All was not well behind the scenes however, with a dispute between Bell, and one of City’s best players and a key man during the previous season. Phil Neale had as usual spent the summer playing county cricket for Worcestershire where he had now become a regular member of the first eleven, and had not reported back for pre-season training at the beginning of July. Although there was nothing in his contract about how to fit in the overlap between the cricket and football seasons, there was apparently a kind of gentlemen’s agreement that Neale would be with whichever club needed his services more urgently – that is, if either the football or cricket club was in with the chance of winning a trophy at the end of their respective seasons. As Worcestershire were near the bottom of the County Championship, Willie Bell did not consider this to be the case and said he expected Neale to be back at Sincil Bank. However, the Worcester club were still in with a chance of winning the Sunday John Player League limited overs championship and Neale himself wished to stay and be part of that, plus he was already being tipped by some as a future England batsman. Bell, it seems, was unsympathetic about Worcestershire’s John Player League hopes and suspended Neale – “I am going to stop his wages and keep stopping them until he turns up”. In his autobiography Neale says that he never received notification of this in writing, and that it had been clear Bell was unhappy about him playing county cricket right from when he was appointed manager. The summer would have seen him sold to Notts County except that the then Second Division side failed to meet an asking price that would have been more than double City’s previous record transfer fee received.
For the third year in a row the season started with the two legs of the First Round tie in the League Cup being played before the league games got underway. City were drawn against newly-relegated Fourth Division side Bradford City with the first leg away from home, and I duly made my way up to Valley Parade on the second Saturday in August.
The City side was that for the Scunthorpe game with Mick Harford fit to return, allowing Phil Hubbard to revert to midfield. With left back Dennis Leigh still unfit, together with Alan Harding, the teenage full back pairing of Billy Wright and Keith Laybourne continued with Wright preferred to the previous season’s regular Brendan Guest who was on the bench. It was an average performance at best by the Imps and two lapses of concentration in defence allowed Bradford to take a 2-0 lead into the second leg.
This second leg took place at Sincil Bank the following Wednesday night, but a disappointment for me was that I was unable to be there. For the last ten years or so I’d been able to get to evening kick-offs (which were usually 7.30pm in those days) by starting my journey back home to Nottingham with the last train of the day in that direction at around 9.20pm – which in fact only got me as far as Newark, in time for the last bus from there. But from this summer that train was withdrawn from the timetable leaving the last train back to Nottingham at 8.30pm. So, for the remainder of the 1970s and most of the 1980s I was unable to get to all but a handful of midweek games.
The team was unchanged for the second leg except that John Ward replaced Brendan Guest on the bench. A Bradford team including four ex-Leeds United players including Bell’s transfer target Paul Reaney defended their first leg lead competently before big centre forward Joe Cooke made the aggregate score 3-0 with his second goal in the two games. David Hughes equalised on the night with his first goal for the club, but City’s performance was such that they could have no complaints about being dumped out of the League Cup by a side that would go on to finish the season in 15th place in the Fourth Division.
My first home match the following Saturday brought a first look at City’s new main playing kit. The traditional red and white stripes reintroduced by Graham Taylor five years before had been altered slightly, with fewer red stripes – in fact practically the same as would re-emerge for the 2021/22 season except that there were just three narrow stripes down the sleeve instead of a full one. The away kit had also seen a change, with the familiar yellow shirts and blue shorts which dated back to David Herd’s time as manager replaced by a smart all-green strip.
The price of the match programme remained at 15p but as had become usual this was at the cost of a reduction in size and number of pages although – at least for the first few issues – no space was taken up by advertisements.
Following the League Cup exit changes were made for the visit of Tranmere Rovers, with centre half Clive Wigginton, so solid under Bell during the previous season paying the penalty for the defensive lapses against Bradford. His replacement was 19-year-old Mick Smith, one of the Lambton Street Boys’ Club quartet who had barely featured in the first team squad since the advent of Bell. His fellow ex-Lambton Street colleague Keith Laybourne however, was replaced at left back by the experienced Dennis Leigh. As well as 50% of the defence being changed, midfielder John Fleming was relegated to the bench with a welcome first start since early January for the fit-again John Ward.
Although I was now present to swell the numbers a good many of those who had been at Sincil Bank for the midweek game with Bradford didn’t bother coming back despite some particularly fine weather. While the attendance of around 3,800 for the League Cup game compared well with the previous season’s attendances almost a thousand fewer turned up for the visit of admittedly unattractive opposition in Tranmere. In fact, the figure of 2,835 was the lowest for a first home league match of the season since at least the early 1920s. The Imps came back from an early goal by Tranmere to quickly equalise through Gordon Hobson, and it was the winger who crossed the ball to set up a goalmouth scramble from which David Sunley hit the winner with his first goal for the club. It was, however, an uninspiring display against a side which would be relegated alongside City at the end of season, and with Willie Bell admitting “we can play better, but we got the win we wanted and that’s something”, it would in fact turn out to be last win achieved by City with him as manager.
Bell was encouraged enough by the win over Tranmere to name an unchanged side for the midweek visit to Swansea who under player-manager John Toshack were on the second stage of a four-year rise from the Fourth to the First Division. Over 17,000 spectators were present at the Vetch Field to see what was Swansea’s first home game after promotion and the debut of their new signing former Liverpool and England defender Tommy Smith. City got off to an unfortunate start when Phil Hubbard suffered a badly gashed foot only five minutes into the game and had to be replaced by John Fleming. Then two goals inside a minute from present and future Welsh international players Alan Curtis and Jeremy Charles gave the home side a 2-0 lead after fifteen minutes. With Swansea in more or less complete control the Imps managed to hold out until the 55th minute before Alan Waddle headed their third goal. Although Harford and Sunley had openings to score, in truth the Imps had been clinically taken apart by a Swansea side on their way to a further promotion.
After the long midweek journey to Swansea the Imps were faced with the even longer trip to Plymouth the following Saturday. With the left side of midfield being a problem position Willie Bell had been looking to strengthen the squad in that position with Hull City’s Chris Galvin spending time training with City, but nothing came of it. Also, an offer had been made for First Division Birmingham City’s experienced Welsh International defender Malcolm Page, but the 31-year-old was reluctant to join a Third Division side. Luckily, Alan Harding was now fit to return on the left, with David Sunley the man to drop to the bench. With Phil Hubbard unfit following his midweek injury John Fleming was given a start in his place, while another change saw Clive Wigginton restored to the side in place of Mick Smith.
There was a much better performance by the Imps in the first half with Harding scoring what turned out to be his last-ever goal for the club to give them the lead, only for Plymouth, managed by the flamboyant former Manchester City and Crystal Palace manager Malcolm Allison, to equalise with a goal by later Imps player Gary Megson. However, despite the improved performance, some less than solid defending saw the home team grab a late winner.
As for myself that day, I ventured only a short distance in the direction of Plymouth to see Peter Graham playing in defence for Cambridge United against newly-relegated Leicester City at Filbert Street in a Second Division (now Championship) clash