January 26, 2023 4.34 pm This story is over 24 months old

Imps sell club captain to League 2 side, leaving options bare up front

Another striker was loaned out, too

By Local Democracy Reporter

Tom Hopper, Lincoln City’s club captain, has been sold to Colchester United in League Two for an undisclosed fee.

Boston-born Hopper, 29, joined Lincoln City from Southend United in January 2020, and went on to make exactly 100 appearances for the club and scoring 21 times.

He scored one of the most famous goals in recent Lincoln memory, when his header against Sunderland took the Imps to the League One play-off final in 2021.

His tireless work in the lone striker role earned him the club captaincy in the summer of 2022, following the departure of former skipper Liam Bridcutt.

However, with just two goals in sixteen league appearances this season, Hopper will now be stepping down a level to League Two and Colchester United, signing a two-and-a-half year deal for an undisclosed fee.

Charley Kendall. | Photo: Lincoln City FC / Chris Vaughan Photography

The move has come on the same day that fellow striker Charley Kendall was loaned out to National League side Bromley for the rest of the season.

It leaves Lincoln rather threadbare in attacking positions, with just Ben House, Jack Diamond, Danny Mandroiu, Charles Vernam and youth players Jovon Makama and Freddie Draper to choose from in the forward areas.

This would suggest that more business is pending for Lincoln City in the January transfer window, as the club look to steer away from relegation trouble in League One.

The Imps are 16th in the table, sitting six points clear of the drop zone and ten adrift of the play-offs, with games in hand on the teams around them.


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