Daniel had experienced a solid career with Hull, Wolves and Sunderland, winning the 1980 League Cup with the Molineux side, while being part of the Black Cats team that lost the 1985 final to Norwich. He joined City in November 1985 as a 30-year-old and stuck his head above the parapet by agreeing to take charge for the final 12 matches of the season, hoping his experience as a top-flight player could help Lincoln’s cause.

Lund went on: “Peter was in a no-win situation really. If he had got a few results then people would have said ‘well, they only just scraped out of it’, but that didn’t happen anyway. He wanted to take the job, but he was very brave in doing so.

“In hindsight, maybe a more experienced manager should have been appointed at that stage, who had been through that scenario before. It was possibly a naive choice to make at that time. Maybe a manager who had been used to grinding out results at the bottom of the table was required – Peter had played football at a very high standard and had probably not been involved in many relegation battles, and so maybe wasn’t the right man for the job.

“I am not blaming him at all, though, as he was thrown in at the deep end. He took over right in the middle of that slide and to say he had never managed before and to have that as your first management role, was a daunting position to be in.

“Peter – he was an experienced pro, he had played many games for Wolves – tried every trick he could think of, but there was nothing he could do in his short time in charge to arrest the slide we were in. He changed the team around a bit, he dropped me at one point, so he tried everything but nothing worked.”

Daniel didn’t collect his first win until April 11 when City triumphed 2-1 at Crewe and the Imps were to win only one more match under his tenure, 3-1 at home to Northampton, two weeks later, and by that time the very stark realisation of getting relegated had hit home.

“We clearly knew that coming into the last four or five games that it was a very, very serious situation,” said Lund. “Maybe around 10 games out we felt ‘it can’t happen’. But because of the seriousness of those last few games, we all froze and just couldn’t get out of the rut we were in.

“We were not at the bottom until the very end and it was a very strange thing for us, and we were just hoping the early-season form would see us through, but it just wasn’t happening and we could not get a win.”

A 3-0 loss at Wolves was followed by another 2-1 defeat to local rivals Scunthorpe and City’s season hung in the balance as they travelled to Vetch Field for the final match of the season against Swansea, which was ironically a team Lund had scored a hat-trick against earlier in the season when the goals – and wins – were flowing freely.

“We went down to Swansea and I think we were frightened to death,” said a frank Lund. “Because it was the first season of relegation, nobody knew what was going to happen, whether they would have a contract at the end of the game, what the situation was. Nobody knew where they stood. We were professional footballers in the Football League and if we get relegated, what happens then? Do contracts stand or are they invalid? There was pure alarm in everyone’s mindset and that is not conducive to playing football.

“We travelled overnight to the game, although we wouldn’t have done normally, but because of the importance of that match we did, as the chairman wanted us to have a good night’s sleep. There was also the promise of a bonus if we won, but whatever they did they struggled to get anything out of us as we were totally lacking in confidence by that stage.”

City duly suffered a 2-0 defeat, but they could still have survived if Torquay had failed to beat Crewe, but Gulls defender Jim McNichol, who had earlier scored for United, was bitten by a police dog late in the match and in the five minutes of injury-time added on for the Scot to receive treatment, Paul Dobson (who joined the Imps four years later) rammed home an equaliser to consign Lincoln to their fate.

Lund can still painfully remember the emotions he felt as relegation was confirmed: “It was horrible. Everyone cared, no-one wanted to go down. You saw people in that changing room who were fearful of what was around the corner, whether they’d still have a job or not.

“The players tried their hardest, there was no case of them not trying, absolutely not. It just didn’t happen and it was an awful place to be. I have never been in such a downbeat place and it was the worst day of my football life and I guess that would be the same for many, many players. It’s not a day I look back on fondly.

“My world was in turmoil and my professional career was on the line – in those days, the Conference was part-time – and no-one knew what was going on. The club had to find out from the League what the legal standings were, with contracts and things, and after a couple of weeks we all went in to see the manager and he basically he said everyone who had contracts were free to leave. I don’t know if that was from a legal point of view or whether the club was just trying to get rid of players.”

Lund was not about to hang around playing non-league football and with several offers on the table, he eventually signed for Notts County, who he would go on to have a long and distinguished career with.

“I didn’t want to play in the Conference and I wanted to be a professional footballer,” he said. “I had to assess my options – Brighton and Fulham came in for me, as well as Dundee United strangely enough, and then Notts County, and in terms of logistics that was better than everything else. It was less upheaval for me and seemed the most sensible option for me to take.

“I spent eight and a half seasons there and had some great times. I played at Wembley on three or four occasions, got promotion and ended up getting into the old First Division, albeit just for one season. It was somewhere where I put some roots down and settled. I enjoyed my time and thankfully, Notts fans look back on my time there quite favourably, whereas that probably doesn’t happen at Lincoln.

“I have since settled in Nottingham and am now an estate agent. Sometimes I forget I was a footballer as it feels like I have done this all my life, but maybe that’s just an age thing. It is great, though, to have a second career, it is fulfilling. A lot of footballers when they finish their careers, potter around doing bits and bobs maybe not fulfilling themselves, whereas I have found something I have really enjoyed doing.”

He has been quoted as saying that moving to Lincoln was the biggest mistake of his footballing career – does he still think like that? He answered: “I don’t mean it in a negative way, it is nothing about Lincoln, but I was just desperate to get away from Mick Lyons. I was a young boy, naive and it worked for Grimsby because they were getting Phil Turner in and I just went along with it really.

“I don’t think I should have to go down to that level, without being disrespectful to Lincoln, and I’m sure if I had explored it, there would have been some clubs at a higher level who would have been interested in me. Lyons wasn’t speaking to me, it was awful and I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. This was the first opportunity I had to get out of there and I took it.”

Lund finished his career at Chesterfield, following a couple of loan spells at Hull City, but how does he feel now about that relegation season some 30 years ago?

He concluded: “I do feel slightly guilty that I was part of the side that took Lincoln down, although they did bounce back pretty quickly under Colin Murphy. I was relatively happy there and do remember my time there pretty fondly, if you can do in the circumstances and I wish them well. I was delighted to see what they did last season, that was fabulous.”

By Dominic Picksley (originally appeared in A City United)

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