Looking Back At: 1967/68

The win over Bradford inspired a revival, with a run of four further home wins including five more goals for Grummett as he seemed to have solved the centre forward problem. However, away from home the side embarked on a run of five successive defeats including an FA Cup First Round exit against Southport and a 6-0 reverse at Chester four days after beating them 3-0 at home on Boxing Day. Mick Brown’s suspension following his sending-off against Derby was in the fashion of the times for a month rather than a number of games, and this turned out to comprise four matches, Tom Brooks filling in at right back during his absence with also a game in that position for Phil Hubbard.

Halfway through the season the team were safely in mid-table and it seemed they were free of the re-election troubles of the previous three seasons, but these fears were revived with a ten-game run of eight defeats (four of them at home) and two draws. Leading scorer for the reserves Rod Fletcher was brought in for a couple of games, but there was a distinct lack of punch up front with Jim Grummett switching between defence and attack, Jack Lewis briefly brought back into the team and Ford tried on the right wing. For three games Ray Lancaster returned to the side after a long absence to allow Grummett to play in attack but then with City two points off the bottom four going into March Ron Gray, admitting that some players had gone off form while others had lost fight dipped into the transfer market.

The first of three new players was balding midfielder Jim Smith, aged 27, who was signed from Halifax for £1,000, soon followed by 30-year-old striker Peter Kearns from Aldershot. Some of the profit from the League Cup run was used to pay the substantial sum for the time of £6,000 for the vastly experienced right winger Gordon Hughes who had featured for Derby County in both matches against the Imps. But the new men took a little time to bed in and on the Saturday before Easter the Imps were fourth from bottom as they went into their home game with a second-placed Southend United side who had won their previous game 7-0 against Workington.

Meanwhile, with a lack of success in signing a new centre forward Norman Corner had been brought back into the team, perhaps on the strength of two goals for the reserves in another match that I witnessed at Meadow Lane when a side was put out comprising eleven players with first-team experience including regulars Kennedy, Peden and Thom.

Attendances were now down to below 5,000 but those who were there for the Southend game saw a new-look 4-3-3 formation with Lewis Thom omitted turn in a confident display to win 4-2. There was a first goal for Kearns and a brace for man-of-the-match Corner who really won the fans over with a bustling performance. Successive 1-0 away wins followed and a second-highest league crowd of the season of over 8,000 turned up on Easter Monday and although treated to a disappointing 1-1 draw with Exeter were happy that fears were receding of yet another re-election plea.

With Gordon Hughes injured Lew Thom was restored to the side and on the strength of two further wins I was sufficiently enthused by the recent performances to make my furthest away trip to date by a rather convoluted train journey to Bradford. The reward against the side rooted to the foot of the table was a second 5-1 win of the season against the Park Avenue side, with a hat-trick for Corner, all his goals being headers from left wing crosses. The headline in the local Bradford football paper? “Great Goal by Lloyd for Avenue”, the paper also reported that with City 4-1 up “many of the spectators ceased to watch the football and instead from the back of the stand watched a fire somewhere in the Great Horton area”. The only downside for City was an injury suffered by Roger Holmes to end his best ever season for City, finishing as top scorer with 17 goals and during which it was rumoured Tottenham were interested in signing him.

The season finished with Kearns’ fourth goal in three games enough to beat Brentford in a game played at 7.15 on a Saturday night to avoid clashing with a local carnival, followed by the first defeat in nine games as a weakened side lost by the only goal to visitors Port Vale but at least prevented former player-coach Roy Chapman from adding to his 25-goal tally for the Valiants. With a much-improved final placing of 13th the average home league attendance of 6,677 was the highest since the Second Division days.

Prior to the last game, the Imps had qualified to compete in the finals of a national five-a-side championship and so became the first-ever Lincoln City team to play at Wembley, albeit at the venue of the Empire Pool. Sadly, the Imps went out to Grimsby in their quarter-final match, John Kennedy summing it up as “we were terrible!”.

Fourth Division champions were Luton Town with Barnsley, Crewe and Hartlepool also promoted. Elsewhere, Lincoln United won the Second Division championship in their first season in the Yorkshire League, Manchester City were Football League champions, West Bromwich beat Everton in the FA Cup Final and Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup.