April
Another draw then came at Hereford against a side heading for relegation with City letting in a very late equaliser following a first half lead provided by Clive Wigginton. Alan Harding had now returned to the side with Alan Hoult allowed to return early from his loan period following Leicester City’s sacking of their manager Frank McLintock. For myself, not considering the possibility of a trip to the wilds of Herefordshire, I made the short-ish trip to see Sheffield United take on Luton in the Second Division, There was some Imps interest here, with later City player David Carr at left back for Luton and later assistant manager Phil Boersma in midfield. Plus, the Hatters fielded the Futcher twins, Ron in attack and Paul in defence, the latter being the father of City’s Ben Futcher (although not as tall).
Despite two somewhat disappointing draws, the attendance held up well with over four and a half thousand at Sincil Bank the following Saturday for the visit of second in the table Cambridge United. With Dennis Leigh injured Phil Neale reverted to left back again with John Fleming preferred for the vacant midfield slot to Dave Smith who was an unused substitute. Alan Jones was also missing through injury so his place was taken by the 20-year-old former apprentice plumber from Sheffield, Gordon Hobson. In what was described as one of the best debuts by a Lincoln player in years, the pacey winger inspired City to their biggest win of the season, including scoring the third goal from close range in a 4-1 win. Two headers from Mick Harford made it five goals in six games for the big youngster, while Peter Graham’s 79th-minute goal turned out to be his last for the club.
Cambridge’s defeat allowed them to be overtaken by Preston North End, so on their visit to Lancashire the following Saturday, the Imps found themselves facing the second-placed club for two weeks in a row. Hobson and Fleming retained their places in an unchanged side although Dennis Leigh was now fit enough to be on the bench. Unfortunately, well as City had played against Cambridge they now played equally poorly and, unable to find a goal themselves, this time conceded four instead of scoring them.
Although City had been comfortably placed in the lower half of the division for some time the points gained from a 3-2 win over struggling Bradford City the following week now made them mathematically safe from relegation with two more matches to play. With Phil Hubbard ruled out following an injury sustained at Preston he was replaced in midfield by Phil Neale as Dennis Leigh returned to the starting line-up. Willie Bell gave youth a chance, with Mark Cox included in place of Alan Harding with Mick Smith as substitute featuring in the squad for the first time since August. However, with Smith replacing Cox off the bench neither had very distinguished games although a Clive Wigginton penalty and a 35-yard shot from Phil Neale gave City a 2-0 lead. John Fleming made it 3-0 early in the second half with Bradford unable to pull more than two goals back.
Prior to the Bradford match, Willie Bell had made his first permanent signing of a player with 20-year-old Aston Villa reserve midfielder David Hughes joining for a fee of £4,000. As there were no promotion or relegation issues for either club, he was able to make his debut in City’s final home game of the season against Carlisle the following Wednesday night, coming in as a timely replacement for Phil Neale who had resumed his cricketing career, playing for Worcestershire against the Pakistan touring side. With Peter Graham not fully fit he dropped to the bench with Phil Hubbard partnering Mick Harford in attack as Alan Harding returned on the left. With nothing to play for, not surprisingly the second-lowest attendance of the season of 3,384 turned out to see Gordon Hobson hit a second half winner after a goal from Mick Harford had seen the scores level at the break.
The final game of the season saw a trip to Gillingham with Peter Graham returning in attack for his last game for the Imps as Phil Hubbard reverted to midfield. The point from a 0-0 draw saw City to a final placing of 16th, a full eleven points clear of the relegation zone.
The season had ended with a run of just two defeats in eleven matches, with five of these being won. Although not promotion form, it was a great deal better than the first eleven matches of the season in the league which had included six defeats and only three wins.
Although there were some at the time who felt George Kerr had been hard done to with the pressure on him that led to his sacking there were others who could see the club only going one way at the time, and that everything Graham Taylor had achieved was being thrown away. Willie Bell on his appointment took the pragmatic approach and relied on experience to improve results. In defence, this involved Dean Crombie going out of the side and bringing back Terry Cooper to partner the belatedly-signed Clive Wigginton – and whatever his issues had been with the previous two managers the Welshman didn’t let Bell down. Also, in midfield, however good Glenn Cockerill had started to look, it was the partnership of the two Phils, Hubbard and Neale, that pulled things round – although it was maybe unfortunate that Dave Smith happened to be injured at the time Bell made these changes and the fans’ favourite was never able to regain a regular place when fit again. It wasn’t all about experience though as it was Bell who gave Mick Harford his first start in the league side and the youngster never looked back, winning the Young Player of the Season award. The previous season’s winner, Brendan Guest, after an uncertain start had gone on to display the sort of form that he had shown a year before. The Player of the Season award went to Peter Grotier.
No player got into double figures with goals scored, with Peter Graham and Mick Harford finishing with nine each, although in the latter’s case these had come from a lot fewer games. Alan Harding contributed his share as usual, with six, while Clive Wigginton included three penalties in his total of five. John Ward, from the few games he had played, and Alan Jones with four each were the only other players to manage more than three.
The average league attendance of 4,878 was approaching three thousand down on the previous season, but not really surprising given some mediocre results.
Elsewhere in football, Nottingham Forest won the league championship for the first time in their history, thus making Brian Clough only the second manager ever to achieve the feat with two different clubs. Losing only three games all season they finished well clear of Liverpool in second place who did however have the consolation of winning the European Cup for the second season in a row. Forest also achieved a double, with Liverpool again the runners-up, as they beat the Merseyside club in a replay at Old Trafford to win the League Cup. FA Cup winners were Ipswich Town, beating Arsenal 1-0.
Relegated from the top division after a twenty-season stay were West Ham United, along with Newcastle United and Leicester City. Replacing them were Second Division champions Bolton Wanderers, returning to the top flight for the first time in 14 years. Also promoted were Southampton and Tottenham, who bounced back after one season although only on goal difference ahead of fourth-placed Brighton. In contrast, at the other end of the division, going back down again after one season were Mansfield Town, with the two other clubs who City could look forward to playing the following season being Blackpool, relegated to the third tier for the first time, and bottom club Hull City.
Third Division champions were an outstanding Wrexham side ahead of runners-up Cambridge United, who had risen straight through the division to play in the second tier for the first time in their short league history. A team with a much longer Football League history were Preston who went up in third place on goal difference ahead of Peterborough. Taking the exact opposite course to Cambridge were Hereford United who dropped straight through the division back to Division Four after they had risen equally quickly. Also relegated were Bradford City after one season in the Third and Port Vale. Bottom club Portsmouth, league champions 28 years before, were now faced with Fourth Division football for the first time.
Coming up from the Fourth Division were Graham Taylor’s runaway champions Watford who had finished just three points shy of Lincoln’s record points tally. Comfortably in second place were Southend United, with Swansea and Brentford the other two clubs who would be in opposition to City the following season. Along with York City, some of what one might call the usual suspects occupied the four places in the re-election zone. The Minstermen were re-elected as were Hartlepool United although this was their second application in a row. Rochdale seven points adrift in bottom place had by far the worst playing record, but as it was their first application for four years this is probably what saved them. Not so lucky were Southport who had finished 23rd for the third season in a row. It was therefore no great surprise when they became the last club to lose their Football League place by being voted out rather than by automatic relegation. Normally the two non-league clubs put forward for election would have been Southern League champions Bath City and winners of the Northern Premier League Boston United, but as York Street failed to meet the ground grading conditions runners-up Wigan Athletic were nominated instead and they were the ones who took the place of Southport.
Overall, it had been a mediocre season at best for Lincoln City after the previous few years under Graham Taylor, and in the end, we were just glad to be looking forward to a third successive year in Division Three. After the job Willie Bell had done in getting the best out of the players to turn the season around, together with the number of promising youngsters coming through into the first team there seemed every reason to hope for good times