I sat down on a call with former Imp Max Melbourne earlier this week to discuss his time at Lincoln City, and one thing we spoke about was his departure from the club last May.
Max spoke about how he dropped out of the side following the Plymouth game, where he scored a stoppage-time winner. He told me that Appleton offered him a great level of support after that game, and despite rumours of a poor relationship, it was the complete opposite.
“[After the Plymouth game] Players started to come back fit, and Michael pulled me on the Monday after the game and said well done and that I’d done really well but we had players in that position, he said he had no problems with me and that he’d do everything in his best interests to help me get a move, with references and talking to contacts. I’d asked to come back, got minutes, ended up getting a start and for the manager to offer me that level of support was just a bonus because I wasn’t expecting anything.”
I asked Max why he never featured after the Plymouth game despite some injuries late in the season. He was brutally honest and told me that he picked up an injury, which he nursed carefully as he was thinking about his future away from the football club.
“I ended up picking up an injury in training, and for me, it was quite a worry with my contract ending, I was thinking about my future and my main priority was getting fit for the summer, so I could get the best move.”
Towards the end of the interview, I asked Max what moment he would change throughout his City career and his answer was quite an interesting one, as he pinpointed a moment from early in his time with the club.
“[When I joined permanently] I came in and out the team, swapping that left-back position with Tayo, but I managed to start a run of games ahead of the game against Tranmere just before everything got shut down for COVID. There were 6 or 7 games left of the season and I really wanted to get my head down and keep that shirt. That was difficult, and I look back on how things could have been different without that.
“And then when I came back into pre-season, I just wasn’t ready. I played a few pre-season games and I’d just picked up niggles and by the time it came around to the season, I wasn’t in the position to have that starting spot and rightly so Sean came in and kept me out of the team. Coming back not in the right condition really put me on the back foot, and that is the moment I look back on and think how different it could’ve been”
You can read the other parts of the Max Melbourne interview on the site now, as we discussed Michael Appleton and his Plymouth goal.