New Defender

[JEFF]

Stanley have signed Stuart Bimson on a month's loan from Cambridge with a view to a permanent move.

Born 29th September 1969 in Liverpool.

Previous Clubs: Southport, Macclesfield and Bury.

Left-back Stuart was a late entrant to league football, making his league debut for Bury in February 1995. Free transferred to Lincoln at the same time as Phil Stant but unlike Phil did not make an immediate impact on the team and spent much of the 1996/97 season in the reserves with only occasional first team appearances the following season.
With his contract up at the end of the 1998/9 season Stuart could have been forgiven for thinking his Imps' career was over before it ever really got going especially as he started 1998/9 in the reserves. However several excellent reserve matches earned Stuart a recall to the first team in October's 2-1 win over Man City and Stuart never looked back. Skilful displays helped convince the supporters that Lincoln City's footballers could pass the ball after all and under John Reames played probably the best football of his career. Continued playing to the end of the season despite needing an operation however his contribution up to that point was enough to earn him awards for the 1998/99 season.

In February 1999 Stuart signed a two year extension to his contract which meant that he would stay at Lincoln until summer 2001. However in May 2000 it was announced by Chairman John Reames that Stuart would be allowed to leave Lincoln on a free transfer at the end of the season. The decision was not Stuart's and since he was still under contract he expressed a desire to stay at Lincoln.

In October 2000 a potential loan move to Shrewsbury collapsed at the eleventh hour. Stuart's decision to stay was rewarded when Alan Buckley took over as Buckley recalled him to the first team. Stuart's form was consistent enough to earn him another contract at the end of the 2000/01 season.

Despite Stuart being a vital part of the first team at Lincoln, he is expected to leave in June 2003, when his contract expires, due to his age.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

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Stuart left at the end of the 2001/02 season and will captain Cambridge for the 2002/03 season. The veteran ex-Lincoln City defender joined at the end of the pre-season campaign, and will probably feature on the left of midfield.

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Stuart Bimson, Stuart Bimson, Stuart, Stuart Bimson<o></o>

He’s got no hair<o></o>

But we don’t care<o></o>

Stuart, Stuart Bimson

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[Cammy ASFC]

Don't mean to put a dampner on things but fair play we have signed a defender but again he is a left back as is Stuart Howson we signed earlier this summer as well as steve hollis. Just think it's stange we have signed another left back instead of a centre half

[Stanleyman]

hopefully he can play both left back and centre half because if he cant then why did we sign him as cammy said

Originally Posted by Cammy ASFC

fair play we have signed a defender but again he is a left back as is Stuart Howson we signed earlier this summer as well as steve hollis

[Whalley Red]

Howson was a centre-half at Chesterfield, so presumably he will now move into the middle and partner Rocky or Hacker.

[Whalley Red]

And Rocky and Hacker are both right-footed.

[qualtrough]

Signing another left back does seem eccentric to say the least. Perhaps the idea is to carry on signing every possible left back in the Conference so no other teams will have one and Lutel can make hay down the right flank.....a `cunning plan` worthy of Baldrick himself!!! Sometimes you just have to sit back and have faith John and Jimmy know what they're doing and you don't!