October
The following Wednesday night brought the final of the Lincolnshire Cup in front of a good-sized crowd of 2,500 at Boston United’s York Street ground. The City side was unchanged from the Walsall game with the exception of 18-year-old goalkeeper Kevin Fox replacing Peter Grotier who had suffered a rib injury, and Phil Hubbard in place of Jim McCalliog in order for the latter to view the game from the sidelines in view of his coaching responsibilities. But the reigning Northern Premier League champions were more up for the game than City, and with later Imps players Steve Thompson and Gordon Simmonite prominent along with veteran ex-Derby County striker Kevin Hector they ran out worthy 2-0 winners.
The following Saturday I made the long journey for my first, and so far, only, visit to a match at Blackpool expecting to see City’s expensive new striker make his debut. Another new signing was 20-year-old goalkeeper Chris Turner who had joined on loan from Sheffield Wednesday to cover for Peter Grotier’s absence. Turner, who was to go on to have plenty of top-flight experience with Sunderland and Manchester United had played in about half of Wednesday’s games the previous season. It was while checking that Turner’s registration with the Football League had gone through correctly that Willie Bell discovered the forms for Tommy Tynan had not been received. For this he blamed the Post Office and the club’s administrative staff (presumably this would have been recently-appointed secretary John Sorby). If it had not come to light and Tynan had played at Blackpool City would have laid themselves open to disciplinary action for fielding an unregistered player.
So, I had to wait for my first view of the new man, and instead it was Phil Hubbard who was pressed into service up front, with John Ward having succumbed to injury again, and Jim McCalliog returning in midfield. Blackpool, playing in the third tier for the first time in their history, were held by City to a score-less first half, but the mid-table side had no trouble scoring twice after the break, resulting in what was becoming a tradition for me in recent away games – a 2-0 defeat.
With City rooted to the foot of the league table there was now some controversy off the field involving Life President Dennis Bocock, who although not on the board of directors held about a third of the shares in the club. He stated he would be withdrawing his support and backing for the board and called for chairman Heneage Dove to resign due to “the present state of football in Lincoln, which is at its lowest ebb for many years”. Apart from the team’s poor playing record in the current season, he also implied incompetence in the running of the club due to the “fiasco” of failing to register the signing of Tommy Tynan. In response, Dove disputed the figure of £50,000 that Bocock had said he had invested in the club and pointed out that a large proportion of the number of shares he “had control of” were not in fact owned by him. He also mentioned that it was during Mr Bocock’s reign as chairman some years before that he had caused the rift with the Supporters’ Club causing them withdraw their financial support at the time and change there name.
Again, annoyingly for me the next game at Sincil Bank was on a Friday night with the visit of Colchester United, but although I would like to have been there it seems I didn’t miss much. Tynan made his belated debut with Phil Hubbard left out, as the fit-again Alan Harding replaced Gordon Hobson who had recently seemed to be suffering from a lack of confidence. Goalkeeper Chris Turner made his home debut as Peter Grotier’s rib injury was proving to be long-term. An unadventurous visiting side were happy to settle for a point in a 0-0 draw as City this time got away with their by-now usual quota of defensive mistakes – particularly involving Clive Wigginton – and were unable to make anything of their opportunities at the other end. The point gained was just the fifth of the season, and with three draws in a row at Sincil Bank City were certainly showing the classic relegation form of drawing at home and losing away.
The following Tuesday brought a visit to promotion-chasing Gillingham, with changes having to be made due to injuries to Graham Watson and David Sunley. Phil Hubbard returned to the side, but with John Ward, like Phil Neale apparently being ostracised by the manager young centre half Mick Smith was brought in to play up front having fulfilled that role recently in the reserves. Willie Bell had said that “We have got to start getting some goals soon”, and the Imps did manage to score two for the first time since the opening day of the league season, but unfortunately, they were so overwhelmed in midfield by Gillingham, with McCalliog particularly out of touch that they let four in at the other end. At three goals down, City pulled one back on the stroke of half time with a Clive Wigginton penalty, but a fourth for the home side soon after the interval meant a 30-yard strike from Dennis Leigh later in the half was effectively no more than a consolation.
After having to miss the last two home games as they were on Friday nights, I was able to get to Sincil Bank the following Saturday for the visit of Swindon Town – although perhaps wished I hadn’t after seeing the performance. Watson and Sunley were both back in the side, the latter in place of Smith, with Hobson starting in place of the unfit Harding as Hubbard dropped to the bench. After a reasonably good first half hour a goal from Swindon then seemed to completely demoralise City and although there were no further goals after the visitors went 3-0 up on 66 minutes it turned into what Maurice Burton described in his match report as “Probably Lincoln City’s most shameful performance in their Third Division spell”. Even the manager had to admit “the second half was a sheer disgrace” and criticised the team for “letting the supporters down and themselves down as well.”
The game could be likened to the 2-0 home defeat to Gillingham around ten months earlier which had seen the end of George Kerr’s reign as manager. And as in that game the manner of the defeat – along with it being after a run of ten defeats in 13 win-less games – brought matters to a head, and while most supporters left the ground afterwards in an atmosphere of despair there were those who remained to express their views to the manager in no uncertain terms.
As with Kerr, it proved to be the end of Bell as City manager – but the circumstances of his departure were not exactly common in football.
The following evening Maurice Burton was with Bell at his home when the manager received a phone call from chairman Heneage Dove and reported “I’ll get the sack tomorrow”. He went on to say quite calmly that it didn’t matter as he would be quitting football anyway to become a Christian minister in the United States.
It emerged that during the summer Bell had gone to America for two weeks after being invited to coach a soccer team associated with an organisation called Campus Crusade for Christ which was involved with sporting activities at American universities. Clearly a religious man, Bell, although he initially turned the invitation down, then reconsidered, thinking it was God’s calling. He had not been in America long before he and his wife agreed it was God’s will that they should stay and teach the Americans how to play football. Evidently, he then made his mind up that after one more season with City – hopefully guiding them to promotion – he would return to America and take up this unpaid position which relied on sponsorship.
He had fairly recently signed a new contract with City, and although those ‘in the know’ said it was for three years it turned out that he had asked for it to be only until the end of the season. Whether he had admitted to the club that the reason for this was that he would then be on his way to America can only be conjectured.
At any rate when the news of his departure was announced following his meeting with the directors on the Monday the old chestnut ‘by mutual consent’ was given as the reason for the termination of his contract, and the news broken about him having planned to leave the following summer all along.
Bell has since been quoted as saying he is “deeply Christian”, and also that “God has a plan behind every lost game”. Which is all very well, but one has to ask how much of what seems to have literally been his religious epiphany during the summer affected his coaching and motivational skills for the new season. That he evidently did have these skills is shown by the way he got the players working for him the previous season when he pulled the team’s fortunes around following the departure of George Kerr, lifting the club from a relegation place to mid-table safety. In his autobiography Phil Neale says that the team were now being sent out on to the pitch “with no team pattern or strategy” and with no practicing of set piece moves – and yet this can’t have been the case the previous season, so what changed in the summer is fairly clear.
Bell had a regular column in the Sports Echo (for which he donated his fee to the Gideon Bible organisation and to students working with the Campus Crusade) and in his final contribution he implied that the recent criticism by Dennis Bocock had actually affected the results, and also that it might take a year for the benefits of his policy of bringing younger players into the team to be seen. This had perhaps been more of a policy adopted by his predecessor George Kerr who rather overdid it at the time, and it was only when Bell opted for experience instead that results improved. But it could be said that Bell was right to an extent in that actually looking ahead a year the side would include the likes of Gordon Hobson, Mick Harford, Glenn Cockerill and Brendan Guest – although the latter would soon lose his place – all who doubtless benefited from their early experience with the first team.
Questions must be asked about Bell’s effectiveness in the transfer market, as despite the occasional mentions of high-profile players being brought to the club the only one to actually materialise was Jim McCalliog who was only perhaps lured by the offer of a coaching role – for which it seems quite likely Ian Branfoot was dispensed with to create the vacancy. Of the others he brought to the club, midfielder David Hughes fairly soon lost his first team place and teenage defender Billy Wright did so even quicker. The others included the goal-shy David Sunley, the average at best Graham Watson and the man brought at great expense to score goals Tommy Tynan, who had not done so after three games, and who with what emerged as an attitude problem off the field was quickly discarded by Bell’s successor.
So, for the second time in less than a year City were looking for a new manager and quickly proceeded to advertise for one. In the meantime, player-coach Jim McCalliog was put in charge of team affairs, and said that he would be applying for the job permanently. His first chance to show what he could do came with another Friday night game, this time away to newly-promoted Southend United, currently in seventh place. The temporary boss made a number of changes to the side as he opted for a more defensive formation. One enforced change was that Tommy Tynan was unable to play because of flu. McCalliog left himself out, saying he intended to concentrate on the management side of his duties. Phil Hubbard returned to the midfield while John Ward, who had scored two goals in a midweek reserve game, replaced Sunley. Centre half Clive Wigginton was dropped to the bench with Mick Smith given his first game as a defender since August with McCalliog saying the time was right for him to come into the side “He is a big, strong lad, and has to get another chance some time”. The fit-again Alan Harding returned, but Glenn Cockerill was left out in favour of Alan Eden who was given his first start since March, with the temporary boss saying he had been very much impressed by the 20-year-old.
Despite showing plenty of team spirit, however, a lack of penetration in attack meant there was no way back after Southend’s two first half goals made it nine defeats out of nine away league and cup games for City to leave them four points adrift at the bottom of the table.