After a hard-fought replay win over Chester the Imps went on to meet Second Division Birmingham City at St Andrews in the Third Round and were not disgraced in a narrow 2-1 defeat in front over 31,000. After being in the top four places in the league for the first half of the season they disappointingly fell away to finish eighth, while Macclesfield went on to win the Northern Premier League by 12 points ahead of Wigan – with the loss to City being their only home defeat of the season. They won the league again the following season as Frank Beaumont also led them to the ‘double’, winning the FA Trophy in its first ever season.
The two clubs were not to meet again until the Imps’ 1987/88 Conference championship season, when, with it being a Tuesday night game I wasn’t able to get to the game at the Moss Rose. Nor, due to my attention being elsewhere after moving to Merthyr Tydfil did I make it to any of the games after the two clubs began meeting more frequently from the late 1990s onwards. Until now that is.
With my match ticket now having been bought by means of the wonders of the Internet I set off just after 7.30am, preferring to allow plenty of time in case of delays, and due to the vagaries of the transport system in South Wales spending the first hour travelling in the opposite direction of Macclesfield. Switching from bus to train at Cardiff, there was plenty of time for a very civilised tea and biscuits from the trolley en route to Birmingham, changing there and arriving at Macclesfield just after 1.30pm.
Having totally forgotten the way to the ground with the lapse of fifty years I’d taken the precaution of previously checking on Google Earth, and after getting my bearings found my way there with no trouble. It turned out that where the afore-mentioned Moss Rose pub had stood was now a car park and I gather there are plans to re-develop the site. After a brief queue to get through the turnstile I enjoyed a steak & kidney pie which I can strongly recommend if anyone finds their way to a match there. The only feature remaining of the ground from my previous visit was the main stand pictured here. This was brand new back in 1968 and of the type which I was to recognise in City’s late 1980s Conference season as a typical non-league stand. Opposite, where had been covered terracing was now quite a decent stand with executive boxes along the back, while the end where I stood was open terracing, with the former grassy back at the opposite end now covered and with an unusual mix of four or five rows of seats with terracing at the back.
The ground capacity now is actually slightly less than the crowd numbers at the match 50 years ago due to the replacement of terracing with seating.
The match programme was what seems to be the standard price these days of £3 and the usual glossy production, compared to the equally standard 6d (2½p) of the olden days.
I don’t propose to give a match report as plenty of descriptions are available elsewhere, suffice it to say that only Macclesfield’s goalkeeper kept them in the game and prevented them from suffering a heavy defeat. When the Silkmen equalised in the 84th minute it seemed as if he had earned them a point, but was then at fault for the first time in the game as City defender Jason Shackell hit the winning goal from a corner three minutes later to scenes of great jubilation from us behind the goal.1,161 supporters were there from Lincoln out of a total attendance of 2,589, and while I’ve no idea whether as many were present in 1968 (probably doubtful) they certainly didn’t represent such a large percentage of the total as this weekend.
Looking back at the players of 50 years ago I think are maybe two or three who might get into the present-day side, with Dave Smith a definite
A brisk walk back to the station took no more than 20 minutes for a train back to Birmingham where there had been an outside chance of making a minus five minutes connection, but as always when you want a train to be late it never is and the 1830 Cardiff train had already left when I got to New Street at 1835. So plenty of time for a sandwich, as due to essential engineering work at Bristol Parkway, I had no alternative but to wait for the 1930 train to Cardiff. Arrived there a couple of minutes early I was able to make a three-minute connection to a Merthyr train, and a rapid uphill walk got me home just about 15 hours after setting off. Whew! But worth it, and always worth being there if at all possible rather than watching on the Internet when it’s offered.
I remember going to the FA Cup game in 1968 with Andy Everington and Colin Tesh in my first ever car an Austin A40 Farina. It was quite scary going over the ‘Cat and Fiddle’ but the result made it worthwhile. Happy Days.