December
Off-field news was that a loss of over £9,000 had been recorded for the year ended in June which compared with a £25,000 profit the previous year. The accounts included the figure of £20,000 received from Watford as compensation for Graham Taylor, and a profit of around £6,000 on transfer fees received and paid out. However, this was offset by a reduction in gate receipts by around 30% and an increase of about 20% on players’ wages plus significant increases in administrative and other expenses. In his comments on the figures, chairman Heneage Dove said that at present the club had too large a wage bill for a Third Division club and the size of the playing staff was causing a restriction on the progress of the younger players.
With the away match at Chester being postponed due to a frozen pitch City were due back at Sincil Bank the following Saturday for the visit of an Oxford United side placed just outside the relegation zone.
Following the defeat at Blackpool two weeks before Colin Murphy had arranged a friendly match against First Division Wolves on their training pitch which included all the members of the current first team squad with the addition of David Hughes, except that Tommy Tynan instead featured in the previous night’s reserves team match. The striker was back in the side to face Oxford with Mick Harford dropping to the bench. Dennis Leigh also returned, with Phil Neale moving into midfield in place of the injured Fleming.
Maurice Burton had commented that Tynan, with no goals from six games, had so far been a disappointment, although both he and Colin Murphy also mentioned the player’s goalscoring record before he arrived at Sincil Bank. The expensive signing finally got off the mark against Oxford and midway through the second half City went two up from the penalty spot thanks to the ever-reliable Clive Wigginton. However, the visitors soon pulled a goal back and then scored a deserved equaliser to leave City still five points adrift at the bottom of the division and eight points from safety.
With City not involved in the second round of the FA Cup the following Saturday I had a trip to London to Craven Cottage to see a mid-table Second Division game between Fulham and Newcastle United. It turned out that as with the match at Birmingham three weeks before I was to see a future Lincoln City manager in action, with 24-year-old midfielder John Beck featuring for the home side.
The next game for the Imps was the third in a row in the league at Sincil Bank with the visit of mid-table Chesterfield. The only change to the side saw Mick Harford return in place of the injured John Ward, but a desperately poor performance, especially in attack, saw Rodney Fern’s second half goal for the visitors enough to give them the points.
A couple of changes were made to the side for the Boxing Day visit to Peterborough, one of them forced, with Mick Smith coming into defence for the injured Terry Cooper, while Alan Harding was left out to be replaced by John Fleming with Phil Neale switched to the left of midfield. Against relegation rivals Peterborough it was a much-improved performance, except for the “very disappointing” Tyan in what turned out to be his last game for the club. Substituted by Glenn Cockerill midway through the second half, it was the youngster who won the free kick from which Graham Watson scored the only goal of the match to give City their first win since the opening day of the season. Into double figures for points at last the Imps were now only three points adrift at the bottom and had made up a point on 20th-placed Brentford, although the Bees were still eight points better off.
Willie Bell’s successful fight against relegation the previous season had started with five draws in a row, while in the current season Colin Murphy’s reign had started with three draws, and while the next game had been lost this was balanced out by the win against Peterborough. Thus, both managers had started with five points from five games, but there the parallel ended as with Colin Murphy having inherited a worse situation in every way, things now began to fall apart – not helped by, to coin a phrase, the weather being against us for the next two months.
For the visit to Exeter City in the next game Tynan was left out of the side in favour of the fit-again John Ward and the only other change was the inclusion of Glenn Cockerill who had done well in his cameo at Peterborough in place of Gordon Hobson. It was these two who scored the goals, Hobson coming on for the injured Watson, to make them joint top scorers with three each as they equalised Exeter’s 2-0 half time lead. However, an injury time winner for the home side left Colin Murphy saying “We have proved we can score goals, now we have to stop giving them away.”