Earlier this week, we looked at a relegation curse that afflicted Justin Walker – he’s not the only ex-Imp to suffer the curse.
Indeed, there are few careers quite as curious — or as cursed — as that of Simeon Hodson. A local lad, born in Lincoln in March 1966, Hodson returned home in 1985 hoping to rebuild a career that had promised so much but delivered only heartache. What followed was two seasons of chaos, relegation, and quiet determination in a side spiralling out of the Football League.
When George Kerr brought Hodson to Sincil Bank in the summer of ’85, the defender was only 19 but had already been around the block. He’d broken through at Notts County as a 17-year-old with 27 league appearances to his name. Charlton Athletic followed, but things quickly soured there — just five appearances, then out in the cold after Lenny Lawrence brought in an entirely new back four.
“He’s got a fine pedigree,” Kerr said on signing him, “but something obviously went wrong somewhere. His talent’s been allowed to wane — and I tend to think it was his fault rather than the clubs’. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring the talent out of him again.”
It was a blunt appraisal, but there was an underlying hope: that City could become the club where Hodson would flourish.
The youngster wasn’t even sure he would make it himself. “I know I have to prove myself here and try and earn a better contract, but I believe in my own ability and if I wasn’t confident I could score I might as well not bother,” he said. “I haven’t really played top level football since leaving Notts, so I wouldn’t say I was on the top of my game. I’ve been given no guarantees in the first team plays, that’s up to the gaffer, but I’ll be fighting all the way to try and make it.”
Inspiring stuff.
Hodson made 66 appearances for the Imps in all competitions, 56 of those in the Football League, between 1985 and 1987. He was young, committed, and local — but he had the misfortune of arriving just as the club was entering a tailspin. Crucially, while he backed himself to score, he did not score at all.
The 1985–86 season saw City relegated from the old Third Division. Rather than stabilise, things unravelled further. The 1986–87 campaign ended in disaster as the Imps became the first club to suffer automatic relegation from the Football League to the Conference. The side struggled badly, and Hodson, like so many others, found himself on the wrong end of a historical footnote.
There were no goals, no moment of redemption. And in the chaos that followed the relegation — with no permanent manager in place — a boardroom committee drew up the retained list. Hodson, still only 21, was quietly shown the door. The club’s managing director, Geoff Davey, refused to comment.
Relegation didn’t just follow Hodson at Lincoln. It seemed to haunt him throughout his career.
His debut season at Notts County? Relegated from the First Division in 1983–84. After leaving Lincoln, he had spells at clubs like West Bromwich Albion (relegated in 1990–91), Mansfield Town (relegated in 1992–93), and Altrincham (relegated from the Conference in 1999–2000).
In fact, between 1983 and 1988, Hodson was associated with sides that were relegated from the top four divisions — in perfect descending order: First Division with Notts County, Second with Charlton (84–85), Third and Fourth with Lincoln, and then Fourth again with Newport County (87–88). If there was a niche football record for sequential relegation tiers, Simeon Hodson might just hold it. When he dropped out of the Conference with Altrincham, he earned the uneviable record of being relegated from all five of England’s top divisions.
And yet, within that streak of misfortune, there was always consistency. Hodson kept getting games. Managers kept trusting him. He kept showing up. He wasn’t the reason teams got relegated.
Despite his Football League struggles, Hodson rebuilt himself in the Conference. He racked up over 200 appearances at that level, including captaining Kidderminster Harriers to the Conference title in 1993–94. He even earned recognition for his performances, representing the England semi-pro side — a genuine feather in the cap for a man who never stopped working.
Later spells at Mansfield, Altrincham and Halifax rounded off a long and winding career that ultimately came to an end at Sutton Coldfield Town in 2001. Forced into retirement by a persistent knee injury, Hodson stepped away from football after nearly 20 years in the game.
After football, Hodson didn’t vanish into obscurity. He entered the police force, serving as a Police Community Support Officer in Warwickshire. In 2008, he helped save the life of a woman who had fallen into a canal in Fazeley — off duty at the time, out jogging with his daughter, but still acting instinctively and selflessly.
That moment probably says more about Simeon Hodson than any number of appearances or misfortunes ever could.