Jimmy Gilligan
Centre forward Jimmy Gilligan came through the youth ranks at Graham Taylor’s Watford and when he came on loan to City in October 1982 at the age of 18 had made a handful of first team appearances scoring two goals.
The Imps were top of the Third Division table despite defeat at Newport the previous week when with strikers Gordon Hobson and Derek Bell unfit manager Colin Murphy played reserve goalkeeper Stuart Naylor up front. Hobson and Bell had both recovered to take part in the midweek League Cup win over Leicester City but with the small squad being so stretched the directors allowed Murphy to bring in the 6ft 2in Watford youngster on a month’s loan. He was on the subs’ bench for a home game with Doncaster Rovers and with City 4-0 up came on for the last half hour of the match in place of Marshall Burke as the Imps completed a 5-1 win. He remained on the bench for the next two games, both won. A defeat then came at Brentford as Gilligan again replaced Burke with an hour gone. 1-0 down at the time, City fell further behind before the loanee failed to put away a late chance to pull a goal back. At Watford’s request Gilligan was not involved in the second leg of the League Cup tie but he was back on the bench for another home win, this time replacing Phil Turner midway through the second half as the Imps beat Bradford City 1-0. He was an unused substitute in the next two games before quietly returning to Watford, much later describing his loan as ‘a disastrous spell’, claiming he had understood he was joining Lincoln to gain first team experience. In reality, it was never likely that he was going to be more than squad cover in case of injuries.
Back at Watford, Gilligan had the distinction of scoring Watford’s first ever goal in European competition but he found it difficult to break into the first team and joined second tier club Grimsby Town for a fee of £110,000 in the summer of 1985. A year later, after just six goals for the Mariners he moved on to Swindon Town, newly promoted to the Third Division for £30,000. Again fairly unsuccessful, with six goals up to the end of February, he was allowed to join Newport County on loan, scoring once in five games.
Meanwhile, four years after Gilligan’s previous spell City were now in the Fourth Division, and towards the end of March 1987 were in 17th place and looking over their shoulders at bottom place and relegation out of the league. George Kerr had been sacked as manager and experienced full back Peter Daniel appointed in his place. Out of money raised by the sale of defender Gary Strodder, £35,000 was spent on Jimmy Gilligan with the hope that he could form a partnership with top scorer Gary Lund that would turn things round for City. In fact, he replaced Lund in the side for his first game which saw a defeat at Hartlepool. After another defeat Lund was brought back into the side alongside him but missed chances by Gilligan didn’t help in a goal-less draw at home to Hereford.
A first win in ten games at Crewe was followed by a home defeat to Wrexham with Gilligan one of several players criticised by the manager. Another goal-less draw at home and defeat at Stockport saw the Imps down to fourth from bottom but things looked a lot better after champions-elect Northampton Town were beaten 3-1 at Sincil Bank. Gilligan produced his best performance for the Imps, opening the scoring with a seventh-minute header, hitting the post, and harrying a defender into lobbing the ball into his own net for the third goal. But missed chances by the striker contributed to defeats in the last three games of the season which saw the Imps go out of the league.
Following this, and the return of Colin Murphy as manager Gilligan was one of many players departing the club, with the £20,000 raised from his sale to Cardiff City helping to fund the rebuilding of the side. His career then blossomed as he finished top scorer for the Bluebirds in his first season with later six-figure moves to Portsmouth and Swansea before injury ended his Football League career in 1993 after appearing in 280 games and scoring 80 goals, the majority of these coming after he left Lincoln.
Gilligan’s earlier spell with the club may have had no bearing on his returning to City as they had changed managers three times since then, although there could have been feedback from trainer/physio Bert Loxley who had been there throughout.
On balance, his return could not be considered a success as although the one goal he scored (in eleven games) helped to raise optimism that the club would be safe, he was otherwise ineffective too often when it came to putting the ball into the net and was as culpable as most of the players around him at the time for City’s failings.