In the second half, two players I never really rated combined to give us a comfortable lead. I’m often critical of Dene Cropper, he was a non-league footballer who fought hard to be league quality, but for a brief moment on 55 minutes, he achieved his aim. He strode past the Iron defence and squared for Paul Smith to slot home. Those were two players I’d knocked all season, combining to give us a two-goal cushion. When you score three in a game, you don’t expect to be pegged back, right? after all, away goals counted double and the last thing we needed was a Scunthorpe resurgence.
From the Stacey West, we couldn’t see exactly what happened in the mad two minutes that almost killed us off, but I remember the absolute heartbreak. At 4.28pm, City were 3-1 to the good. By 4.31pm, the tie was level and it seemed, all was lost. Alex Calvo-Garcia smashed home from close range after a corner before Nathan Stanton slotted through the packed eighteen-yard area with the very next attack. Their fans went wild, Laws started celebrating like he’d won the tie already and sickness rose into my throat. We’d come so far, in twelve months we’d gone from administration to the brink of our first-ever national cup final. Now, on our own patch, we were being turned over. It was 3-3, and they seemed to be in the ascendency. Even if we drew 3-3, it meant we had to either win at Glanford Park, or draw 4-4 to avoid penalties.
Cropper, not through lack of trying, was withdrawn on 73 minutes and Simon Yeo came on. Anyone reading this now will wonder why Simon Yeo hadn’t played from the start, but in 2002/03 he wasn’t that prolific at all. He’d been without a goal for seven months before scoring against Torquay and might have been heading for the exit door had he not fired us into the play offs. Keith was rolling the dice, throwing on the unknown quantity and hoping for a repeat of his heroics one week prior.
The game remained poised at 3-3 for twelve minutes, twelve long, nail-biting minutes. They were happy with a draw, they’d be confident of a win at their place, or even a low-scoring draw. The emphasis was on us, the plucky underdogs.
I wasn’t worried about not going up. That sounds mad perhaps, but I never truly believed we were League One quality that afternoon. No, for me it was all about beating Brian Laws, that odious individual who threw plates of sandwiches at his own players and constantly made disparaging remarks about Keith and our side. It was about local pride too, I worked with a Scunthorpe fan who felt we were the noisy neighbour and all week, he’d given me hell. I despised Laws and Scunthorpe, this long before we re-ignited our Grimsby rivalry. The Mariners were second-tier, as much of a threat to us as Arsenal or Liverpool are now. Scunthorpe were our big rivals and I wanted us to win for that reason alone.
On 82 minutes, it happened. A shameless hoof over the top from Stuart Bimson saw Simon Yeo outpace two defenders before firing across the goal of Tom Evans and into the net at the Stacey West end of the ground, right in front of me. I’ve often frozen when we’ve scored crucial goals, turning and surveying the mayhem and soaking up others joy. At 4.42pm, 15 years ago, I didn’t. I went fucking mental.
If the fourth was a long ball, the fifth was sublime once again. It came from a long ball, of course, but a hooked cross towards Yeo saw him smash home a volley of Premier League quality. 5-3, game over. The utter joy cannot be expressed in words, truly it cannot. Few moments in my life as an Imps fan rate on the same scale. GMVC 1988 before I was out of primary school maybe, and definitely 2017 against Macclesfield.
After the game Laws, as magnanimous as ever, refused to shake Keith Alexander’s hand as he left the dugout. That is a measure of the man right there. Keith moved for the shake but Laws walked straight past, doubtless angry at the state of the pitch, our tactics, anything that he could blame for his side being beaten by little old Lincoln. Still, he had the second leg at home, didn’t he?
He did, but that you’ll have to wait a couple of days for!