Today is the concluding part of Malcolm Johnson’s epic six-part deep dive into the 1981/82 season.

May

In midweek Oxford had won their game in hand to knock City out of the top three but the Imps were back there again at the end of the week following the visit of mid-table Bristol Rovers. Derek Bell was now fit to start, putting to an end John Ward’s brief return to the side, with the only other change being David Rodgers in at centre half due to Trevor Peake picking up the expected one-match suspension. It seemed I wasn’t the only one to think the chance of promotion was disappearing, as the attendance was down by another thousand to just 4,070. Those of us who did turn up saw an early goal by Glenn Cockerill, enough to secure the three points in a battling performance led by stand-in skipper Steve Thompson. As Fulham had been held to a draw by Reading City were able to go back above them thanks to a narrow two-goals-better goal difference, although the London club still had a game in hand. With Oxford also held to a draw Carlisle stretched their lead at the top to five points while Southend and Burnley were both three points behind City.

Two strikers leaving the club were John Ward, who went to take up his coaching post with Watford, and Craig Ramsay, who had not featured in the current season after making a handful of first team appearances in the previous two. The 19-year-old had joined Finnish club Yaro, and although it was initially said he would only be with them until September, he did not return to City.

Some unfortunate off the field news was that young David Gilbert had once again been up before the magistrates. After his earlier fine back in January, he now pleaded guilty to entering a church at Boultham with intent to steal and was fined £50. His solicitor, not Gilbert Blades this time, said in mitigation that nothing had been taken and at the time of the offence in February the 19-year-old had been suffering personal stress.

Trevor Peake was back for a Tuesday night visit to Gillingham, but a 1-0 defeat was not what was wanted against a mid-table side with little to play for and meant there was little room for error in the remaining three games. There could be no complaint about the result, and it was only after future Irish international striker Tony Cascarino had headed the Gills into the lead early in the second half that the Imps put any pressure on the home defence. But they were unable to find an equaliser and missed the chance to go second after Oxford’s defeat at Swindon and make up any ground on leaders Carlisle who had lost to Burnley allowing the Turf Moor men to move up to fifth, level on points with the Imps. However, a win the following night for Fulham at bottom club Chester put the Imps down to fourth place ahead of their own visit to Sealand Road the following Saturday.

Already relegated, Chester were at a low ebb having lost 12 of their last 14 games and it seemed City would surely pick up another three points. However, with three of the other top five teams having a game in hand promotion was beginning to look remote following the defeat at Gillingham. I was certainly not optimistic myself, and it appears many others were of the same mind as there can’t have been many Imps supporters among the crowd of just 1,371. I was there though, after making the cross-country journey to Chester although wondering if it was worth it.

Although City fielded the usual unchanged lineup for the game it had almost to the last moment looked as if a change would be necessary at left back due to the cricket season having started. Newly appointed captain of Worcestershire, Phil Neale was expected to be with his county in Leeds that day for a Benson & Hedges Cup limited overs match against Yorkshire. A few years before, Colin Murphy’s predecessor Willie Bell had been dead set against Neale taking part in cricket during the football season despite there having been a verbal agreement that if either the cricket club or the football club were in with a chance of winning something towards the end of their respective seasons, he should continue with them. This had since been made more of a formal agreement and although Murphy was sympathetic towards Neale’s cricketing aspirations, he had been ordered by the directors to instruct the player to be available to play against Chester.

It turned out to be a close-run thing, with Neale present for the coin toss at Headingley before handing over to a deputy and setting off for Chester. Although allowing himself, as he thought, plenty of time for the journey delays due to roadworks found him still some miles from the ground 45 minutes from kick-off. Having warned Colin Murphy of his lateness the manager was able to include the player on the team sheet and Neale arrived at the ground just in time, as he says in his autobiography, to grab his shirt from the youngster who would have taken his place. Despite David Hughes having ostensibly been signed as cover for the left back position, this ‘youngster’ was presumably 17-year-old Paul Brown who had been featuring in the reserves.

Although doing well in the first half, despite Steve Thompson being off the pitch for eight minutes receiving treatment for an ankle injury, the Imps were unable to manage a goal. ‘Thommo’ failed to appear for the second half, being replaced by David Gilbert as City played with three at the back. This may have had something to do with Chester taking a shock lead ten minutes after the break with only the second goal they had scored in their last ten games. However, a quick equaliser by Glenn Cockerill saw City back in charge and 12 minutes from time a George Shipley penalty awarded after Tony Cunningham had been flattened in the area secured the win. With Fulham and Oxford both losing the three points moved City back to second place but with only goal difference separating them from Burnley in fourth place, the only other team in the top five to have won on the day.

City had still played a game more than any of the other promotion challengers except Oxford, now in fifth place, and those games were now pulled in during the following midweek. A win for Burnley at Preston moved them to second place only a point behind Carlisle who had begun to slip, losing to already-relegated Wimbledon. Although Fulham had been held at home by Gillingham the point was enough to also move them above City into third place. Oxford had also lost in their penultimate game of the season and were realistically out of the running although they could still finish above City who were now down to fourth again. But with two games to go, with one of them being against Fulham, City knew that if they won both they would be playing Second Division football the following season.

The final Saturday of the season saw a home game against Exeter City who had only just achieved safety from being relegated. Colin Murphy hoped that people would come along to support the Imps now they had, “a promotion chance within our grasp.” He got a response with an increase of over fourteen hundred on the attendance for the Bristol Rovers game to 5,489 which was a good deal more than had been present a year earlier to cheer the team that had won promotion.

Phil Neale, after playing in the County Championship the day before was again released by Worcestershire to play for City despite involvement in another Benson & Hedges Cup game. So with Steve Thompson passed fit to play following his ankle injury the previous week it was the usual 12 for City who found themselves facing an eight-man Exeter defence which they were unable to find a way through despite dominating in midfield. After the break, despite anxiety beginning to creep in the supporters gave all they could in sheer volume of noise and with half an hour to go David Gilbert came on in place of David Carr as City as at Chester pushed men forward playing with three at the back. The breakthrough came on 75 minutes when

Steve Thompson was pushed as he went up for header from a free kick and a penalty was given. This was calmly put away by George Shipley and the game was made safe seven minutes later when Glenn Cockerill seized on a back pass to round the keeper and put the ball into the empty net.

Everyone went onto the pitch after the game was over to cheer the team as they appeared in the stand, and while the scenes were reminiscent of a year ago and of 1976, I for one still had the subdued feeling that while it was a celebration of a good season we had not actually won anything yet.

The win did not lift City above fourth place as Burnley had won the night before at Southend to go top of the table while Fulham’s home win over Preston put them second. Carlisle had lost at home to Bristol Rovers to slip to third, a point ahead of City. Oxford’s home defeat by Wimbledon had finally ended their chances and it was now any three out of four for promotion. That Saturday had originally been scheduled as the last day of the season but all the top four teams still had one game to play, a situation unlikely to be allowed to happen today, and in fact the three games that were remaining did not even take place on the same night.

So, as was to happen again 39 years later, it all came down to the last game of the season – the crucial difference compared to a promotion play-off game being that in this case one of the teams knew that a draw would be enough for them. In fact, a win for City and a defeat for Burnley on the same night would have seen the Imps finish as champions.

There had been a fear that Steve Thompson would be suspended for the game after a further accumulation of penalty points took him to the threshold for a second appearance before a Disciplinary Commission within the space of two months. Fortunately, this time they let him off with a caution so the only change to the usual lineup of 12 was the return of the fit-again Gordon Hobson in place of Derek Bell.

In contract to Fulham’s usual attendance of around six thousand over 20,000 turned up at Craven Cottage to see the crucial game with estimates of the number from Lincoln varying widely from 2,000 to 8,000. In contrast to one or two recent games City turned in a superb performance on a pitch the worse for wear thanks to its use by Fulham’s Rugby League team. Although on top for the first half City were unable to find a goal but then the game changed just before the hour mark. Fulham’s Welsh international striker Gordon Davies broke City’s offside trap to race in on goal before being stopped just outside the penalty area by a body-check tackle by Steve Thompson. Having already been booked in the first half for what was described as “an innocuous challenge” on the goalkeeper, Thompson was sent off for a second booking. To make things worse, from the resultant free kick Fulham defender Roger Brown headed his side into the lead. City responded by sending on David Gilbert in place of Stuart Hibberd and it was the young substitute’s corner that was headed on by Glenn Cockerill for David Carr to put the scores level with less than 20 minutes to go. City then went all out for the winner, although Fulham also had their moments, but the home side held on for the point they needed.

In the other game on the same night Burnley drew at home to Chesterfield and were crowned champions two points ahead of Fulham while City moved into third place above Carlisle thanks to a much better goal difference. Whether they would stay there rested on Carlisle’s game the following night. The Cumbrian side had at the beginning of the month been five points clear at the top, but since then had slipped drastically with three defeats and a draw in their last four games. Their lack of form might have given hope to City except that their final game, although away from home, was against bottom club Chester who had not won a game for over two months. We all hoped for the best the following night, but it wasn’t really unexpected when veteran striker Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson’s goal was enough to send Carlisle up and leave City a point adrift in fourth place.

Dramatic news had come after the match at Fulham when just 15 minutes after the final whistle Dennis Houlston handed a letter to fellow director Heneage Dove to say he had resigned as club chairman and as a director. He also gave a letter to Echo reporter Maurice Burton and in it stated that he had decided to resign due to having been ‘for some time’ dissatisfied with the support (or presumably lack of) received from ‘most of the directors’ and said he had come to this decision “after certain discussions on April 19^th”. That date was two days after the home win over Reading so it’s not clear what those discussions may have been about. As for ‘lack of support’, it can only be conjectured whether it was over the fact that the only players brought in to strengthen the squad for the promotion run-in were free transfer men.

Houlston said that he had refrained from announcing his decision to resign until after it was decided whether the club was promoted or not (he evidently had no confidence in Chester beating Carlisle the following day). One wonders whether, if the club HAD gone into the Second Division he would still have resigned – more conjecture! His successor, with perhaps Heneage Dove not fancying a third stint as chairman, was local solicitor Gilbert Blades who was elected unanimously by the rest of the board. Although described as a ‘lifelong supporter’ one wonders in view of later events if this was a wise choice. Blades himself later said that despite seven years on the board he had never had any ambition to become chairman and it appears he may simply have been the least reluctant of the directors to take the job on.

So City missed out on promotion by a single point behind Fulham, but their fourth place meant it was still their highest Football League placing since finishing bottom of the Second Division in 1961, and something that over forty years on has still not been bettered. Also, under the new system of three points for a win their total of 77 points set an immediate record that was not to be beaten in a Football League season until 2019.

The season could perhaps be divided into three parts, with the team in the first couple of months showing form that was inconsistent at best which could be put down to the injury situation. With Steve Thompson unable to play until November and also Trevor Peake missing for several games City did not have their first choice defence to call on, plus Phil Turner was also absent through injury for a long spell.

Not directly due to injury there also turned out to be inadequacies at full back which

was solved by the arrival on loan of Wayne Turner. This certainly had an impact on City’s season as he appeared in 18 league matches, only two of which were lost. He made an immediate difference to the defence especially with Phil Neale the latest to suffer injury problems. It had been said from the start that Turner’s loan was with a view to a permanent deal, but it seems Luton were reluctant to part with him on this basis as they preferred to have him on hand in case of injury problems of their own – in fact this is what happened in the end when they recalled him after over four months. Turner returned to play half a dozen games for the Hatters as they finished as Second Division champions and appeared regularly for them in the top flight the following season. If Luton had been prepared to release the player early on it can only be conjectured what the asking fee might have been – but in view of the financial situation it probably wouldn’t have helped City meet it that £25,000 was wasted on David Beavon, a transfer deal that would come back to haunt Colin Murphy the following season.

For the middle period of the season City seemed to get rather bogged down in cup matches towards the end of the year when little progress was made in the league, and this was followed by not being able to play at all for around five weeks due to the severe winter – of course this was the same for all clubs.

The third period began when games resumed after the lay-off for the weather when Colin Murphy reverted to the 4-3-3 formation that had been tried out unsuccessfully in pre-season games. With Glenn Cockerill up front as one of the three strikers this saw a rapid rise up the table to the ultimately just unsuccessful promotion challenge.

With six games to go Maurice Burton had likened the situation to 1958 when City won their last six games of the season to stay in the Second Division. His point was that if they could do a repeat of that it would similarly mean Second Division football the following season. Of those last six games, four were away from home, but only one of these was won to go with two home wins. The fateful ‘six-pointer’ with Fulham was drawn, but it was the defeats at Swindon and Gillingham which cost City as two draws or one win from these would have seen promotion secured. I had thought at the time we’d blown it with the defeat to a Swindon side that were heading for relegation and that was really the case as it left a win being needed against a Gillingham side just outside the promotion race.

It may be suggested that the postponement of the originally scheduled trip to Fulham in January worked against City. But at that time City were 17^th and Fulham were 4^th, on a five-match unbeaten run in the league, and were to go on to win their next three games. Also, whereas City had not played a competitive game for a month, Fulham had played twice just over a week before, and while the previous Saturday had seen them lose in the FA Cup to Fourth Division Hereford, the league game three days before that was a 4-1 win over Swindon. While City had perhaps started to turn the corner, it was four games later before they began their long unbeaten run.

That the Player of the Season award went to Steve Thompson despite his not having played until the beginning of November reflected his solidly consistent performances. Second and third places in the voting were taken by Tony Cunningham and George Shipley while Phil Turner took the Young Player of the Year award for the second time in three seasons.

When the assorted injuries had mostly cleared up the last and most successful third of the season had seen a largely unchanged side fielded for a large part of it with David Gilbert monopolising the substitute’s place. Despite all the chopping and changing earlier in the season a nucleus of five players appeared in over 40 games, these being David Felgate, George Shipley and Glenn Cockerill, plus David Carr and Tony Cunningham who both featured in every game of the season for a total of 58 in the league and assorted cup competitions.

Joint top scorers were Tony Cunningham and George Shipley with 15 goals each in all competitions, nine of Shipley’s coming from the penalty spot. Third highest was Glenn Cockerill with 12, all but one scored in league games. Of two of City’s three main strikers at the start of the season, both Gordon Hobson and especially Derek Bell (for the second season in a row) had suffered injury troubles. Hobson had also been affected by a loss of form early on, but still finished with nine goals. Steve Cammack, despite arguably not being played in his best position had contributed seven, while Bell managed five with Trevor Peake chipping in with the same number.

The average league attendance was 4,222 which was around 500 down on the previous season’s promotion campaign. Despite playing in a higher division, attendances had mostly been in the three-thousands in the first half of the season with a general increase when it became clear a promotion challenge was on. City’s total for the season’s home games was the sixth lowest in the Third Division, but it was a time of falling attendances throughout football. For the second year in a row the total for the Football League saw another big drop, this time by almost two million. and could at least partly be put down the economic situation in the country continuing to hit people’s pockets with the number of unemployed now up to around three million and an inflation rate of over 9%.

Elsewhere in football, yet again an English club won the European Cup with Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in Rotterdam extending the run to six years in a row. Villa, however, could only manage a mid-table finish in the First Division, with Liverpool clinching a third championship in four seasons ahead of Ipswich Town who were runners-up for the second season in a row. Also for the second time in a row, the FA Cup final was won in a replay by Tottenham who finished fourth in the league, an early Glenn Hoddle penalty being enough to beat fifth-place Second Division side Queens Park Rangers. Spurs also reached the final of the League Cup but were beaten 3-1 by Liverpool, winners for the second year in a row to go with their league title.

Notable among the clubs relegated from the top division were Leeds United under the management of Allan Clarke who ended their post-Don Revie decline by losing their top flight status after 18 seasons. Down with them went Wolves after five mostly undistinguished seasons, and bottom club Middlesbrough after eight spent mostly in mid-table.

Returning to the top flight after seven years were Second Division champions Luton Town who lost only four matches all season, with runners-up Watford completing their rise from the Fourth Division under Graham Taylor. Scraping into the third promotion place were Norwich City, bouncing back to the First Division after one season. Having narrowly avoided relegation the previous season this time Cardiff City were not so lucky and down with them went Wrexham meaning three out of the four Welsh league clubs would now be meeting in the third tier. Bottom club in the division were Orient as they were then known, relegated after 12 years in the second. Replacing these three as we have seen were Burnley, champions ahead of Carlisle on goal difference, and Fulham, back after two years. Going down from Division Three in the bottom two places were Chester who had won only two home games all season, and financially-troubled Bristol City, relegated for the third season in a row to feature in the fourth tier for the first time in their history. Also dropping into Division Four for the first time were Swindon Town, while Wimbledon, who finished below Walsall only on goal difference continued their yo-yo existence of two promotions and now two relegations in their five-season league career.

Clear at the top of the Fourth Division in what remains their only season at that level were Sheffield United, with behind them Bradford City and Wigan Athletic separated only on goal difference. An even newer league club than Wimbledon, Wigan had so far had a less hectic time of things with this being their first promotion in their four seasons. Up in fourth place were Bournemouth, back to the third after seven seasons. Of the four clubs applying for re-election, bottom club Crewe were rather playing with fire, with the worst playing record in all four divisions and making their third application in four seasons. But they were fortunate in that neither the Alliance Premier League champions Runcorn nor runners-up Enfield satisfied the requirements of the Football League. Third-placed Telford United were therefore put up for election but finished well out of the running as Crewe comfortably made it back in as did next-to-bottom-Scunthorpe, who along with Northampton had been clear of re-election troubles for several years. The same couldn’t be said of Rochdale, but like Crewe they had been safe the previous year and were only three points adrift of 20^th place this time round.

While agreeing it was disappointing to miss out on promotion right at the end Colin Murphy put a brave face on it, saying the club was now set up on the field of play for the future and that the following season could be looked forward to with “extreme optimism.” He did warn that after finishing fourth there might be pressure on the team to go one better next time. He had earlier mentioned that the club was perhaps ahead of where it should have been, saying that promotion from the Fourth Division had been achieved a year earlier than he had thought possible as had been challenging at the top of the Third Division. With this in mind there was every reason to hope the club could go one better the following season – provided the squad could be kept together. But no big money player sale had taken place for well over a year, and although new club chairman Gilbert Blades said he wanted the club to win promotion the following year, with another heavy financial loss expected to be announced in the coming months there were warnings of difficult times ahead. This was not only for the Imps but also football in general with fears some clubs might go out of business.