York upset the mood with a 0-0 draw at the Bank on 16th September, allowing Southend to draw level on points, but it was a fourth clean sheet in five. Rookie keeper Andy Gorton, described later in life as a wrong ‘un, looked solid with the twin towers of Thommo and Grant in front of him. Up front we looked a little light, but Carmichael and Sertori were growing into their partnership.
Southend then won on the following Friday to take a three point lead, with the Imps due at Wrexham the next day. The Racecourse Ground wasn’t a welcoming place back then and City needed a result. A 2-0 win was conjured up with Sertori bagging a brace inside a minute just after half time. City had 13 points from five game and once again, kept a clean sheet. What could possibly derail their wonderful start to the season?
On Friday 26th September, 1989 our closest rivals Southend found their unbeaten record firmly ended with a 5-0 defeat at Preistfield. That left us as one of only two undefeated sides in the division, the other being Carlisle in third with three draws. Who could possibly end the run?
Not Peterborough United, managed by well-known muppet Mark Lawrenson. He flopped as a manager and it will delight Imps fan to know one of his first tasks was to watch his side lose 1-0 to a Dave Clarke goal in front of 6106 fans at the Bank.
In his programme notes prior to the game, Colin Murphy wrote: “Leaving that which is disparaging to times disparagement. However, the only time to worry is when those who disparage are able to justify their disparagement or alternatively are well read and versed enough to quantify their disparagement. a rarity.”
Quite. He also said, rather wisely;
“At this particular stage of the season arguments will continue to range as to the validity of the Football League tables. Do they mean anything? Who makes the avaluations? One thing we do learn is that it is a long way up and a long way down rather like the Duke of York you would say because he said ‘when he was half way up he was neither up nor down'”
Translated, the league table meant nothing in September no matter what people might say. Still, who could possibly be disparaging after five wins and a draw in Division Four?
The Peterborough game was to be followed by a winner takes all match away at Roots Hall against Southend United, a table-topping encounter not unlike the trip to Exeter we had recently. Their 5-0 defeat had surely knocked the stuffing out of them and spirits would be high. The Imps line up was Gorton, Casey, Clarke, Thompson, Brown, Schofield, Groves, Bressington, Sertori, Waitt and Cumming. They held the hopes of a city on their shoulders, a win would give the Imps 22 points from a possible 24 and a big lead over the chasing pack.
We lost 2-0, goals from Roy McDonough and Pete Butler sunk us. In the stands for Southend was a young player called Steve Tilson too, obviously enjoying his taste of ruining Lincoln fan’s days as he managed it many times since.
That was that, the Imps sunk to second in the table and the unbeaten run was over. A draw with Chesterfield and a win against Halifax followed, the latter buoyed by the capture of star winger Alan Roberts. That turned out well, he broke his leg after a handful of games and his career finished. It seemed to be the season for injuries, with Shipley having been lost pre-season. Paul Smith and Gordon Hobson missed much of the campaign through injury, and even the hard-as-nails Steve Thompson spent some time on the treatment table, presumably for a gash to the head after nutting a Halifax defender.
What happened after that? Suffice to say we didn’t win the league, nor get promoted. Form fell apart, the talented Groves went back to his parent cloud before deciding to spend his career as a cod head and crucially Bobby Cumming picked up an injury, a recurring story in the season, which eventually finished his Imps career. We floated around the play offs, lifted by fine wins against Cambridge on Boxing Day that left us fifth, but often sinking to horrible defeats such as the 1-0 loss to Aldershot in January that dropped us to tenth.
One game, a 3-1 reverse against Gillingham, saw me watch on in awe as Graham Bressington scored a world-class goal to 1-0 up after just two minutes. At the time, we were still sniffing the automatic promotion spots, but by half time they’d smashed in three, capped off by a wonderful finish from the poacher Steve Lovell. That typified the season, stubborn and full of resolves at times, but woeful and shot-shy at others.
With ten games to go, we found ourselves in fourth, winning 1-0 away at Halifax, remaining there despite losing 2-1 against Maidstone at home the following week. That sort of form wasn’t good enough though and one win in eight saw us fall back to eighth. On the final day of the season, Champions Exeter hammered us 5-1 at home. Gordon Hobson scored, but left the club, Murph followed him and we’d have to wait thirty years to start a league campaign at such a pace again.
The Echo headline after the Aldershot game was ‘Matt fires the Shots’! Didn’t he become a defender?
Yes, after first coming into the side as a striker and also (if I remember right) playing out wide he went on to play most of his games for City as a useful central defender.