April
The final month of the season opened with the news that City had made the substantial loss of £40,565 on the year ending the previous June, compared to a small profit the year before that. This was largely attributed to the cost of transfer fees with around £32,000 more having been paid out than received. Also on the subject of financial matters, there was some evidence of a still-simmering estrangement with the former Supporters Club. Brian Heward, chairman of the Red Imps Association, stated that every amateur club in the area had recently been invited to join City’s fund-raising organisation for their mutual benefit, but this had been undermined by the Lincoln & District Football Supporters Club offering direct financial handouts to the same clubs. He put this down to the LDFSC having “a surplus of finance” that they were finding it “difficult and even embarrassing” to distribute, and described it as “a stab in the back” for the football club: “It is like them saying if they didn’t support Lincoln City, they would make it difficult for anyone else to do so”.
The first away midweek match since the ending of the floodlighting restrictions saw an unchanged team suffer a 2-0 defeat at Rotherham, but this was followed by a seven-goal thriller at Sincil Bank which put an end to the six-game run without a home win. Changes saw Dave Smith make a welcome return to the side again with Peter Graham dropping to the bench, but the fourth-placed Shakers raced into a two-goal lead with eight minutes gone. A Dixie McNeil goal put City back into the game before half time then a sensational hat-trick of headers in the space of seven minutes by loanee midfielder Dennis Booth turned the game on its head with Bury’s late final goal only a consolation.
Peter Graham, who had come off the bench in place of Ian Musson against Bury started ahead of him in the side at Exeter the following week and the expensive striker’s second goal for the club in his 25th game was enough to bring maximum points back from Devon. The win moved City up to 10th, their highest league position for two months, but the Easter Monday visit of bottom of the league Doncaster Rovers kept them there as three more goals were again conceded at home. This time it was City who let a two-goal lead slip as the visitors came back from a 3-1 half time deficit with a late equaliser. However, with the end of the season approaching team changes had been made for the game, with George Peden in for Dennis Leigh and 18-year-old amateur Kevin Scott given a first team outing in place of Terry Cooper. The game did include a first goal for the club by centre half Sam Ellis.
The return match with Doncaster came the following night, and despite the return of Cooper in defence City went down to two goals conceded late in the first half. The final home game of the season then came with the visit of Northampton and a 1-1 draw gained only thanks to an 87th minute own goal by the Cobblers’ substitute. Watched by the now usual attendance of around two and a half thousand the draw meant a disappointing home record over the last three months of the season of just one win in nine games. Dennis Leigh was back for this match and John Worsdale brought back in place of McGeough, plus this time Sam Ellis was the defender to make way for a look at a reserve as local amateur Neil Fleming was given his only first team outing.
The season ended with two away matches, both again seeing team changes made with nothing to play for. A 2-0 win for Gillingham took them to the top of the table as Eric Hulme, Tom Spencer and Ian Musson were all given games, and I made my way to Crewe on the last Saturday in April to see John Worsdale score in his last game for the club in a 2-1 defeat as 16-year-old defender David Wiggett made his debut off the bench replacing Ian Musson, one of four players in the side making their last City appearances.
So, the season wound down with a run of five games without a win including three defeats, leaving City in 12th place but in an open division only six points clear of the re-election zone. Like the previous season it had been a disappointing one, especially with the team on the fringe of the top four places up to the end of January although never quite convincing as promotion candidates. However, whether due to not settling to Sunday football or to certain weaknesses in key areas the team then fell away rather badly to a mid-table placing. This was reflected in the crowd figures during the later season decline which saw more attendances below 3,000 than at any time since the dark days of the mid-1960s. After the near-miss of 1971/72 supporters had evidently begun to despair of ever regaining the Third Division place lost ten years before that. But although to some extent the jury was still out on Graham Taylor’s record as manager better times lay ahead, based on a settled back four, now with a season’s experience of playing together, and key players in the spine of the team already in place.
Top scorer for the season was Dixie McNeil with 19 goals, closely followed by John Ward who continued his steady improvement with 17. After Alan Harding with six and Dave Smith with five no other player had managed more than three goals in the season, with the biggest disappointment in terms of goal tally being expensive signing Peter Graham who had only found the net twice in 31 appearances.
Possibly due to the break with the Supporters Club no vote was held for City’s Player of the Season.
One small piece of good news on the financial front was that City’s total of 63 league goals scored was enough to have earned them a place in the Watney Cup for the second time in three seasons. This was a competition for the two highest-scoring teams in each division not to have won anything. However, although Watney’s had now decided to end the competition as a goodwill gesture they still paid out the £4,000 that each qualifying club would have received.
Elsewhere in football, Leeds United were league champions for the second time in their history while towards the other end of the First Division table Manchester United dropped into the Second Division for the first time since 1938. One of the teams replacing United in the top flight were Carlisle United, reaching that level for the first time but finishing 16 points behind runaway Second Division champions Middlesbrough. Top of the Third Division were Oldham Athletic while Southport exited that division in the other direction at the start of a decline that was to take them out of the league. Worthy Fourth Division champions were Peterborough United while all of the bottom four clubs were re-elected, Workington for the first of what would be four applications in a row, and Crewe, perhaps fortunately as it was their fourth time in six seasons.
FA Cup winners were Liverpool who made up for finishing runners-up in the League by beating Newcastle United 3-0 at Wembley, while more locally, Lincoln United finished as Yorkshire League champions for the second time in four seasons.
As for Sunday football, although it had initially proved popular with better than average attendances the crowds then fell back to their normal level as the novelty wore off, and it was to be over eleven years before Lincoln City played on a Sunday again.