The draw for the next round gave the winners a home tie with Fourth Division side Darlington and deliriously seemed to open up a path to a semi-final appearance for the Imps. The Derby County view of the draw was the same of course and assistant manager Peter Taylor said the prospect would be a big incentive for the players and that “We shall be approaching the Lincoln match as if it was against Manchester United”.
The replay was scheduled for the following Wednesday at Sincil Bank but first there was a home game with Wrexham and an unchanged line-up, perhaps suffering from their exertions in midweek gave a lethargic performance in a 2-0 defeat to the Welshmen.
The club imposed an attendance limit of 25,000 on the ground for the replay although Maurice Burton writing in the Football Echo thought it unlikely the attendance record of 23,146 set in 1949 would be broken. He did however expect the attendance to reach the 20,000 mark which would mean beating the current receipts record of around £3,800 set in the Newcastle match.
Unfortunately, thick fog descended on the city and the replay had to be postponed for another week, with before then a visit to Southend which brought a fourth league defeat in a row to put the Imps down to 14th place in the table. There seemed no doubt the League Cup run was proving a distraction, especially as Mick Brown and Billy Cobb were both rested for this game, their places being taken by Tom Brooks and young defender Alan Pilgrim as the versatile Grummett moved into midfield. Also, the fit-again Norman Corner replaced Lewis in attack.
Cobb and Brown were both restored to the side for the much-awaited replay with Derby while Corner retained his place in attack as the only change from the first game. The 24-year-old Corner had spent five years with Hull City making just five appearances and although scoring four goals in those five games had yet to get off the mark for the Imps in his four games so far.
As for Derby, despite the return of the cup-tied McFarland and Wright they had fared little better than the Imps in the intervening period recording a home draw with Birmingham and an away defeat at Bristol City. The only change in their line-up from the first game was the inclusion of striker Barry Butlin in place of the injured Barker. Only just turned 18, Butlin was making his first team debut and after a handful of games for Derby would go on to have lengthy loan spells with Notts County before being sold to Luton in 1972 for a Derby County record £50,000 and later being reunited with Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest.
The game took place amid torrential rain, which at one stage seemed likely to cause an abandonment due to waterlogging in the goalmouths, and to prove Maurice Burton wrong, a record 23,196 crammed into Sincil Bank, which whatever happens in the future seems likely to stand for all time as the highest ever at the ground. Sam Longson’s Rolls-Royce, however, was not to be seen outside the ground as the Derby chairman was at home with the flu.
There was an almost immediate setback for City when Grummett and goalkeeper John Kennedy failed to deal with a Daniel free kick after just eight minutes leaving John O’Hare to put the ball into the net from close range. Derby then took charge of the game for the remainder of the first half with Billy Cobb having to clear shots off the line from both Alan Durban and Barry Butlin, and Kennedy twice denying Durban. City, however, came close themselves just before the break when John Gregson’s fierce volley had to be turned over the bar by Derby keeper Reg Matthews. Cobb then had to be substituted by defender Tom Brooks just before the hour mark as City looked more threatening in the second half with Roger Holmes commanding the midfield and Clive Ford twice putting the ball just off target. But any hope of at least forcing extra time went six minutes from the end when apparently in response to something Kevin Hector said to him full back Mick Brown head butted the Derby striker and was immediately sent off. A minute later, Hector, with blood streaming from a cut above his eye, was unmarked to put a powerful header against Kennedy’s chest and prod the rebound over the line. Then, with the last kick of the game Derby made it 3-0 through O’Hare after Butlin had headed the ball down to him.
There was an unfortunate case of hooliganism after the match when a window of the Derby team coach was shattered by a billiard ball thrown by ‘a band of young fans’.
There were some supporters who blamed Mick Brown for costing City the match, and it’s unfortunate that the incident will always be the one for which he is most remembered as a City player. Whether to appease these supporters or to protect Brown from abuse he was left out of the next game which saw a 3-2 home defeat to Luton Town. After returning to the side his suspension then kicked in, and in those days, this meant a period of time rather than a specific number of matches. As it included the Christmas period, Brown’s suspension of one month meant a swingeing six-match ban. However, on his return to the side in January he missed only one further match for the rest of the season.
The defeat against Luton was the fifth in a row for City as form continued to slump in the league after the good start to the season. Although Norman Corner got off the mark with a goal against the Hatters, he was proving to be a big (in more ways than one!) disappointment, and after missing the next game through injury was then banished to the reserves as Jim Grummett was given a long run in the team at centre forward. Another worry was the drying up of goals from Clive Ford after he had registered eight by the middle of October, and although scoring a memorable hat-trick in a 5-1 win against Bradford (Park Avenue) there was only one more goal to come from him in his City career. Results were enough to keep City in mid-table until the end of January but a run of ten games without a win put them into the bottom four and the gloomy prospect of yet another re-election plea. However, Ron Gray then took action to revitalise the side bringing in Gordon Hughes from Derby, striker Peter Kearns and midfielder Jim Smith, and these three together with the finally coming good of Norman Corner produced the best run of results for years and saw the Imps safely into a final mid-table position of 13th.
As for Derby, they reached the semi-finals of the League Cup less comfortably than might have expected, only scraping through past Darlington by 5-4 before they were beaten over two legs by eventual winners Leeds United. In the league, after their good start to the season results deteriorated badly as Brian Clough sought to find the right blend and they eventually finished low down in 18th place. The following season was a different story, though as built around a defence of Roy McFarland and veteran Scottish international Dave Mackay they took the Second Division championship.