‘What if’ – The Story of Southampton, Ostenstad’s Dive and What Might Have Been in 96

There was no fear in the Imps that night. Within ten minutes of kick-off, a Terry Fleming long throw was flicked on by Gijs Bos and Gareth Ainsworth popped up at the back stick to slam home. It was a classic approach of the era, but it sparked the belief of another advance in the competition. This Lincoln side were hard, both hard to beat and aggressive physically and if Graeme Souness had thought the long ball game was tough to deal with on his own patch, he hadn’t seen anything like it implemented with a packed Sincil Bank behind the team.

Former England keeper Chris Woods came in for Dave Beasant and he was forced into a couple of saves to prevent us running away with the tie, both coming from headers courtesy of the giant Gijs Bos. Despite being on top, City survived a scare just before half time when a strong Jason Barnett tackle was adjudged to be a deliberate back pass, but Le Tissier screwed his effort wide from six yards.

It wasn’t all Lincoln, Barry Richardson earned himself a Man of the Match award and a save from Le Tissier’s free kick in the second half was as good as any you’ll see at the Bank. We pushed forward too, defending from the front, Gareth Ainsworth volleying just over the bar not long after the restart. With just over 15 minutes left, City had a foot in the fourth round.

Before we go on, let me tell you who awaited in the fourth round, even though we didn’t know it at the time: Oxford United. They finished 17th in the First Division, today’s Championship, but certainly wouldn’t have been as strong opponent as Southampton or Manchester City. Could we have made the fifth round? If we had, Stockport awaited, a side in the third-tier. Could it have been another progression? It’s no disrespect to those teams, but with the wind in our sails and belief, this team looked the business. It was rarely pretty, but it was always effective and had we hung on to the 1-0 win we’d have been seven unbeaten, five wins on the spin and a Premier League scalp better off. It genuinely felt possible, Southampton looked to be running out of steam and as Le Tissier trudged off on 65 minutes, their main threat seemed to go with him.

Then Egil Ostenstad darted into the area, tumbled under a nothing challenge and ‘won’ a penalty in every sense of the word. It looked to be a dive, it was certainly not a penalty and had VAR been a thing I’d happily have waited fifteen minutes for it to be overturned and the striker to be booked. It stung, it was a kick in the gut and a punch in the face at the same time. Jim Magilton gobbled up the chance to level and although Bos almost made it 2-1, City’s resilience had been broken. Two perfectly worthy goals in the last six minutes turned the game around, giving the Saints a 3-1 win and a game against Oxford, which they won. They were a victim of a giant-killing though when Stockport beat them 2-1 at the Dell in round five.

The Imps had been the better team over the two games, but the run of matches and the late blow was enough to kill off our threat. A tired side went out of the FA Cup four days later and despite it being mid-November, our next win in any competition came in January. Oddly, Southampton were thumped 7-1 by Everton in their next game, whilst we suffered the same reverse against Colchester before the month was out.

Fans were incensed at the theatrics of Ostenstad and Rob Bradley even wrote to him, as the editor of fanzine the Yellowbelly, demanding an explanation, to which he appears to have replied.

It was little consolation though; we weren’t rewarded with progression or lucrative ties further into the competition. In the space of four days, we went from being in three competitions to just one, dented and bruised by a shocking decision and one little moment of bad luck.

What if, eh? What if Ostenstad hadn’t gone over, or if the referee had seen it for what it was? What if we’d hung on for the win and gone to Burnley in the FA Cup full of confidence? What if we’d got Oxford in the next round (although I’m told by Kate Jackson we wouldn’t, as the Coca Cola Cup was not drawn on ball numbers, but an alphabet, so us being in the next round would have altered the whole draw) and they’d been intimidated by our tactics just as Southampton and Man City were. What if we’d had enough money to keep Ainsworth for six more months and his value had gone from £500,000 to £2m while he played for us, not Port Vale? What if we’d kept up that form, lifted by the confidence of a cup run, and been promoted a year early with Beck still in charge? We could have found ourselves in the third tier with money to spend, horrible tactics everyone feared and perhaps stayed up, consolidated and pushed on. Cambridge almost made the top flight under Beck; why not us?

What if. Two of the most infuriating words in football, forever linked with moments of controversy, frustration and disappointment. Still, what a night to be at the Bank, what a game to have witnessed, no matter what might (or might not) have happened in a parallel universe somewhere.