Yep, I’ve gone onto two pages for this one, but there’s a fair bit to get through still.
Despite the late scare, City were comfortable for much of the second half. Freeman and Ward both had good efforts saved by the impressive Springett, who had appeared for England U23s in 1968 when that was a decent feat. He was also present in 1982, as a police officer, when the stolen European Cup was returned in Birmingham. He witnessed another theft in the second half, as City were robbed of a goal. Kryzwicki shifted to inside left, and beat a couple of defenders, but was cynically hacked as he let fly with a shot. It beat the keeper and went in, but in the days before the advantage, the whistle had already gone for an Imps free kick. It should have been 2-0, but instead, it quickly went to 1-1.
Bob Doyle sprung an attack up the other end, nutmegging one Imps’ defender before weaving past two more into the area. He squared across the front of the goal, leaving Grotier stranded and Mick Butler with the easiest of tap-ins. Within three minutes, City had gone from thinking they were 2-0 up, to being level at 1-1 against a team who conceded very few goals indeed. The fight was on.
City rallied, and had the ball in the net for a third time, Smith hammering in a cross from Freeman, only for the referee to rule it out for ‘some infringement’ as Burton puts it. The write-up does suggest that perhaps Mr Field wasn’t having the best of games in the middle of the park, especially with a booking for Freeman with four minutes to go. City were running out of time to put the Tykes to the sword, with Springett making a good save from Fleming. Interestingly, Springett was once involved in a bizarre transfer deal between Sheff Weds and QPR – he was swapped for his brother, Ron!
City swapped one approach for another, and instead of trying to play through Barnsley, they threw through them (easy to write than to say out loud). With just minutes left, Branfoot launched a huge throw into the Barnsley area, a throw of ‘prodigious length’ which bounced a couple of yards from the goal. Freeman got a flick on it, and as it hung in the air, Cooper arrived to force it over the line. Finally, the resistance was broken, and finally, the Imps were back ahead.
Not long after, a huge roar went up from the home fans, as a winning end to 1975 was confirmed.
The win saw the Imps move onto 37 points, and end the year at the top of the table, a position they would contest with Northampton throughout the season. Barnsley would go on to finish in midtable, a decent position for a strong side that were certainly better than the bottom four place they occupied after this encounter.
What else was happening around the Bank? There were reports of a hooligan problem, which was front-page news on the day of the Barnsley win. However, a letter in the programme printed for the next home game, Hartlepool, suggested that wasn’t everyone’s experience.
It wasn’t only K.T. Ackerman coming to a game for the first time that season – Karl Mercer was also attending his first game. That’s why he picked this match when my patrons were offered the chance to do so and to finish off, this is why he picked it in his own words.
“My choice of years gone by matches is Lincoln City v Barnsley, in our Championship winning season. What’s so special about that I hear you cry? Well, it just so happens to be when I boarded the Lincoln Loco for the very first time. We all have to “jump on the bandwagon” at some point, and my memories of the game are dim and distant, but I still feel the same sense of excitement when I’m walking down Sincil Drain on a match day.
Not only was it my first game but, as is our want, some years later, sat in the inevitably cold away stand at Hartlepool talking about ‘our first match’ Cotty piped up that his first match was Lincoln City v Barnsley in 1975! Who would have thought it, we never knew each other, yet have become firm friends through our love of the mighty Imps. So much so that 40 years later, we decided to celebrate the event by sponsoring the match closest to 27th December, and that happened to be the Barrow game in 2015….. yes, that game where Rheady scored twice, the second with an overhead kick in a 2-2 draw. Of course, we gave him Man of the Match.
I wonder if we’ll be sponsoring the match on our 50th anniversary of watching the Imps? I hope so. Another coincidence that came to light, Jonathan Battersby was actually the mascot for our very first match; how spooky is that?
I won’t bore you with the story, but I wanted to invite the chap who took me to my very first game, but I’d lost touch with him. All I knew was he lived in Liverpool. Needless to say, I found him, and he was one of the invited guests for our day as match sponsor. It brings a lump to my throat when I tell the story, if I’m honest.”
Hopefully, this recounting of the game will help enlighten that dim and distant memory.