With City up to mid-table over 8,000 turned out for the visit of Scunthorpe, but as so often happens hopes were dashed as the Iron went away with a 2-1 win thanks to striker Nigel Cassidy who was to become a thorn in City’s side over the next few years. With Alick Jeffrey injured Meath was moved up front with the ever-versatile Hubbard in midfield and reliable reserve Tom Brooks brought in at centre half. However, after a 1-1 draw at home against lowly Workington earned thanks to another Bill Taylor penalty, Ron Gray began to plan changes to the squad. Placed on the transfer list were goalkeeper Colin Withers who had been confined to the reserves following his shaky start to the season, out-of-favour strikers Bobby Svarc and Alick Jeffrey and Roger Holmes, still struggling to regain full fitness in the reserves. In addition, transfer requests had been made by Graham Taylor, now left out of the side in favour of Hubbard and Dave Smith who had only made the subs’ bench since his return from injury and who – coincidentally or not! – since getting married earlier in the year had shown disappointing form.
The FA Cup trail then started, with struggling Third Division side Southport beaten 2-0 as ‘Smithy’ responded to being restored to the side with his first goal of the season. A 3-0 win at Darlington, rated by Maurice Burton as “the best all-round performance by City for many years” also saw a first goal for Dave Helliwell, back in the side for a couple of games on the wing with Smith in midfield. A minor footnote to Imps history was that in the defeat at Crewe on 26th November Dave Smith became the first City player ever to be booked for the offence of kicking the ball away.
The FA Cup run came to a quick end at the hands of another Third Division side, with Bradford City, inspired by ex-Imp Norman Corner, in the running for promotion to the Second. ‘Big Norm’ failed to get on the scoresheet but my first visit to Valley Parade saw the Imps well beaten 3-0 with Colin Withers making the last of his handful of appearances for the club. However, league form than began to pick up a bit with an unbeaten run of six matches including four wins. Dave Smith, restored to the left wing, began scoring again with three in successive games and Rod Fletcher – named by Maurice Burton as City’s best player of 1969 – ended the year out in front as top scorer with 14 goals many of these as a result of using his speed to run onto penetrating through balls from Billy Taylor.
Graham Taylor returned to the side with Phil Hubbard once again showing his versatility to play successively in defence, midfield and attack and slowly climbing the league table, the Imps were being driven on by the dynamic Meath possessing all the attributes of a human tank in midfield. Ploughing through the Sincil Bank mud he scored both goals in a game which resulted in a classic Echo headline of “Big Trevor Makes Mincemeat(h) of Grimsby Town”. However, with City up to 9th place amid hopes of a promotion challenge still being possible then came a visit to Chesterfield towards the end of January. Tragedy struck with Meath suffering a serious knee injury which ended his season and led to a long battle to regain fitness, a 4-0 defeat to the league leaders literally adding insult to injury. The game also saw Jack Lewis’s last game for City before joining Grimsby for £3,000. A player who had had many spells in the side without ever really achieving a permanent place and who to my mind was often wasted in midfield when he should have been in attack.
The next game did at least produce a 2-1 win at Exeter, with enforced changes seeing Alick Jeffrey also making a last appearance, and a goal from Bobby Svarc who had been brought back after scoring 5 goals in two games for the reserves including a hat-trick in a remarkable 11-2 win over Halifax. With Tom Brooks missing through injury it was fortunate that Ray Harford was fit to return. This was followed by a home game with Aldershot which was the only time I ever went in the old South Park stand (or indeed either of the old stands at Sincil Bank) – and took a photograph to prove it. The game produced the first of three successive draws, two of them at home, which did little to aid any possibility of a late run for promotion. The last of these saw a mention by Ron Gray in his programme notes of “our young custodian Mark Wallington” who had recently played for the North of England Schools and, “by all accounts had an excellent game”.
A loan signing to replace Svarc, left out of the side again, was 23-year-old Ray Gaston from Oxford United for whom he had played a dozen times in Division Two and gained a Northern Ireland international cap. He scored on his debut in a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Scunthorpe (two more goals for Cassidy) but was then anonymous in his remaining three games.
With further news of young Mark Wallington having “acquitted himself very well” this time playing for England Schoolboys against Scotland results for the first team continued to be variable. A home defeat by Chesterfield saw an attendance of over 7,500 drop by three thousand for the following game against Wrexham which saw Jim Grummett yet again deployed up front in the absence of a credible alternative at centre forward. This was the first in a run of five games in ten days and saw a rare Monday night game at Sincil Bank for a re-arranged fixture with Bradford. In those days a meeting with the unfortunate Park Avenue club was always good for an easy win and this proved no exception as Rod Fletcher ended a lean spell of 11 scoreless games in a 5-2 win which saw the welcome return of Roger Holmes after his long injury lay-off with Billy Taylor excluded for the first time.
The big win attracted 2,000 extra spectators for the Good Friday visit of Newport County and we were rewarded with more goals in a 3-0 win. This scoreline was repeated in the return match at Bradford the following day as I made my way up to Park Avenue for the second and last time as Billy Taylor was restored to the side in place of his injured namesake, Phil Hubbard once more reverting to full back.
Easter Monday produced a draw at Workington as the mixed results continued, and the name John Ward appeared on the team shirt for the first time for a home game with Crewe. However, the young amateur with five goals to his name for the reserves was not called upon from the bench in a 2-1 win although results elsewhere meant the end of any lingering hopes of promotion.
Prior to the kick-off against Notts County the first ever City Player of the Year was announced as John Kennedy but unfortunately, he went on to give his worst performance of the season in a 4-2 defeat. In the remaining three games Bobby Svarc responded to his latest recall with three goals including the only one of the game against Darlington in the last match of the season. This saw a rather makeshift lineup youngster with Alan Pilgrim brought into defence alongside Tom Brooks and Dave Helliwell making his last appearance for the club.
Although finishing with only one point less than the year before the same final placing of 8th was as high as City had been all season as a slight improvement in results after the midway stage was not enough to overcome a poor start. Perhaps as a consequence of the lack of a promotion challenge which had seen attendances gradually drop to half what they had been the year, before three seasons of general stability were soon to be succeeded by changes on and off the field.
One honour won by the Imps was the championship of the North Midlands League largely thanks to Bobby Svarc contributing almost a third of the goals scored by the reserve team all season.
Elsewhere, the Fourth Division champions were Chesterfield, their top scorer being later Imps striker Ernie Moss, the Spireites finishing ahead of Wrexham, Swansea Town and Port Vale. Lincoln United finished mid-table in the Yorkshire League First Division and Football League champions were Everton. FA Cup winners were Chelsea, who beat Leeds United at Old Trafford in the first Wembley final to go to a replay.