The Former Players' Association guests for Saturday's home game against Stevenage are host John Kennedy, Trevor Swinburne and Phil Neale.
John Kennedy
John Kennedy made over 250 appearances in goal for City after signing for the Imps in July 1967. John’s career began in his native Northern Ireland with the Distillery club.
During his time there he played for the Northern Ireland and Great Britain amateur international teams, and for the Irish League representative team.
In 1965 he signed for Celtic where he played most of his football in the reserves before moving to Sincil Bank in the summer of 1967.
He was first choice goalkeeper throughout his seven seasons with City and was the first player to win the Player of the Season award when it started in 1969/70.
John was one of the last part-time players to feature regularly for the Imps combining his football career with teaching. John left Sincil Bank in the summer of 1974 and had a couple of seasons with Lincoln United, who then played in the Yorkshire League. In his first season with United the club reached the quarter finals of the FA Vase with John in goal and a young Phil Neale playing at centre forward. He is involved with our Former Players Association as a committee member.
Lincoln City record
Debut: vs Aldershot, home 19 August 1967
Football League: 251 appearances
FA Cup: 10 appearances
Football League Cup: 16 appearances
Other: One appearance
Phil Neale
Phil Neale was a member of the Imps' hugely successful 1975-76 team and went on to make over 350 first team appearances during his 11 seasons with City.
Phil was first signed as an amateur while he was studying at Leeds University, making his first team debut in January 1975.
He signed professional forms for City later the same year and from then onwards he was a regularly in the first team defence before leaving Sincil Bank in May 1985.
Phil combined his football with a career as a cricketer. He briefly played for Lincolnshire in the Minor Counties Championship before joining Worcestershire. He made over 350 first class appearances scoring over 17,000 runs for Worcestershire and twice captained the team to the County Championship.
He was team manager of Northamptonshire and then Warwickshire before being the England team operations manager for 21 years until his retirement. He was awarded the OBE in 2006 for services to cricket.
Lincoln City record
Debut: vs Swindon Town, away (FA Cup), 4 January 1975 as substitute
Football League: 327 appearances plus 8 as substitute, 22 goals
FA Cup: 16 appearances plus 2 as substitute
Football League Cup: 11 appearances plus 1 as substitute
Other: 4 appearances
Trevor Swinburne
Trevor Swinburne began his long goalkeeping career as an apprentice with Sunderland in the late 1960s and finished it with the Imps 20 years later.
During his time at Sunderland he was understudy to Jim Montgomery and made several first team appearances before moving on to Carlisle United in the summer of 1977.
Trevor made over 250 first team appearances for Carlisle during his six years with the club and was an ever-present in their team which won promotion to the old Second Division in 1981-82.
He then played for Brentford and Leeds United before signing for City in February 1986 as a replacement for Stuart Naylor. Trevor made regular appearances for the Imps until retiring in the summer of 1987.
He was the first chairman of the Lincoln City Former Players Association when it was formed in 2017 and was a key figure in developing the organisation.
Lincoln City record
Debut: vs Blackpool, away 25 February 1986
Football League: 34 appearances
FA Cup: 3 appearances
Football League Cup: 3 appearances
