Following the departure of manager Graham Taylor to Elton John’s Watford at the end of the 1976/77 season his replacement, the former assistant to Taylor, George Kerr had lasted only until mid-December before being sacked with City in the relegation zone of Division Three (now League One), writes Malcolm Johnson.
Former Birmingham City manager Willie Bell had been appointed in Kerr’s place, and the ex-Scottish international full back put together a hard-working side which saw a steady improvement to finish the season in the safety of 16th place. Kerr had perhaps erred in placing too much reliance on young players, whereas Bell’s improvement to the side’s fortunes came following a preference for the likes of the experienced Terry Cooper and Phil Hubbard instead of the youthful promise of such as Dean Crombie and Glenn Cockerill. On the other hand, he gave 18-year-old midfielder turned striker Mick Harford a regular place in the first team with the north-easterner finishing joint top scorer in the 1977/78 season with nine goals.
Graham Taylor’s record-breaking Fourth Division championship side of two seasons previously had already started to evolve, with full back Ian Branfoot now moved to a coaching role, and centre half Sam Ellis and midfielder Dennis Booth having joined Taylor at Watford. Of the remaining players, by the summer of 1978 several could perhaps be said to be approaching or past their ‘sell-by’ date, with Phil Hubbard, Alan Harding, Peter Graham and Dave Smith all either side of 30 years old, plus midfielder John Fleming, who, although several years younger had largely been no more than a squad player for the last two seasons.
George Kerr had made a start on rebuilding the side, although this was partly forced on him by the unwanted departures of Ellis and Booth, and he had at least introduced several young players into the first team squad – perhaps too many. The time was maybe right for his successor to continue evolving the side, but that wasn’t altogether what happened.
Of the players aged around 30 that have been mentioned Bell released two and retained two and it could be said that he got his choices wrong. The big surprise and disappointment to most supporters was the release of club legend and longest continuously-serving player Dave Smith. The skilful midfielder/winger had been with the club for almost ten years and was perhaps unfortunate in that he suffered an injury in Bell’s second game in charge and he returned to make a handful of appearances, mainly from the subs’ bench, an effective midfield partnership of Phil Neale and Phil Hubbard was by then ensuring the club’s safety from relegation. Smith had evidently not impressed Bell in the few games he played, with the manager giving the reason for his release as “I don’t think he is consistently good enough for the Third Division”. This was soon disproved by the 30-year-old being snapped up by fellow Third Division side Rotherham United and going on to play over 40 games for the Millers before finally calling it a day just over a year later.
Not initially on the list of those released was striker Peter Graham, with the player claiming it only happened after he had enquired about his wages for the following season and was told he had a choice of playing part-time or leaving on a free transfer. Now 31, although Graham had played regularly the previous season (including a handful of games in defence) his goals had rather dried up, with just one of his season’s total of nine coming in his last 18 appearances. He joined the ranks of the released players and moved to newly-promoted Second Division side Cambridge United where he played a number of games for them over the next year or so, mainly as a defender.
Graham’s former Darlington team mate Alan Harding had been a key member of the Fourth Division championship side playing wide on the left, but at the age of 30 was another for whom perhaps the time had come to be moved on. The same could be said of midfielder John Fleming, who although only 25, had to an extent already yielded a regular first team place wide on the right to Phil Hubbard two seasons ago but had remained at the club following the departure of Taylor. As for Hubbard himself, at the age of 29, it was more arguable whether his best days were behind him or not as he had played a key role in midfield the previous season, also filling in as a striker when required – although at Third Division level his best days as an attacking player were definitely in the past.
Also released were four young players, with 22-year-old goalkeeper Jimmy Gordon’s departure no surprise after he had spent four years as understudy to Peter Grotier making just a handful of appearances. He now had a trial spell with Reading before joining Fourth Division Scunthorpe United soon after the start of the new season.
Also no surprise was the release of teenage striker Mark Cox who had been a prolific goal-scorer at youth and reserve team level but failed to look the part in his handful of first team appearances. He was given a chance by Fourth Division Doncaster Rovers, playing a number of games for them in the coming season before then moving on to play for both Boston clubs.
Similarly unsurprising again was the departure of 20-year-old midfielder Jackie Gallagher whose only first team appearance had come in the last game of the 1976/77 season. He went into non-league football before later joining Peterborough United.
What was a surprise was the release of defender Dean Crombie. Now 20, his career had stalled since the departure of Graham Taylor, and although a regular under George Kerr he had immediately lost his place after Willie Bell’s appointment with the new manager going instead for the experience of Terry Cooper. It has to be said that Bell’s preference paid off in terms of improved results, but it turned out to be a bad move to release a player of Crombie’s potential. He was quickly snapped up by Grimsby Town and went on to be ever-present in their Fourth Division promotion-winning side in the coming season.
To add to 20-year-old Aston Villa reserve midfielder David Hughes who had joined for a fee of £4,000 just before the end of the previous season Bell brought in two players on free transfers. Effectively replacing Crombie in the squad was 19-year-old defender Billy Wright from Bell’s former club Birmingham City, while a more experienced player coming in to fill Peter Graham’s place was 26-year-old David Sunley, signed from Hull City. Never a prolific scorer, Sunley had made around 130 mainly Second Division appearances for Sheffield Wednesday scoring 21 goals before joining Hull. With a total of eleven league goals from 69 appearances for the Tigers he had been mainly a squad player for them in the previous season as they finished bottom of Division Two.
In an attempt to bring in some experienced players to the club Bell had tried to sign two former England internationals from his former club Leeds United. But 33-year-old right back Paul Reaney elected to join Bradford City instead, while the 32-year-old striker and later Imps boss Allan Clarke took the job of player-manager with Barnsley. Conversely, with an eye to the future, Bell signed eight players to the apprentice ranks, giving the club the high total of around eleven. All but three of them would go on to appear in the first team, with two making significant careers in the game.
Off-field news in the close season included the appointment of a new club secretary. Dick Chester, who had held the post for around seven years left after a reported breakdown over negotiations for a new contract. His replacement was 27-year-old Market Rasen man and Imps supporter John Sorby, formerly employed by an agricultural wholesaler.
There was also a change in the boardroom with the resignation of director Bill Crone, with 10,000 of his shares being sold to Life President Dennis Bocock. Formerly a director, and club chairman for a period of almost two years earlier in the decade, Bocock had also recently acquired a large number of shares from another ex-director Reg Brealey, and 2,000 from club president Danny Walker. This resulted in just over one third of the total share issue being held, or said to be controlled by Mr Bocock, however the North Hykeham builder did not return to the board and stated he merely wished to help the club financially.
Meanwhile, thanks were expressed to the Lincoln & District Football Supporters Club by chairman Heneage Dove for a donation of £10,500, bringing the total for the financial year so far to £28,500.
Back to on-field matters, and the only pre-season matches were two in the Lincolnshire Senior Cup. The first of these saw the visit of Scunthorpe United and a 2-1 win for the Imps win thanks to goals from David Sunley and Mick Harford, with later City player Kevin Kilmore pulling a goal back for the visitors. The other new signing Billy Wright formed a youthful full back partnership with Keith Laybourne, one of the four players signed from the Lambton Street Boys’ Club in Sunderland a year before and a regular reserve in the previous season. After missing most of the last season through injury there was a welcome return to action for John Ward, coming on as substitute for the last hour after Harford suffered a broken nose.
A week later the side was unchanged except for Phil Hubbard replacing Harford up front and another of the Sunderland boys’ club players, Alan Eden coming into midfield. The only goal of the gamer came from Hubbard after five minutes in what could not by any means be described as a friendly encounter which saw winger Gordon Hobson taken to hospital for an x-ray after being tackled by Grimsby’s Bob Cumming.
Things seemed set up well for the commencement of real competitive action a week later, and while no-one really expected a serious challenge for promotion, the improvement under Willie Bell since his appointment the previous December gave every reason to think a decent season was in prospect.
You must be logged in to post a comment.