It’s not often Lincoln City play host to a team who has qualified for Europe, at least not one from the continent. However, after our article earlier in the week covering the Enfield game, played during the season, we’ve got another for you now.
1988/89 seems like quite the season for bizarre matches, and the mid-March visit of Orgryte was perhaps as strange as it gets. However, coming in the middle of the season, it did make for an interesting story, especially 34 years later.
It was our first season back in the Football League, and after a tough start of two defeats on the spin, we’d settled into mid-table. We’d beaten Enfield to lift a bit of silverware but were some way off the pace in terms of the top seven after Christmas. We were six points outside of the play-offs, and 19 shy of leaders Crewe Alexandra. They’d played hosts to us the weekend before the Orgryte game, and we’d been comprehensively beaten by two goals to nil.
We’d been blasted following that defeat, by non-other than Crewe boss Dario Gradi. His side were top of the table, and he claimed City were not going to improve. “You can’t improve on the tactic of kicking the ball 50 yards; all you can do is get bigger forwards,” he said. “Because we play more football, we are able to create more opportunities. But Lincoln are not going to do that because it isn’t their game.”
It wasn’t, in fairness to Gradi. We’d started the season playing decent football, but Malcolm Dunkley‘s arrival saw us going long, and even Neil Custis of the Echo picked up on it. “Hobson is no longer the general of operations on the floor as high floating balls to the edge of the area are sent towards Dunkley, and he is rarely able to do anything with them.” The evidence was there for all to see at Gresty Road – it was 2-0, but apparently should have been six. “Why only 3106 turn up to see this sort of stuff I can’t understand,” purred Custis. “If it was being played at Sincil Bank, you would have twice as many. But it’s not and there aren’t. So there”
Against this backdrop of condemnation for a site 11th in the table came an unusual friendly against the Swedes of Orgryte. They had won the Swedish second division in 1985, and finished fourth in 1988, with Peter Karlsson the second-highest scorer behind Martin Dahlin. Trevor Matthewson had played there on loan (although it’s not on his Wikipedia page), and the game came about because Bob Houghton, a friend of Colin Murphy’s, had managed there, much like the Tulsa Roughnecks friendly of a decade previous.
The game formed part of the Swedish side’s pre-season training, and Matthewson was adamant the test would be good for the Imps, albeit in the middle of a league season. “They will come here and play a slow, methodical game with a standard of play equal to that of our own Second Division,” said Matthewson, meaning they would be Championship standard now. They had some decent players – Sven Andersson won a senior cap for Sweden and would go on the secure a move to West Ham late in his career, whilst Anders Roth played seven times for Finland. It certainly looked like a tough test.
As for the Imps, we’d likely be without Dave Clarke and Bob Cumming, both injured against Crewe, according to reports. Graham Bressington and Paul Casey were also out for the long term. In recent matches, we’d tried playing an unfamiliar three at the back, but Murphy decided to go back to a four, pulling Clive Evans into a more familiar full-back role. City were on a four-game losing streak; imagine that in today’s world – losing four on the bounce and then having to play a team that qualified for the UEFA Cup in a meaningless friendly in March.
The Imps lined up – Bowling, Evans, Davis, Schofield, James, Matthewson, Brown, Nicholson, Hobson, Smith and Clarke. Dunkley and McGinley were on the bench, suggesting a style change. Had Murph taken the criticism of his opponent from the weekend on board? Clarke made it through a fitness test (a regular risked in a friendly), so only a couple of changes took place. Brown and Nicholson played on the flanks in what was described as a 4-2-4 (more likely close to a 4-4-2). Sadly, the lure of a UEFA Cup opponent might have seemed strong on paper, but only 613 turned up for the game, and they might have regretted it at first.
Orgryte took the lead in the 19th minute – Karlsson, who was the leading scorer in the Swedish top flight a couple of years before, finished off a set piece to make it 1-0. The visitors played expansive football, affording the Imps space but creating plenty themselves, and they were 2-0 up before halftime, Tomas Bldnberg finishing off a three-man move in the 41st minute. City had been outplayed all over the park, and the Swede were ‘too quick’ for the Imps. They got shots off from all angles, whilst long-ball Lincoln were accused of trying to walk the ball into the net.
In the second half, the Imps settled and began to play football.; the players Colin had at his disposal were able to express themselves. Within six minutes, the Imps had one back; a floated free-kick from Nicholson was nodded home by Tony James. The Imps had a renewed vigour, and Orgryte’s players began to go down with cramps, perhaps the outcome of them over-exerting in a pre-season friendly. City pressed home, with Clarke described as creating ‘chance after chance’ down the left flank, combing with Nicholson in his ‘best role’ on the left of the midfield. Phil Brown on the right wing and Schofield in the middle also provided joy as City began to get a grip on their illustrious opponents.
Hobson and Smith, both best described in today’s terms as ‘ballers’, exploited the space where they could, and on 58 minutes, they drew City level. Hobson fed in Clarke, who got free down the left and delivered a cross for Smith to score. At 2-2, the traffic was all one-way, and there were ironic cheers midway through the second half as the Imps strung pass after pass together. The only surprise was by the time 90 minutes were up, City hadn’t won the game.
This headline wasn’t a quote; it was a directive from Custis to the manager after the game. Of course, Colin knew what he was doing and outlined why we’d looked so slick in the second period. “In the first half, we were confronted with a totally different game, the way they stroked the ball around and didn’t pressure us after losing it,” he explained. “We elected to play them at our own game in the second half, and with both Hobson and Smith, we had to play the ball along the ground.”
Was it cause for serious change? Did the workout pay dividends the following Saturday? Yes and no. We did arrest the losing streak, beating York City 2-1 and missing a penalty, but as Custis said the performance was a “mixture of a conscious effort to play football and then old long ball.” In the end, we finished the season 10th, seven points outside the top seven.
As for our illustrious hosts, how did their UEFA Cup run pan out? Sadly for them, it didn’t really. They drew Hamburg and after a brave 2-1 defeat at home, went down 5-1 away and lost 7-2 on aggregate. They’ve since dipped between the top two divisions in Sweden, appearing in the UEFA Cup again in 2000/01, losing 4-1 to Rapid Wien on aggregate.
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