With Northampton having an outstanding 1975/76, overshadowed only by City’s the two clubs met again the following August for their first Third Division clash at the County Ground for 15 years.
In the early season league table both teams had a single point with it being only City’s second game and Northampton’s third. Almost incredibly, the game ended with a 1-0 score-line in favour of the home side for the fourth season in a row. City’s uninspiring performance in the game was put down to the state of the County Ground pitch showing evidence of its recent use as a car park for cricketing spectators and reported as being “covered in ruts, divots and bumps” and described by Graham Taylor as “Diabolical”.
City were to have an inconsistent season back in the Third Division, but Northampton surprisingly struggled throughout and ended up being relegated back to the fourth tier. Two seasons later City joined them there, so the next meeting of the two clubs at the County Ground was in early April 1980. Due to it being a midweek game I missed this match.
In the days of two points for a win City, now under the management of Colin Murphy were six points off the top four with five games to play and were realistically out of the promotion running with Northampton five points behind them, even more so. For the sixth season in a row the Imps failed to score at the County Ground, but did at least put an end to the run of 1-0 defeats with a point from a 0-0 draw which made no difference to the league positions of the two clubs. The game saw the last appearances in an Imps shirt of three players, on-loan goalkeeper Eric McManus, young Irish winger Aiden McKenzie and full back Brendan Guest, on as substitute. The game was reported as a ‘dour struggle’ and was in fact City’s third-goal-less draw in a row and their fifth without conceding a goal, a pointer to the basis of their success the following season.
Some improvements were now made to the County Ground, with the main stand being re-roofed and new seats put in. New floodlights were also installed in time for the 1980/81 season, but they failed during the first match in which they were used and the game with Southend United had to be abandoned.
By the time of City’s visit to Northampton at the end of March 1981 an improvement to the match programme was also evident compared to my last visit there.
City were second in the table, a position they had occupied since mid-November and almost assured of promotion while Northampton had spent most of the season in the lower half of the league table. At long last, and at the seventh attempt, City finally managed to score another goal at the ground as Gordon Hobson’s headed equaliser in a 1-1 draw put City within three points of clinching promotion. The game saw a first league start for teenage midfielder Stuart Hibberd.
While City went on to enjoy five seasons back in the Third Division Northampton struggled, with two applications for re-election culminating in their lowest ever Football League attendance of 942 for a match with Chester City in March 1985.
However, City’s relegation back to the Fourth Division saw them at the County Ground again a few days before Christmas in 1986. By now, following the new safety regulations brought in after the Bradford fire the main stand at the County Ground had been deemed unsafe and largely demolished as it would have cost £60,000 to make safe. The roof and seats were removed leaving the offices and dressing rooms below with a sloping roof showing where the seating deck had been. The terracing in front remained and a small temporary stand was constructed in the centre of this made of scaffolding resulting in its being nicknamed the Meccano Stand by fans.
The game was played on a Sunday, so was another one that I missed. City were now managed by George Kerr who after replacing Colin Murphy’s successor John Pickering had been unable to save them from relegation. After a poor start to the season City had risen to eighth place in the table amid thought of a promotion challenge. Northampton, however, were riding high, eleven points clear at the top with only one league defeat all season. City took the lead midway through the first half with Gary Lund’s 13th goal of the season, but former Imps player David Gilbert levelled from the penalty spot just before half time. City then rather lost their way in the second half and the 3-1 defeat was City’s heaviest on the ground in a league match.
The two clubs headed in opposite directions at the end of the season, City for a season in the GM Vauxhall Conference and Northampton as Fourth Division champions followed by three seasons in the third tier. Back in the Fourth, the two clubs met again on the last day of April in 1991. The Tuesday night game found City on a run of five draws and two defeats from their last seven games but solidly in 14th place after former player Steve Thompson had taken over as manager from Allan Clarke in November with City in next-to-bottom place. Northampton had spent much of the season in contention for an automatic promotion place but a poor run of results had seen them now struggling to hold onto a play-off spot.
After the home side had taken an early lead City equalised when Jason Lee chipped the ball over the goalkeeper from 20 yards just before the break. They were up against it when skipper Graham Bressington was sent off for a second booking after 53 minutes, and even more so when John Schofield was also dismissed for a bad tackle with 20 minutes to go, but the nine men hung on valiantly for a 1-1 draw. The point was not enough for Northampton and two further defeats saw them slip out of the play-off places to finish tenth while City remained 14th.
I was back at the County Ground with City the following November. Under Steve Thompson the Imps had made a poor start to the season, and with only three wins were currently in 20th place in what at the time was a 23-club division. Northampton were doing little better and were two places above City on goal difference.
In an uninspiring game between two struggling sides City’s best chance came when striker Tony Lormor hit the post but they were otherwise indebted to goalkeeper Matt Dickins to keep the score down to the traditional 1-0 victory for the home side. This was Northampton’s first league win for 12 matches and allowed them to pull two places further ahead of City.
There were reports in the match programme of the recent departure from the board of all the directors except the chairman amid financial troubles, but there was optimistic news of discussions with the local council about a new stadium.
City’s results gradually improved as the season went on and an end of season run of seven wins in a row saw them finish six places above Northampton.
Following City’s fine end to the previous season hopes were high for the new campaign, but after an inconsistent start they were in 13th place at the beginning of October in what, following the demise of Aldershot was now a 22-club division, newly named Division 3. Northampton themselves, with the club now being run by Administrators were struggling again, with only goal difference keeping them off bottom place.
The County Ground by now could fairly be described as the worst in the league with, apart from the minimum-sized ‘Meccano’ stand the rear portion of the Kop now fenced off, and only 1,922 were present, the smallest-ever crowd to see a City match at the venue. It produced what was not only City’s second ever win on the ground but also only the third time they had scored more than one goal in a match there. The Northampton side included later Imps goalkeeper Barry Richardson, and after a quiet first half it was left back David Clarke who gave City the lead soon after the break with a thunderbolt shot. After withstanding some pressure from the home side substitute Jason Kabia then made sure of the points five minutes from time.
The win moved City up five places to eighth and was the start of a run which saw them as high as third before only two wins in the last nine games of the season saw a final placing of eighth which was not considered enough for Steve Thompson to retain his position as manager. Northampton, bottom of the table after this defeat did enough to finish 20th, five points clear of dropping into the Conference.
More importantly for Northampton they survived going into administration, and by the time of City’s next and last visit to the ground in March 1994 were monitoring the progress on their new council-owned and built stadium to be named the Sixfields Stadium.
Steve Thompson’s replacement as manager was former player and youth team coach Keith Alexander but despite playing a brand of neat passing football, they had spent most of the season just below halfway in the table and were 14th going into this game. Northampton were enduring another season of struggle, and despite being on a run of only one defeat in nine matches were two points adrift at the foot of the table. As well as Barry Richardson their side included another later City player in Terry Fleming, playing at right back in this game.
Although Lincoln probably should have won in a game which saw the last appearance in a City shirt of substitute Tony Loughlan, “There was only one team on it”, said Alexander, they had to settle for a point in a goalless draw. They remained in 14th place, in little danger of either relegation or a play-off spot, and finishing 18th at the end of the season meant the departure of Alexander as manager. Northampton, unable to avoid last place, were saved from starting life in their new stadium with Conference football due to Kidderminster Harriers failing to be promoted due to ground grading conditions.
The last game to be played at the County Ground was a 1–0 defeat by Mansfield Town on 12 October 1994 in front of an attendance of 4,993, and starting from February 1995 all Lincoln City’s games at Northampton have since been at the Sixfields Stadium.
Within three months of Northampton’s move from the County Ground the Kop had been removed, the Meccano stand dismantled and the floodlight pylons taken down. There is now no trace of football ever having been played there apart from a turnstile block at the corner of the Hotel End. The ground is now wholly given over to cricket with an indoor cricket school now occupying the site of the main stand and part of what was the football pitch.
Lincoln City played a total of seventeen games at the County Ground including one cup tie. The record of only two wins was not a great one, although the other games were almost equally divided between draws and defeats – amazingly with five out of the eight of these being by 1-0. Whether it could be put down to the perennially poor state of the pitch City over the years found it very difficult to score, managing only thirteen goals in 17 games, three of these coming in one match. Conversely, the defensive record was reasonably good, with five of the 22 goals conceded coming in one match, while the opposition were restricted to one goal or less on 12 of 17 occasions.
City’s goals at the ground were scored by twelve different players, with John Worsdale being the top scorer with two, both coming in one match. The majority of the goals came from strikers, some of them among the more notable to play for City in (comparatively) recent years in Ron Harbertson, Rod Fletcher, Bobby Svarc, Dixie McNeil, Gordon Hobson, Gary Lund and Jason Lee.
Photo Credits
Main Stand 1970s and Kop End 1969 – www.pixels.com
Aerial view – www.mirror.co.uk
Hotel End after closure – www.jimmysirrelslovechild.co.uk
County Ground today – www.nccc.co.uk
Kop after closure and Meccano stand – Twitter
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