Goalkeeper : Joe Anyon
By Nathan Jackson
June 29 2010
Joe Anyon replaced Rob Burch as the club's main goalkeeper in the summer of 2010. After being released by Port Vale, Anyon was quickly snapped up by the Imps after goalkeeping coach Paul Musselwhite, a Port Vale legend, recommended him to manager Chris Sutton.
SIGNED FROM : FREE TRANSFER
DEBUT : August 7th 2010 vs Rotherham United
FINAL GAME : April 28th 2012 vs Ebbsfleet
Anyon was once rated as one of the countries most exciting young goalkeepers and had been linked with various Premiership and Championship clubs before breaking his leg.
The goalkeeper turned professional in 2004 after being offered a contract at the age of just 18, he would have to wait for his Port Vale debut though as it came around Christmas in 2006. He replaced Mark Goodland after the first-choice keeper had ruptured his achilles tendon and had to have surgery.
Anyon conceded just 25 goals in that season and took over the number one jersey permanently when Goodland was forced to retire.
Fulham had a £250,000 bid rejected for him in 2007, still only aged twenty and he was a prominent member within the squad and slatted the side after a 3-1 defeat to Macclesfield Town in the FA Cup.
Just as his young career was picking up speed, Anyon broke his leg after a clash with Drew Talbot at Chesterfield in March 2009 and although he won Player of the Season for that year, he never got back into the first team before being released by Port Vale at the end of the 2009/10 season. He quickly signed up for City after Paul Musselwhite highly recommended him to the management.
Anyon kept his first clean sheet in an away game at Gillingham in his third appearance for the Imps. However, his performances soon became very inconsistent and he was responsible for a lot of goals against, costing City numerous points before he was eventually dropped in January 2011. He was loaned out to Morecambe towards the end of the season following on from Trevor Carson on loan. He returned towards the end of the season but was forced to sit on the bench as loanee rookie goalkeeper Elliott Parish failed to save any shots.
During the summer of 2011 it seemed almost certain Joe would be leaving City and Bob Dorrian even said at one point that Joe was close on leaving, yet he stayed at Sincil Bank and made an impressive start to the 2011/12 season, making several excellent saves. His excellent form continued and he turned from a player being regularly mocked by fans to being one of the key players. Despite not keeping many clear sheets, he received near universal praise from City fans due to his vast improvement from the previous season.
He would leave Sincil Bank at the end of the season and joined Shrewsbury, who had just been promoted to League One.
Joe Anyon's Clean Sheets for Lincoln | |
SEASON | OPPOSITION |
2010/11 | Gillingham (1-0), Barnet (1-0), Burton Albion (0-0), Stockport County (0-0) |
2011/12 | Gateshead (1-0), Bath (2-0), Southport (2-0), Newport (2-0), Tamworth (4-0), Darlington (5-0) |
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Only seen the guy and he did well that day.
Quite young so has plenty of time to develop further, which I'm sure he will judging by the good job Musselwhite has done with Burch in the last year.
Here we go again!
Will we ever get the right man?
