1995 – Preston North End 1-2 Lincoln City

This game really is a personal one for me. 1995 was my GCSE year and I’d spent the summer grafting with my Dad working on Diamond Cable in Lincoln. It was arduous work, ten hours a day, five days a week. In a summer where many young people are going out and getting drunk, I was earning £100 per week labouring. On August 11th I got paid and got Dad to drive to Sincil Bank in the lorry. I bought two Imps shirts, one for him and one for me, then also bought the Cast single Finetime the next morning from Woolworths in Horncastle. In the afternoon, I chilled with friends and listened to updates from Deepdale, as the Imps defeated play-off semi-finalists Preston on their own patch. Two of my favourite players, David Puttnam and Dean West bagged goals and for a moment, all that hope and belief flowed through my veins.

It would be three months and two managers before our next league win, but that time Puttnam and West had gone and so had the summer fun. Preston ended up winning the title, City battled against relegation for much of the season, and I left school before the season was out, one of the biggest regrets of my life.