Looking Back at – 1965/66

This defeat led Chapman to declare the team would now concentrate on playing attacking football, and that if only £20,000 could be made available he would build a good team straight away. With Ellis having played his last game for the club after going off injured during a 1-0 win at Rochdale the previous week Chapman was now filling the central striker’s berth (“I am not a centre forward but someone has to play there”).

After fitting in a game with promotion-chasing Luton Town, when two goals from Chapman saw City fight back from two down at half time to draw I was doing well with my fourth successive home game for the visit of Hartlepools. Despite any influence the visitors may have had from their recently appointed manager Brian Clough City actually won for a change with goals from Hutchinson and Holmes moving them up to the dizzy heights of 16^th place. A moderately successful run of two wins and a draw from four games was attributed to an extent by MB to John Hawksby playing a key role as:”A left winger with a wandering brief…liable to pop up in all sorts of places in the forward line as a menace to opposing defences”.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last, and six defeats out of seven followed, including on New Year’s Day (which happened to be a Saturday – no Bank Holiday then!) when I witnessed a 2-0 defeat by Wrexham in front of the second-lowest League attendance on the day of 3,876. MB was decidedly unimpressed, referring to an “abysmal performance”, describing it as nothing less than rubbish and a “shabby attempt to play football”.

Well, this “fiasco” didn’t prevent me from making the bus journey to Chesterfield from Nottingham the following Saturday for my first ever away game, and my first game on my own. With Saltergate the only Football League ground still without floodlights the game kicked off at 2.30pm and despite changes seeing Alf Jones return at full back instead of Tom Brooks, Bunny Larkin in for Milner and young amateur Chris Gedney in midfield it was a lacklustre 1-0 defeat in the fog and gloom.

But I was back yet again at Sincil Bank the following Saturday when snowy conditions played some part in an attendance of just 1,955 for the visit of bottom club Aldershot. MB described it as a match City could not afford to lose and reported that the Imps finished the stronger in treacherous conditions. Peter Wakeham’s penalty save was the turning point of the match and was followed by two Hutchinson goals for a 2-1 win. This meant a move out of the bottom four, but not for long as a 3-0 defeat by Doncaster in the next game saw a slip back again. In between, City had dealt with their centre forward problem by paying Brentford £2,000 for 29-year-old Joe Bonson, a player with a record of 115 league goals for a variety of mainly lower league clubs. Making his debut in front of over 7,000 in an eventful match City were dealt a blow with Roy Chapman suffering a fractured cheekbone which kept him on the sidelines for the rest of the season.

My second away match was another defeat to a local side with Barry Hutchinson scoring in a 2-1 defeat at Notts County. The news then broke that ‘Hutch’ had been sold to eventual Division Four runners-up Darlington for £5,000 plus midfielder Ken Allison. Although the deal may have been prompted by a recently announced financial loss it was the loss of Hutchinson’s goals that put an end to any chance of climbing out of trouble as he had contributed over half of City’s total and finished with an overall record of 20 from 27 games to emulate his father in finishing as top scorer in a season for the club.

The following Saturday I saw a host of missed chances by Bonson contribute to another defeat as Colchester won 2-0. But he and Allison were then off the mark in a creditable draw with second-placed Chester which moved City off the bottom. The game featured 17-year-old Phil Hubbard making his debut up front. City were now fielding a new-look 4-3-3 formation with Jeff Smith in midfield and a very rare goal from him helped gain a single point from the next three matches.

I then suffered a personal loss with the sudden death of my father, but, staying with relatives in Leadenham I didn’t let it prevent me from attending Sincil Bank the following Saturday, unfortunately seeing a 1-0 defeat by a Port Vale team managed by Stanley Matthews. Jim Grummett was now being tried in midfield and even played on the wing in this game before reverting to defence.

A fifth successive defeat, going down by 7-0 at Crewe was the low point of the season (“Lincoln were a sad lot” – MB), and saw City firmly rooted to the bottom of the league. The game saw a debut for left-winger Harry Godbold, another signing from Boston FC. Aged 27, he had played for both Boston clubs but had league experience with Hartlepools. With Chapman threatening to make changes the Imps bounced back after two months without a win with home victories over Barnsley and Bradford City. But despite a six-game unbeaten run at home including five wins, and a decent number of points gained from a preponderance of away matches to finish the season City had left it too late to manage anything better than 22^nd place for the fifth time in six seasons and another re-election plea.

I had managed three more games myself travelling into Lincoln by bus from Leadenham, including successive 4-0 wins against Southport and Barrow. Joe Bonson finished with a total of 12 goals from 23 games, but City’s record of 57 goals scored was the second worst in the division.

A new development was a Youth Section of the Supporters Club, with those interested in joining invited to contact secretary D. E. Reeve “behind the goal which City are attacking, giving as much vocal support as possible”. Despite this look to the future the writer of the programme notes was in gloomy mood: “Another season such as we have experienced this year will surely mean the end of Lincoln City as a Football League side”.

Fourth Division champions were Doncaster Rovers in a season in which Bradford (Park Avenue) despite scoring 102 goals – 44 of them coming from Kevin Hector – finished in 11^th place. League champions were Liverpool, and the FA Cup Final saw Sheffield Wednesday with later Imps players Jim McCalliog and Sam Ellis in their side lose to Everton. Meanwhile, everyone was looking forward to the World Cup in England and arguing whether we stood any chance without Johnny Haynes in the squad.