January
With coal stocks at power stations dwindling the 1st of January saw an escalation to the state of emergency in Britain. From this date, television companies were required to cease broadcasting at 10.30pm, a 50mph speed limit was introduced on the roads, there was a control on temperatures in offices and businesses were limited to the use of electricity for just three normal working days a week. This meant a three-day working week for most people, although exemptions were granted to services deemed essential such as hospitals, supermarkets and newspaper printing presses.
1974 was also the year which saw New Year’s Day become a Bank Holiday for the first time, and this was perhaps responsible, despite more snow, for City’s attendance of 5,139 for the visit of Torquay United (no Bank Holiday local derby this!) being the highest at Sincil Bank since mid-September. It was again a 2pm kick-off, and a first win in five games moved City back up two places to fifth. After two substitute appearances, right winger John Worsdale came into the side in place of John Ward and a goal by him and two from Alan Harding secured a convincing 3-0 win.
Unfortunately, the rise in the league table was followed by an immediate slip back again following a 4-1 defeat at Layer Road to a table-topping Colchester United side defending an unbeaten home record. Managed by Graham Taylor’s former City team mate Jim Smith and with ex-Imps Ray Harford and Bobby Svarc in the side two goals from the latter helped put the U’s 3-0 up at the break with McNeil’s second half goal merely a consolation.
Meanwhile, in December the Football Association had asked the Home Office for permission to play matches on Sundays. Even though floodlights would not be used electricity was needed for the general running of the ground and it was considered that Sundays might allow a more guaranteed supply. This was allowed and four FA Cup Third Round ties were played on Sunday January 6th, the distinction of being the very first falling to the Cambridge United v Oldham match which kicked off at 11am.
As one of the other three games was Nottingham Forest v Bristol Rovers, I was easily able to be part of the historic first day of professional football matches on a Sunday by going along to the City Ground for 2pm to see Second Division Forest win 4-3.
It was actually illegal under the Sunday Observances Act to charge admission to a match on that day of the week, but it was possible to specify ‘no admission without team sheet’. This meant in practice you paid the normal admission price at the turnstiles and picked one up as you went in. However, and again by law, every club had to have one turnstile for free admission to the ground. This was either the normally least-used turnstile or else it was varied without warning so that no-one would know in advance which it was to be. There was also something of an attitude among most supporters to shame those who used it.
There were objections for religious reasons in some quarters against football on Sundays, but such people were evidently in a minority as large numbers turned out for the four matches that were played, with Bolton’s game with Stoke City attracting more than double their usual attendance.
I was young and keen in those days and if City were playing at some remote location on a Saturday, I would usually go along to another match elsewhere, it seeming unnatural to be spending a Saturday afternoon at home. On that FA Cup weekend while the Imps were at Colchester on the Saturday, I’d been to Derby to see the First Division side held to a goal-less draw by Northern Premier League champions Boston United. The Pilgrims’ side included later City assistant manager Dick Bate and future England coach Howard Wilkinson. The replay had to take place the following Wednesday at 1.30 in the afternoon highlighting the difficulties caused by the power restrictions. There had been a suggestion by some clubs to suspend the season and postpone matches to the end of it which could run until June, but the Football League refused on the grounds that bad weather might cause fixture chaos later on.
Back to City’s fortunes, and with John Worsdale, Dennis Leigh and Peter Graham added to the injured list which included a second cartilage operation for Dave Smith, it was maybe a good time to be playing a struggling Workington side. With John Kennedy dropped after the 4-1 defeat at Colchester Eric Hulme was recalled in goal and George Peden, John Ward and Ian Musson came into the lineup and it was Ward’s opportunist second half goal added to Dixie McNeil’s first half header that secured the points in a scrappy match at Sincil Bank.
The controversy over Sunday football continued, with 12 Football League games scheduled on that day the following weekend. The divisional organiser for the Lord’s Day Observance Society in Lincoln said that people should not have such contempt for God’s laws, and that adopting the continental system of playing football on a Sunday would deprive us of “the fundamental British liberty” of being at home with one’s family after a week’s work. City boss Graham Taylor’s opinion was that if people showed they wanted football on a Sunday they should be presented with it.
City, meanwhile, continued to play on a Saturday, with a visit to Scunthorpe. John Worsdale was fit to return in place of Musson and the point gained thanks to a late penalty from McNeil was enough to put City back into the fourth promotion place.
On the day after City’s trip to Scunthorpe the first ever Football League match to be played on a Sunday saw the London derby between Millwall and Fulham kick-off at 1130am. I was able to be part of another historic first day as one of the other eleven games that day was conveniently down the road at Meadow Lane with a 2.15pm start for the Second Division match between Notts County and Crystal Palace.
A week later it was City’s turn with the visit of Rotherham United on 27th January 1974 being the first ever Sunday game played at Sincil Bank. With the dark winter evenings starting to draw out games were now able to begin at 2.30pm, but the match programme was reduced to a four-page effort costing 3p due to production difficulties caused by the effects of the three-day working week. There was also a setback for the City Social Club when the magistrates refused to allow a Sunday 2-3pm extension to the opening hours. The match drew an attendance of over 6,000, almost double that for the visit of Workington a fortnight before and we saw a 2-1 win thanks to a goal from Ward and Dixie McNeil’s tenth goal in eight games as he scored for the fourth game in a row.
February
I was to find it a bit of a nuisance getting to Sunday games as the first train of the day from Nottingham didn’t arrive in Lincoln until around 3.30pm. As for bus services, the Sunday schedule of one every two hours from Nottingham to Newark meant an 11am start followed by hanging around Newark for over an hour on a Sunday afternoon until the first train of the day from there to Lincoln.
At any rate, I was back at Sincil Bank for the second Sunday in a row – after a trip the day before to see Aston Villa play Luton in Division Two, their match programme including a photo showing office staff working by the light of oil lamps. The win against Rotherham the week before had seen City hang on to 4th place on goal average but a 3-2 defeat to second-placed Gillingham saw them slip out of the promotion places for good, unfortunately in front of the biggest crowd of the season of over 7,000. Colin Symm was able to return to the starting lineup after five weeks out, but Alan Harding had now developed cartilage trouble and was to miss the rest of the season. City led at half time through Tom Spencer, but despite John Ward’s third goal in four games Gillingham twice took the lead to come out on top.
In the country at large the situation now escalated as the National Union of Mineworkers stepped up their action to an all-out strike with the consequence that a general election was called by Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath to take place at the end of the month.
Meanwhile the restrictions continued and mine and City’s first Sunday away match came the following weekend at Valley Parade when an unchanged lineup went down 4-0 to a mid-table Bradford City side for the heaviest defeat of the season.
With City at home again the following Sunday I once again ventured elsewhere the day before, this time into the First Division to see Sheffield United who included 18-year-old later Imps player Steve Cammack in their side against Stoke City.
At this time of year games were now able to kick-off at 3pm once more, but with perhaps a combination of the novelty of Sunday football wearing off and City’s poor form the attendance was down by around 1700 from a fortnight before. Several changes were made for the visit of Reading with John Kennedy recalled in goal in place of Eric Hulme, Dennis Leigh fit to return at left back to the exclusion of George Peden, Terry Heath back after a six-month lay-off in place of Spencer and making his debut in place of the injured-again Symm was 24-year-old ex-Charlton and Blackpool midfielder Dennis Booth on loan from Third Division Southend. Up front, Peter Graham was fit to return with John Worsdale left out. However, the changes made little difference to the result, with to add insult to injury, former Imps favourite Percy Freeman scoring one of the goals in Reading’s 2-0 win to drop City down into mid-table.
The following weekend saw a Saturday game for a change, with a visit to next-to-bottom Brentford. An unchanged side made it four defeats out of four games played in the month of February, going down 2-1 despite taking an early lead through McNeil. The game also saw Jimmy McGeough sent off towards the end for kicking an opponent.