September
City had not made the best of starts to life in the higher division so far, with just one point from a possible four and an exit from the League Cup in the first round. Things began to pick up then with a visit from a more established Third Division club in Port Vale, now in their seventh season at that level. John Fleming returned to the starting line-up in place of Hubbard who dropped to the bench. Another attendance of just over 6,000 saw City’s first win of the season thanks to a penalty in each half by Sam Ellis, unfazed by his miss in the League Cup replay shoot-out. The first penalty had been awarded for handball, but the second perhaps showed up the visitors’ reputation as being a rugged, tough-tackling side as City had found in the meetings with them in FA Cup two years before. With the first win of the season under their belt the Imps now began a slow rise from the depths of the early-season league table.
The following week saw the start of the mid-week friendly fixtures that were again taking the place of reserve team matches These were against a mixture of local sides such as Ruston Sports, and the likes of Brigg Town and Skegness. That these were going on behind closed doors was said by the club to be due to “a minority of youngsters who enter the ground with no intent on watching the football, but simply to vandalise”. This was followed in the match programme by an appeal for anyone with knowledge of the identity of “these louts who are constantly daubing the club’s property with paint” to inform the club or the police.
The following Saturday’s away fixture saw a first meeting with Portsmouth for over 14 years and, we felt, was what the Third Division was all about! Needless to say, it was my first ever visit to Fratton Park and was probably the longest journey I had made to a match up to that point. ‘Pompey’ themselves were on a downward trend, relegated after 14 seasons in the second tier and were to find themselves in Division Four in a couple of years’ time.
An unchanged team brought back a point thanks to a first goal of the season from John Ward, and the previous season’s top scorer was on the mark again the following Tuesday night in a 3-1 win at Walsall which moved the Imps up to eighth place. The game at Fellows Park saw a lively performance by City with the scoring being opened by Walsall’s Nick Atthey deflecting a Ward shot into his own net. Ward himself extended the lead before the home side pulled a goal back, but Percy Freeman’s first of the season made the game safe soon afterwards.
A slight brake on progress came the following Saturday in what was only the second ever visit to Sincil Bank of Swindon Town, currently lying second in the table and fresh from a 5-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday the previous week. The best attendance of the season so far of well over 7,000 turned out to see a once-again unchanged Imps side unable to break down the defensively well-organised but unadventurous visitors and have to be content with a goalless draw
Interest in the Lincolnshire Cup ended in midweek when an almost full-strength side went down 3-1 to an enthusiastic Boston United at York Street.
The following Saturday brought a local derby visit to Chesterfield who were struggling near the foot of the table and yet to score a goal in three home games. Chesterfield were another side whose last opponents had been Sheffield Wednesday, but unlike with Swindon they had lost 4-1. Again unchanged, City went to town and repeated this score-line with a brace from John Ward making it four goals in four games for him along with strikes from Percy Freeman and man of the match Dennis Booth