunningham was a powerful striker who was brought to Lincoln by Colin Murphy from non-league club Stourbridge in May 1979. He made an instant impact scoring on his debut in a League Cup tie against Barnsley and remained a regular first team player during his three full seasons at Sincil Bank being leading scorer with 15 league and cup goals in 1981-82 when the Imps narrowly missed out on promotion to second tier football. He was sold to Barnsley in September 1982 and and made 40 League appearances for the Reds scoring 11 goals before joining Sheffield Wednesday in November 1983. Tony later played for clubs including Manchester City and Newcastle United making a total of almost 500 senior appearances before ending his career with Wycombe Wanderers. One of his sons Karl later also played for the Imps.
Debut vs Barnsley, home (Football League Cup) 11 August 1979
Lincoln City Record:
Football League: 111 appearances plus 12 as substitute, 32 goals
FA Cup: 5 appearances plus 1 as substitute
Football League Cup: 13 appearances, 8 goals
Other Games: 6 appearances, 2 goals
News
You may have noticed that when you go to the Stacey West Bond website it now transports you to the Red Imps Community Trust site. This is deliberate, as all news and information regarding the bond will be placed on here from now on and a specific page will be populated shortly.
If you have any queries on the Bond scheme, please contact us still at bonds@redimpstrust.co.uk
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Daughter Lynn and son Neal are set to pass their late father’s Lincoln City shareholding to the Red Imps Community Trust and we thank them for this fantastic gesture.
John Cameron Cartwright, pictured here with Danny Cowley at Maidstone United’s ground, was a lifelong Imps supporter having been born in the city in 1933 where he lived above a shop on High Street until his family moved to Surrey when he was eleven.
John had a varied career including civil servant and agent for an MP, and was Deputy Chair of the Police Complaints Authority before retiring to Kent.
He never lost his passion for Lincoln City from those early years despite a stint as PA announcer with Charlton Athletic in the 70s and would listen to commentary and watch on iFollow. He attended matches when the Imps were in the area.
Everyone connected with our Trust thank Lynn, Neal, and family and pay tribute to John who was clearly a fine man and a true Imp.
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Richard Lalka is granted lifetime membership of the Red Imps Community Trust for his sterling media work and Julian Burley wins a Special Recognition Award for his years of dedication running Vitals.
Main winner and our Fan of the Season is Paul Baker who has assisted with Trust activities in the Fan Village through rain or shine for years with great energy and enthusiasm. Congratulations Paul!
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Football was in crisis as recently as the beginning of this decade. Bury FC had just folded. Another regular opponent of Lincoln City, Macclesfield Town, followed. At the opposite end of the spectrum, wealthy clubs wanted to form a breakaway European Super League. COVID lockdown switched off the game’s income streams overnight.
The Conservative government launched a Fan Led Review in 2021. The Football Governance Bill was then introduced into Parliament, seeking to turn the Review’s recommendations into law. The Bill has now received Royal Assent: the Football Governance Act 2025 is now the law of the land – English football has an Independent Regulator.
It’s perfectly fair to say that significant change will not happen immediately and that powerful vested interests will still cause problems. But simply having the Act in existence is truly a momentous event for the future of football. We are now at the start of a new journey and the direction of travel is clear. Clubs will eventually have to operate in a financially sustainable way. Rogue owners should play no part. There should always be meaningful engagement with fans.
We’re proud that the key investors at Lincoln see themselves as custodians of the club for the time being for the fans, both now and in future generations. Our club’s investors have been vocal advocates for football to operate in a financially sustainable way. And the manner in which they have embraced the need to engage with fans is first rate. They have encouraged our Trust to be a critical friend. Everyone who is a season ticket holder or who joins one of the other club membership schemes is automatically a Trust member. There are democratic elections for two representatives of the Trust on the club’s Board of Directors. The Trust has been given power to veto (if requested by fans in a democratic vote) any proposals for stadium relocations or changes of club name, colours and badge. There’s a Fan Advisory Board.
Our Trust has worked tirelessly to support the embedding of that culture in recent years. In doing so, we haven’t just collaborated with the club and with other fan groups associated with it. We’ve also sung the club’s praises to external parties, such as our friends at The Football Supporters’ Association, various other clubs’ supporters’ trusts and our contacts in the House of Lords and in the House of Commons.
Red Imps Community Trust welcomes the Football Governance Act and looks forward to the part that the Regulator will play in safeguarding the future of football.
The game is now in a much better place because of the new legislation.
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The Red Imps Community Trust and Lincoln United officials seen pre-match at Ashby Avenue, with the Trust the game’s matchball sponsor and a great occasion for all there with the result finishing 2-2.
Rob's Column
With thanks to the Lincolnshire Echo
Your Trust – I say ‘your’ because most of our fans are members – has done a bit of soul-searching in the last couple of weeks. We like to think we’re on the ball and we do some good things but we can never stand still.
One area we think can be improved is assessing what younger fans think about their club and, indeed, this fans organisation that they are an important part of. We’ll soon be announcing a young supporters representative will be joining our board. What he – it’s a ‘he’ but I can’t identify him yet – brings to the table will, if necessary, be taken into the heart of the club and get the attention it deserves. The last few years at the LNER have been successful and this has attracted a lot of youthful fans to our games. Knowing what they think is pretty vital therefore. We’ll help those messages get heard.
Aiding this young fella will be a new dedicated Trust volunteer who is keen to assist, and you will maybe notice a significant Trust presence in the ground at matchdays in 25-26. We have a busy role in the Fan Village but not all our fans go in there so we’ll be promoting the Trust and completing surveys in the stands and circulation areas on a regular basis.
We’ve looked at our comms and our team do a great job. Our posts and content will continue to do the basics and more but there’ll be more of a creative element too this coming season. Feature video clips will be put out and, a hidden gem in our heritage work – our online museum – will be promoted much more. Judging by the collectors and other Imps history buffs who we see at our pre-match pod, there’s a real appetite for looking through Imps memorabilia. We have a good deal of it and it’ll soon be more readily accessed.
Our heritage remit has grown and grown. Our third landmark plaque, recognising our Imp nickname and its Cathedral-based origin, has been ordered from the manufacturer and we’ll have an opening ceremony in the next few weeks.
On top of that we’re hard at work setting up a Lincoln City exhibition in an amazing location here in this amazing city. It’ll be open during the summer school holidays so watch out for news of that.
I’ll now stop dropping all these not-so-subtle hints and never fear you’ll get much fuller details as soon as we’re ready. The bottom line is that we’re honoured to have so many brilliant members and we’ll continue to work hard on their behalf.
