THE BELOW ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BY JAMES HANN FOR HIS AUDITION TO BE A CONTRIBUTOR TO THIS WEBSITE. IT WAS WRITTEN ON TUESDAY 24TH JUNE.

Lincoln have already showed promising signs of challenging for promotion next season by getting rid of some deadwood floating around Sincil Bank – including the legendary’s Steve Torpey and Ryan Amoo, veteran goalkeeper Alan Marriott and someone called Ryan Semple who nobody has ever seen play for the Imps - and attempting to bring some of League 2’s top players in to replace them. Stefan Oakes was the first name to join the Jackson revolution after rejecting a new contract at Wycombe Wanderers, where he was a firm fan favourite, in favour of a move to Sincil Bank.

Chesterfields János Kovács is also set to join the Imps, with the fee to be settled by tribunal in the next few days. Twenty-two year old defender Kovács was the runner up in Chesterfields CFSS player of the year award last season as he made 43 appearances and scored twice, with one goal coming against the Imps at Sincil Bank. The Spireites offered Kovács a new deal at Saltergate at the end of the season, but it appears he finds a move to Lincoln more tempting. His decision to move was probably aided by Chesterfield signing ex-Imp defender Kevin Austin from Swansea; meaning János would be facing tough competition for a place in the starting 11 at Saltergate.

Other possible transfer targets for the Imps include Louis Dodds from Leicester, who spent last season on loan at Lincoln, scoring 9 goals and making more than 40 appearances, the most by an Imp that season. Hamza Bencherif of Notts Forest was another loanee at Lincoln last term who is rumoured to be a target of Jackson. Hamza played 12 times in defence for the Imps and scoring once before mysteriously disappearing around December time. Michael Boulding scored 25 goals for relegated Mansfield last season, 3 of which came against the Imps. Boulding had been strongly linked with Lincoln before Jackson announced the striker wished to play higher up in the league pyramid.

The Imps finished last term occupying 15th place in the table with 58 points after spending much of the season in the bottom 3. Lincoln had only picked up 9 points in the first three months of last season before Peter Jackson took over, and since then he’s taken the imps from strength to strength and guided them clear of relegation and towards the top half of the table. “Saint Jacko” picked up 40 points for the Imps since the New Year, whilst John Schofield’s Lincoln only managed 24 points in the same time just 12 months before.

Since Jackson took over at the beginning of November he introduced several youth players to the first team. Danny Hone - son of ex-Imp Mark Hone - made his debut in Jackson’s first game against Chester City after Lee Beevers was injured early on in the game. Hone then went on to make 25 appearances, as well as scoring the winning goal against Rochdale at Sincil Bank. LenelL John-Lewis also moved up to the first team, although he’d already made his debut against Port Vale in the FA Cup during the previous season. John-Lewis made himself instantly popular with Imps fans with his speed and agility on the wing. Lenell made 26 appearances for the Imps and bagged 3 goals. Martin Pembleton, Shane Clarke and Gary King shortly followed, with Gary King scoring on his debut against Brentford – albeit with a bit of help from a clumsy keeper, and for the last 4 games of the season, Ayden Duffy made his debut between the sticks for an injured Marriott.

With new signings promised in the next few weeks, possibly including Kovács, Dodds and a new goalkeeper yet unnamed, a handful of promising youth players, and the likelihood of Lee Frecklington staying at Lincoln for now, Jackson will have a very strong team to challenge for promotion next year and hopefully win a place in the promised land of League 1 for the 2009/10 season. I think with the right signings in the next few weeks The Lord of the Imps and his new model Imp army could comfortably challenge for a top 3 finish.

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