Home form continued to be good with a 2-0 win over Northampton putting City up to sixth place but a first defeat at Sincil Bank came in the FA Cup as Bury’s 2-1 win gained them quick revenge for their recent league defeat and left City able to concentrate on the league.
Defensive tactics away from home had resulted in two more draws being gained but with Terry Branston injured and Derek Trevis also having to miss a couple of games the team was having to be changed around with even long-serving reserve defender Alan Pilgrim brought into the side for his first game in a season and a half.
Meanwhile, with his first team opportunities limited Bobby Svarc had been on loan to Boston United, managed by his old Imps team mate Jim Smith and the move was now made permanent for a fee of £1,750. He later followed Smith to Colchester and Blackburn and became a consistent scorer for both clubs. He was quickly followed to South Lincolnshire by the part-time Pilgrim, joining other ex-Imps Malcolm White and Gordon Hughes.
Some much-needed strengthening of the squad then arrived with the signing of experienced defender John Kurila from Colchester United and two players on loan from Notts County – 21-year-old defender Terry Cooper and former Brentford winger Allan Mansley. All three were in the side, with left back George Peden making a first appearance of the season as replacement for the injured Graham Taylor as a struggling Stockport County side were beaten 2-1. Phil Hubbard’s brace took his total for the season to 19 goals in 24 games. But a run of just that one win in six games saw City down in eighth place by the end of the year.
With a new centre half deemed a priority City had enquired after several players, including Sheffield Wednesday’s Sam Ellis for whom a fee of £10,000 had been quoted. Funds first needed to be raised by selling and this was done with the transfer on Christmas Eve of Phil Hubbard to eventual Second Division champions Norwich City for the substantial fee at the time of £20,000. There was some disquiet over this with correspondents to the Echo complaining that the selling of the leading scorer showed there was no ambition by the board for promotion.
Meanwhile, in an unconvincing performance on New Year’s Day with Derek Trevis pressed into service up front in place of the departed Hubbard and with Cooper in midfield a Percy Freeman goal was enough to beat a Workington side just below City in the league table.
Due to a rearrangement of fixtures a fortnight’s break saw the Hubbard money put to good use with the acquisition of what were to be two key players. Centre half Tom Spencer was signed for £10,000 from Workington for whom he had just played at Sincil Bank, and a direct replacement for Hubbard for what was really a bargain £9,500 was Dixie McNeil, Northampton Town’s leading scorer with 16 goals in the season so far.
Both new players scored on their debuts as league leaders Brentford were seen off by 4-1 at Sincil Bank with John Ward contributing two goals as he came into the side for broken arm victim Alan Gilliver. With Cooper and Mansley returned to Notts County and Derek Trevis also on the injured list, George Peden came into the side at full back in place of Mick Bloor as the 4-3-3 formation that had served so well earlier in the season was now seen again. This had featured three strikers and a midfield combining the skill of Dave Smith, the energy and remarkable ability to read a game of Frankie McMahon and the strength of Trevor Meath. Disrupted by the injury to Meath but now with the hard-tackling Kurila fulfilling the same role it was to propel City into the top four.
I then at last made it to my first away match of the season – a visit to Grimsby, one place above City in the table. Crammed into the old wooden stand where the Young’s Stand is now situated, and with the ground far below visible through the cracks in the boards, we saw City tear into a 2-0 lead early in the second half in front of over 15,000. But McNeil and Freeman’s goals were nullified as the Mariners fought back and despite the thought that a draw was a fair result there was disappointment at not holding on for the win.
Successive home wins then saw City into fifth place, with January’s record of three wins and a draw seeing David Herd become the first City manager to win a Manager of the Month award.
Despite being an entertaining match, another away was point dropped at Peterborough in a game which kicked off at 2.45pm due to a State of Emergency recently imposed by the Government, with restrictions on the use of electricity due to a miners’ strike. With John Worsdale, who had replaced Ward in the side after the Grimsby match scoring his first goal for the club and Dave Smith scoring direct from a corner, City although 3-1 up at one stage were pegged back by a last-minute Posh goal to finish 4-4.
A win over Bury saw a move into the top four and in my third successive away match a late winner by Worsdale at Northampton further moved City up to third place. With the three Lincolnshire clubs occupying the top three positions the Imps consolidated this at home to fourth-placed Southport with another goal from Worsdale and a sixth in eight games from McNeil. With the other new signing, Spencer having contributed five goals from centre half those who had previously questioned the Christmas period transfer dealings were now saying they “would rather have these two than Hubbard”.
Graham Taylor had suffered an injury at Northampton which was to keep him out of the side until the last game of the season, and also struck by injury was Dixie McNeil causing him to miss a couple of games although Alan Gilliver was now fit to deputise and was on the mark with a late goal to help bring both points back from Exeter after a disappointing home draw with Gillingham.
The first defeat of 1972 then came on a Monday night at Brentford before a break from the pressure of the promotion chase with a star-studded testimonial match for midfielder Nobby Lawton whose injuries had forced him to give up the game. David Herd used his contacts to attract a galaxy of top players such as Nobby Stiles, Johnny Giles, Peter Lorimer and Derek Dougan for a game which attracted over 10,000.
It was then on to ‘the big one’ the following Saturday – the visit to Sincil Bank of table-topping Scunthorpe United spearheaded by former Imps favourite Rod Fletcher with 17 goals in the season so far. The season’s second attendance of over 15,000, and the highest in the league since 1958 saw Fletcher well marshalled by Terry Branston as Gilliver’s powerful header was the only goal of the match and moved City into second place. That was as good as it got although a midweek defeat at Chester was rescued by a win at Reading thanks to a goal from Derek Trevis, restored to the side as the three centre back formation was tried again.
Writing in his Football Echo column prior to the Scunthorpe match Maurice Burton reckoned that City could afford to drop eight points from the remaining twelve games to be certain of promotion. As it turned out they let slip eleven, and the game MB had targeted as a ‘must win’ at home to fellow promotion chasers Southend United ended without a goal as City slipped down to fifth place. This game had seen the third five figure crowd of the season and despite only one point being gained from the next two away matches there were still well over 9,000 for what was to be the last ever visit of Barrow in a Football League match. Two goals from McNeil in a close 3-2 win kept City in with a chance but then it all went wrong in front of a similar attendance the following Saturday against bottom three side Darlington. Later Imps star Peter Graham scored the only goal of the game as City lost at home in the league for the first time in what was their worst performance of the season.
And that was it. We all ‘knew’ the chance of promotion had gone despite there still being plenty of points to play for. The away defensive formation didn’t exactly work at Gillingham, but a 3-3 draw still brought back a point, and I made the long journey to Aldershot for the first time to be amazed at watching a game standing on a footpath behind the goal. A scoreless game earned another point with the home side on their way to setting a new record for the most draws in a season. Another goalless draw at home to bottom club Crewe was witnessed by a crowd over 50% down on the previous game and only just over 3,000 bothered for the last game of the season against Chester the following Saturday. Changes were made, with Spencer deployed up front, and two goals apiece for him and McNeil did at least ensure qualification for the Watney Cup, a pre-season competition for the highest scoring teams in each division not to have won promotion. City finished a single point behind a Scunthorpe side that had scraped into fourth place despite gaining only one point from their last three games.
It was little consolation to point to the progress the club had made from seeking re-election the year before, and with the poor performance against Darlington in mind there were the inevitable accusations that the players didn’t want promotion – something which was refuted as ‘nonsense’ by Maurice Burton, pointing out they had all lost out on promotion bonus payments.
Voted player of the season was Terry Branston, while elsewhere in football, league champions for the first time in their history were Derby County. Norwich City, with Phil Hubbard featuring in just eight games for them, won the Second Division, Grimsby were Fourth Division champions and the FA Cup Final saw Leeds United beat Arsenal with a goal by later Imps manager Allan Clarke. Lincoln’s other team, United, were glad to finish a mid-table tenth in the Yorkshire League Division One.