But first, league form continued to be mixed, and despite Jack Lewis’s exploits against Torquay there was an immediate return to the side in his place of Norman Corner. However, the big striker then suffered an ankle injury which led to close-season signing Rod Fletcher being given his debut as only one win was managed in the next four games to put City in eleventh place going into the cup tie with Derby.
With the match scheduled to take place on the usual night for midweek matches of Wednesdays for both Derby and Lincoln there was some concern when it was found Nottingham Forest, who normally favoured Tuesdays had switched their home game with FC Zurich to the same night. This was in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the forerunner of the UEFA Cup, with Forest having earned a place in it after finishing as Football League runners-up in the previous season (as well as reaching the FA Cup semi-finals). The change from their usual night had been at the request of the Swiss side who said they had an ‘out of town game’ on the Sunday and would be unable to get to Nottingham for the Tuesday night. However, not wishing to have this counter-attraction in Nottingham the same night the redoubtable, if then still youthful, Brian Clough, contacted the Football League and the upshot was that Forest persuaded Zurich to visit on the Tuesday night after all. As Maurice Burton put it in the Echo, ‘Tough Clough commented “We have an out-of-town game every other week.”’
With Norman Corner, although now eligible to play, still out of action with his ankle injury it was Jack Lewis after his exploits in the previous round who was back in the side after Rod Fletcher’s appearance in the previous league match.
Derby County, as mentioned, once an established top flight club, had rather stagnated in the Second Division for several years, but during the summer had appointed the up-and-coming young manager Brian Clough, who along with his assistant Peter Taylor had spent two years at Hartlepools United (as they were then known) and laid the foundations which would see the Pools win promotion from the Fourth Division in the current season.
Entering the League Cup in the second round where they had ironically beaten Clough’s old club Hartlepools a victory over fellow Division Two side Birmingham had seen Derby through to meet the Imps. The Rams had made a good start in the league, and despite a 5-3 reverse at Bolton the previous Saturday were in 7th place.
Making a start on rebuilding the side Clough had brought in future Scottish international striker John O’Hare from Sunderland plus past and future England players, winger Alan Hinton and centre half Roy McFarland from Nottingham Forest and Tranmere respectively. However, the latter two were cup-tied as was full back Pat Wright, a recent signing from Shrewsbury.
It was reported that 22 coaches and a special train would be conveying Lincoln supporters to Derby with an expected total exodus from the city of around 4,000. In the end it was estimated that anything up to 6,000 Imps fans were at the Baseball Ground – although many did not arrive until after the start of the match due to some coaches leaving it as late as 5.30pm to set off from Lincoln. All stand tickets were sold, with City’s request for an extra 1,000 being turned down, but it was pay at the turnstiles for admission to the terraces. The attendance of 25,079 was Derby’s third highest of the season so far and more than had been present for the game with Birmingham in the previous round – no falling off of interest in the League Cup in those days!
The teams were:
City:
- John Kennedy
- Mick Brown
- George Peden
- Billy Cobb
- Ray Harford
- Jim Grummett
- John Gregson
- Clive Ford
- Jack Lewis
- Roger Holmes
- Lewis Thom
- Tom Brooks
Derby County:
- Reg Matthews
- Peter Daniel
- Mick Hopkinson
- Ron Webster
- Bob Saxton
- Phil Waller
- Gordon Hughes
- Alan Durban
- John O’Hare
- Kevin Hector
- Ritchie Barker
- Tony Rhodes
One of the new men brought in by Ron Gray during the close season was goalkeeper John Kennedy. The Northern Irishman, aged 26, had made one appearance for Celtic’s first team and had previously been with Irish League club Distillery for whom he had played in the European Cup against Benfica. A Northern Ireland amateur international, he had also played for Great Britain in qualifying games for the 1964 Olympic Games. A part-time professional, he was also a teacher at the City School in Lincoln and apart from when injured was to remain City’s first choice goalkeeper for most of the next seven seasons.
The back four, with one exception was to remain more or less the same for City over the next several years, the exception being right back Mick Brown who had joined in the summer from Hull City where the 28-year-old had captained the reserve side, and who was to have just this one season with the Imps. At left back, Scotsman George Peden had joined in time to play in the last two games of the previous season from Hearts after making a dozen or so appearances for the Scottish club. In the early stages of a run of 100 consecutive appearances, like Kennedy he would eventually play over 250 games for the Imps.
Already forming a reliable partnership in the centre of defence were close season signing Ray Harford and Jim Grummett, one of the few players to remain from before Ron Gray’s summer clear-out. The tall Harford, at the age of 22, had arrived from Exeter City in July after over 50 appearances for the Devon club. He would remain with Lincoln until leaving during David Herd’s time as manager in 1971, and would go on to have a notable career as a coach and manager with clubs such as Blackburn Rovers, Fulham and Wimbledon before his untimely death from lung cancer at the age of 58. Also 22, Jim Grummett was the son of the City player of the same name who had won promotion with the Imps in 1948. Like his dad, a tough-tackling wing half (as such players used to be known), Grummett had made his debut in 1964 initially playing at centre forward, but although more than capable in that position was best suited to defence, able to play anywhere across the back four. A regular over the next four years he would also total over 250 games for the Imps before being another player to depart in the David Herd era.
The two midfielders in City’s 4-2-4 formation were Roger Holmes and Billy Cobb. Holmes was City’s longest-serving player although still only 24, and was the last remaining survivor of the Second Division days. Played at various times on the right wing as well as in midfield he was now showing that the latter was his best position and was currently leading scorer with 10 goals. The Newark-born Cobb had spent some years as a fringe first team player with Nottingham Forest including having the distinction of scoring their first-ever goal in European football. He had joined City the previous November from Brentford as Ron Gray’s first permanent signing and became the first player ever to score a hat-trick on his debut for the club.
On the wings for City were more of the summer’s new arrivals, although Lewis Thom on the left had arrived in time to play (and score) in the last game of the previous season. Hebrides-born, he had made a number appearances north of the border for Aberdeen and Dundee before playing in the Third Division with Shrewsbury Town. On the right, the 28-year-old John Gregson also had Third Division experience with Shrewsbury and then Mansfield.
The 23-year-old Clive Ford had joined City as a winger the previous February after limited first team experience with Walsall. Only 5ft 8in tall but stockily built he had nevertheless started the current season as City’s main striker and met with some success, registering eight goals so far. Alongside him was 19-year-old Jack Lewis who had also joined as a winger not long after Ford, in this case from Midland League Long Eaton United. As with Thom he had opened his scoring account in the last game of the previous season and although starring in the game against Torquay was only in the side due to the absence of Norman Corner.
City substitute was reserve defender Tom Brooks, a teenager who had made his debut towards the end of the 1964/65 season, he was one of the promising youngsters who had survived the advent of Ron Gray as manager.
In goal for Derby was the experienced Reg Matthews who had started his career with his home-town club Coventry City, winning five England caps while a Third Division player before being sold to Chelsea for a record fee for a goalkeeper. At the age of 33 he was now in his seventh and last season with the Rams.
Right back Peter Daniel (not to be confused with the later Imps player of the same name) had started with Derby as an apprentice four years previously. He had become a regular first team player but although remaining with the club for several more years following the advent of Brian Clough it was mainly as a back-up player. He was partnered by Mick Hopkinson who had made around 100 appearances for Derby in the last eight years and who was deputising for the injured John Richardson. Centre half Bob Saxton, with Derby since 1962, and a regular the previous season was to lose his place under Brian Clough and move on to Plymouth in February, a club he later managed as well as having over five years in charge of Blackburn. Phil Waller had been with Derby a similar length of time to Saxton, and also previously a regular was now only in the side to deputise for the cup-tied Roy McFarland. He was also to leave in February, joining Mansfield.
In midfield Derby could boast a current Welsh international player, Alan Durban having won the fourth of what would be an eventual total of 27 caps just ten days before in a 3-0 defeat to England. He had joined from Cardiff in 1963 and would be chief among those players retained at Derby by Brian Clough, going on to be part of their League Championship-winning side in 1972 and ending with around 400 games for the club. He then moved into management with Shrewsbury Town followed by some years in the top flight with Stoke City and Sunderland where he became notorious for a dour brand of football, famously saying on one occasion, “If you want entertainment go and watch a bunch of clowns”. Alongside Durban was Ron Webster, another of the ‘old guard’ who survived the advent of Brian Clough. Joining his only league club, he eventually totalled over 450 appearances for Derby over a period of 18 years starting in 1960, winning two league championship medals, and although currently playing in midfield, being voted the best right back in the club’s history.
On the right wing for Derby was a player who would before long become a familiar face at Sincil Bank. The small and nippy Gordon Hughes, from the north east had played over 130 games in the top two divisions for Newcastle United before joining Derby in 1963. After playing more than 200 games for the Rams, at the age of 31 and no longer part of Clough’s plans he joined the Imps the following March for the fairly substantial fee for the time of £6,000, money which rather ironically had been raised from City’s League Cup run. The left wing was something of a problem position for Derby due to Alan Hinton being cup-tied and although Mick Hopkinson had been played there in the previous round, this time the position was taken by Ritchie Barker. Normally a central striker, Barker had scored a record number of goals for Southern League Burton Albion before being snapped up by Brian Clough in the summer for £2,000 to play in the Football League for the first time at the age of 27. He had scored the only goal of the game against Huddersfield ten days ago and was now making just his second Derby appearance. Leaving Derby after their promotion to the top flight he was then to have some success with Notts County before joining Alan Durban on the coaching staff at Shrewsbury succeeding him as manager and later being in charge at Stoke City.
Like Barker, John O’Hare was another close-season signing, although in his case from First Division Sunderland for whom the 21-year-old had played over 50 games, and for a fee ten times as much. He had ten goals in the season so far and would finish with a total of 18. After winning the First Division championship with Derby he would follow Brian Clough, not only for the latter’s brief spell at Leeds United but to Nottingham Forest where he would win further honours including medals for another league championship, two European Cups and two League Cups along with scoring five goals in 13 appearances for Scotland. Partnering O’Hare in attack was Kevin Hector, 23 the day following this game, he had made his name as a prolific scorer for Bradford (Park Avenue) for whom he had scored 44 league goals in the 1965/66 season. He had joined Derby in September 1966 for a fee of £40,000, not only a record for the club but also the most ever for a Fourth Division player. After scoring 16 goals the previous season he was currently the Second Division’s second highest scorer with 12 and would finish the season with 24. He would twice win the league championship with Derby and over the next eleven years make a club record 589 appearances for them, scoring 201 goals. He was to win just two England caps, the first notoriously coming when he was only brought on in the 88th minute as substitute in the match against Poland which saw England fail to qualify for the 1974 World Cup.
Derby substitute was 21-year-old reserve defender Tony Rhodes with just one first team appearance behind him.
The match programme, as well as having a good aerial view of the Baseball Ground on the front cover also included a feature on chairman Sam Longson, with a photo showing him to be the very epitome of the popular image of a football club chairman in the 1960s complete with Rolls-Royce, cigar in hand and trilby hat.
The City side had visited Skegness for special training the day before and Ron Gray had said they would not be taking a negative approach to the game but going for a win. However, it was Derby who took charge of the match early on with Kevin Hector prominent, twice firing shots over the bar. The home side took the lead after 15 minutes through Ritchie Barker who slid the ball into the net after City keeper John Kennedy had blocked his first attempt, and were close to doubling their lead when right winger Gordon Hughes went on a 60-yard run before seeing John Gregson, his opposite number for City, clear his shot off the line.
But Lincoln refused to cave in, and chased and harried the Derby midfield despite the muddy conditions, before the game threatened to boil over in the second half with City’s centre half Ray Harford booked for tugging the shirt of John O’Hare and striker Clive Ford getting away with a crunching tackle on Derby left back Mick Hopkinson. It looked as if young Jack Lewis had equalised for City midway through the half when he side-footed a cross into the net but the goal was controversially disallowed for offside But in the 78th minute Gregson beat full back Peter Daniel to race down the right wing and put over a cross that the smallest man on the pitch, Lewis Thom, headed into the net. City finished the stronger of the two sides and along with wingers Gregson and Thom it was midfielder Roger Holmes who stood out in what was a great team effort to earn a replay at Sincil Bank.
