April
In the first season of three points for a win, it could be said that the visit to a Chesterfield side in fifth place and two points behind the Imps was the club’s first-ever ‘six-pointer’. With Steve Thompson’s suspension completed, City were back to full strength for the trip to Saltergate, which drew Chesterfield’s highest league gate of the season swollen by a couple of thousand from Lincoln.
A confident performance by the Imps produced a 28th minute lead with Tony Cunningham’s 14th goal of the season, and after dominating the second half with a display of possession football, they sealed the win in the last minute when Gordon Hobson ran from the halfway line to score. Colin Murphy commented that the backing from the supporters was the best he had seen in all the time he had been with the club
After the short trip to Chesterfield, I made the long and complicated journey to Burnley on Easter Saturday, a week later, for the return match with the Clarets. The win at Chesterfield had put City two points clear at the top, but a midweek win for Fulham had cut that lead to one point, with the Cottagers having two games in hand. City, however had themselves a game in hand over the club outside the three promotion places, which was Reading, and were four points clear of them. Burnley were in sixth place, a further point behind, and had just beaten Reading 3-0.
The cover photo for the match programme was a scene from the recent game at Sincil Bank and showed Burnley’s Trevor Steven ‘waltzing past’ Phil Turner.
As usual the Imps fielded an unchanged lineup from the game at Chesterfield, which meant the inclusion of Steve Thompson was the only change from the Sincil Bank game, whereas the home side showed two changes in defence with the return of the experienced David Holt and full back Derek Scott. In front of an attendance just short of eleven thousand, Burnley’s highest of the season so far, they once again owed it to their goalkeeper Alan Stevenson for keeping the score to 0-0 at half time. With City having given a dominant performance in the first half this continued after the break and just after the hour mark had the chance to take a deserved lead when David Carr was brought down for a clear penalty. Unfortunately, the usually reliable George Shipley saw his spot kick hit the post and cleared. Ten minutes later, some poor marking allowed Billy Hamilton to score from six yards out, and with David Gilbert getting another outing off the bench in place of Carr as City pushed for an equaliser that remained the only goal of the match. The defeat put an end to a 17-match unbeaten run stretching back to the beginning of February, and first place was relinquished as Carlisle took over at the top with a win at Preston. But the Imps still had a four-point cushion over fourth place, now occupied by Oxford United after a ‘six-point’ win for them at Reading in a ‘Thames Valley derby’ match.
On Easter Monday, over eight thousand, City’s biggest home league attendance of the season, were at Sincil Bank for the visit of mid-table Huddersfield Town. Prior to the match, there was to be a free-fall parachute display with a team of five scheduled to land in the centre circle half an hour before kick-off, but things did not go quite according to plan when one of the parachutists injured an ankle in an awkward landing and had to be taken to hospital.
As usual, unchanged for the game, City took an early lead through Tony Cunningham and, while not playing as well as they had in defeat two days before, were usually in control of the match and made sure of victory midway through the second half when Phil Neale tapped in his first goal of the season from close range.
The win against Huddersfield put City back on top of the division, but only because Carlisle didn’t have a game until the following night. The Cumbrian side duly beat bottom club Chester to go back above the Imps. The gap to fourth place was now down to two points with the rest of the top seven clubs all having played fewer games than the Imps. “City need to keep on winning,” said Maurice Burton, and that’s what they did with the visit the following Saturday of a Reading side just outside the promotion race.
Colin Murphy had made a plea for the full backing of the City supporters, “We need all Lincoln behind us now,” saying the game was the platform for the promotion run-in. It was disappointing then that the attendance was down by over three thousand from the Huddersfield game, which could only have been slightly blamed on there being fewer visiting supporters. An injury-hit Reading side were little interested in anything other than containment and it was therefore a shock when they took the lead midway through the second half with a header from a corner. Soon afterwards, David Gilbert came off the bench to replace Stuart Hibberd and before long City were level thanks to a 25-yard shot from George Shipley. The winner came five minutes from the end when a Gilbert cross was headed on by Tony Cunningham for Trevor Peake to drive in his fifth goal of the season. The win saw City remain two points behind Carlisle who had a home win against mid-table Millwall but doubled the gap to four points over Oxford United, who had been held to a draw by fifth-place Burnley with only goal difference separating these two sides who both had two games in hand on the Imps.
Colin Murphy described a trip to Kent the following Monday night to play a match with Alliance Premier League club Gravesend & Northfleet (now known as Ebbsfleet United) as a chance to get the players away for a break from the “pressure and tension” of the promotion race. One of the clubs Colin Murphy had played for in his younger days, this was for a benefit match for Gravesend’s long-serving player Kenny Burrett. Glenn Cockerill and Gordon Hobson did not make the trip due to injury concerns, with Gerard Creane included in the side and scoring along with Tony Cunningham and George Shipley, it was City who won the match 3-1.
The pressure was on City prior to the trip to Swindon the following Saturday as three of the four teams around them all won games in hand. Carlisle went three points clear at the top, now ahead of Fulham, who moved above City into second place. Oxford’s win meant they were now only a single point behind in fourth place. With injury worries over Gordon Hobson and John Ward the two strikers, along with young reserve Craig Ramsay, travelled with Colin Murphy on the Friday for an overnight stay to allow time for fitness tests and training on the Saturday morning before the rest of the team arrived. Unfortunately, Hobson suffered an aggravation to his ankle injury suffered against Reading and subsequently had to have his leg put in plaster. John Ward, however, was passed fit to play and was the only change to the lineup as he appeared in an Imps shirt for the first time in almost three years.
But it was to be a disappointing return for ‘Wardy’ in what turned out to also be his last game for the Imps as the team gave a lethargic display against a side fourth from bottom and heading for relegation. The only goal of the match came early in the second half when a mis-hit shot trickled into the net following a corner, and although City then upped their game with David Gilbert again substituting for Stuart Hibberd, they were unable to find an equaliser.
Maurice Burton summed the game up by saying City looked a long way from being a promotion outfit. “We can offer no excuses at all”, said Colin Murphy. Personally, after making my second-ever trip to the County Ground, I thought we’d blown it in terms of promotion, and Maurice Burton also described it as “a severe setback.” But there were still plenty of points to be played for, and City were still in third place, although now only on goal difference, as Oxford had drawn at Preston. In fifth place were Burnley, two points further back, although both these clubs still had a game in hand on City. They did at least remain only two points behind second-place Fulham, who used up their game in hand by losing the following day to Millwall, while Carlisle at the top were held to a draw at Gillingham.
The away match with Fulham, postponed because of the snow in January, had originally been rearranged for the following Wednesday, but with City’s agreement, it was re-scheduled again due to Fulham having two players on international duty. Instead, on the Tuesday night, City played another testimonial match, in contrast to the previous week, making the much shorter journey to Gainsborough for the benefit of ex-Trinity goalkeeper Wilson Rose. It gave the opportunity for some match practice for Derek Bell, who was returning to fitness, and David Rodgers, who it was thought would likely be needed to play in the following Saturday’s game with Trevor Peake facing an FA disciplinary hearing due to accumulated penalty points. Apart from the inclusion of Stuart Naylor in goal due to David Felgate being ill and David Hughes who played at left back it was a full-strength City side which an attendance of just 400 saw win 1-0 thanks to a late goal from Tony Cunningham.