November
The visit of Chester, just three points better off than City the following Saturday saw Alan Jones make his debut on the right wing with John Fleming left out of the squad to make way for Mick Harford to occupy the subs’ bench. After a break of two seasons City had reintroduced a reserve side in the North Midlands League, and the 18-year-old had been turning in some fine displays in that and the youth team after Kerr had switched him to play up front instead of in midfield. In fact, Kerr said that wanting to play Harford up front was the sole reason he moved Glenn Cockerill to midfield – maybe what they mean by serendipity? Fleming, like Booth, also asked for a transfer immediately after being dropped, but there seemed no danger of him joining the exodus to Watford. As for Terry Cooper, nothing happened over a possibility that he might have gone on loan to Scunthorpe.
Falling behind after eleven minutes to Chester the Imps played poorly throughout the first half before an improvement after the break saw them equalise with a rare headed goal from the 5ft 6in Jones with just over an hour gone. Four minutes later, Peter Graham’s fifth goal of the season was enough for the points which moved City out of the bottom four again and up to 19th place. However, they were back in the relegation zone again after a visit to promotion-chasing Cambridge United. Managed by Ron Atkinson, the U’s had won the Fourth Division championship the previous season and would go on to further promotion at the end of the current season. Cambridge were far too good for an unchanged Imps side and the 5-0 defeat suffered was the heaviest for just over three years when they had also come away from the Abbey Stadium with the same score-line.
Putting the defeat at Cambridge down at least partly to inexperience Kerr declared that he would stand by the players who took part in that match and did so, the only change being the return of John Fleming to the bench instead of Dennis Leigh for the visit of Preston to Sincil Bank the following Saturday. After the defeat at Cambridge the attendance dipped to just below four thousand again and we suffered a dour first half before Alan Harding equalised a 47th minute goal from Alex Bruce for Preston. However, Bruce quickly restored his side’s lead before City rescued a point with a Graham header from an Alan Jones cross but this was not enough to prevent sinking a place deeper into the bottom four.
Following the signing of Jones there was news of the arrival of another right winger – a 20-year-old plumber who had been playing in local football in his native Sheffield. Gordon Hobson had been with Sheffield United as a teenager before briefly drifting out of professional football, and City were able to capture him against interest from higher-placed league clubs in the area. “There is no doubt about it that Hobson is first team potential”, said Kerr.
It was now time for the FA Cup and it was Preston again, this time away from home. George Kerr rated Preston’s Alex Bruce who had scored both their goals at Sincil Bank as the best striker in the division, and perhaps having in mind the job Phil Neale had done against a similarly-rated striker in a match the previous season he was moved to play alongside Clive Wigginton in the centre of defence. Dean Crombie dropped to the bench with Dennis Leigh coming in at left back. The game started well for the Imps, with Alan Harding heading them into the lead after 24 minutes and they were then awarded a penalty just before half time. Clive Wigginton seemed an unlikely choice to take the spot kick, which was City’s first of the season, but he made no mistake, and the Imps were looking good at 2-0 in front. However, Bruce’s fellow striker Mike Elwiss pulled a goal back early in the second half and it was no surprise when Bruce himself escaped the attentions of Neale to equalise with eleven minutes to go, nor when Elwiss hit a late winner.
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