It wasn’t quite the final nail in the coffin holding Willie Bell’s tenure at Lincoln City, but it was damn sure close.
September 13th, 1978, was a big time for the Imps. I was two months away from being born. That’s not why it was a big time – the Graham Taylor legacy had collapsed. George Kerr had come and gone, Willie Bell had taken over and within a couple of months, Colin Murphy would take charge of his first match as Lincoln boss. Relegation would follow, before a rise from the ashes under Murph’s management.
However, 46 years ago tomorrow, the worst that I can ever imagine happening, happened. We’ve had former managers come to the Bank before – Danny against Portsmouth being one example. In my opinion, he’s just another manager until after the game, although I confess, even then, I didn’t stay and give him a round of applause as I should have. I couldn’t clap Terry Hawkridge scoring against us for Notts County.
Could I have cheered Watford players as they stuck five past a hapless Lincoln City team? Perhaps. It depends how deep my distaste for Bell ran and, luckily, I didn’t get to experience that. Graham Taylor was in charge of the Hornets, Dennis Booth and Sam Ellis both played as well. It isn’t like it was 70% of the 1976 title-winning team, but that made little difference.
City, with one win in five, went into the game in the bottom two, and wouldn’t escape the clutches of Division Four for the rest of the season. Watford, with three wins from their first five matches, were ninth. It looked a tough task, and so it proved, in the most horrendous fashion.
Bell was blooding young players – newspaper reports suggested bigger clubs were targeting Gordon Hobson and debutant David Burrows, as was a young striker by the name of Mick Harford (Aston Villa linked with him). Our team had a transitional feel – Grotier, Leigh, Fleming, Cooper were all of the old school, with Cockerill and Hobson became bigger stars later on. Still, it was a team fractured, needing reinforcements. Before the game, we were trying to sign Malcolm Page, a full Welsh international, but Bell decided the player wanted too much.
The 5,924 wanted a fair bit as well – City fans seemingly wanted a Lincoln defeat, perhaps to oust Bell. They got their wish, and with some aplomb. Bell had asked for support for youngster Burrows before the game kicked off, but it didn’t materialise.
This was the first meeting between the two sides since Taylor left the club, and Watford quickly set about hastening Bell’s departure. The first 18 minutes suggested City might be okay – the Watford keeper made saves from David Sunley and David Hughes, as we looked like getting in front.
Then, we surrendered.
Luther Blisset bagged a quick-fire brace, both goals of the Imps’ own doing. John Fleming was criticised by Maurice Burton for trying to play out from the back, but instead giving the future England striker a tap in. Almost immediately, Blissett added a second. A cross from the flank had Imps defenders ball-watching, and Blisset headed home a second. Alan Garner, provider of the cross for the first, nodded home a corner for the third on 44 minutes. Game, set and match.
The second half was worse – Burton suggested there was nothing City could have done to change the thrashing, but ‘at least they could have gone down fighting’. Instead, Brian Pollard scored nine minutes after the restart, and Ross Jenkins dummied his way past Wigginton and Leigh to ‘score with ease’ for the fifth. As the game progressed, fears were raised it could be many more.
Throughout, there were murmurings of discontent from the stands, with some Lincoln supporters cheering the Watford goals. It got worse – Sam Ellis came on for Watford, and he, too, got a cheer.
The game ended 5-0, the Imps’ worst home defeat since 1962. Afterwards, chairman Heaneage Dove asked fans to forget the match, confirming the club were giving Willie Bell a free hand in selecting and organising the team’ and that they were ‘making every effort to sign new men‘. One of those would be a new manager, because Bell’s diplomacy left him.
He ranted at the fans, suggesting Imps’ supporters ‘lived in the past’ and that cheering players who had left the club was ‘diabolical’. It wasn’t quite as diabolical as the Imps’ form – this defeat in the sixth game left us with one win, and our next wouldn’t come until December 26th against (ironically) Peterborough United.
Even Graham Taylor noted the atmosphere, saying ‘I got the impression last night that quite a lot of people were wanting Watford to win. I was saddened to see what was happening’.
City were relegated, and during the 2-0 Watford win at Vicarage Road the following January, one Watford player even remarked that the Imps ‘played and looked as though they assumed relegation was already a certainty’. It was – with a deficit of 15 points, the Imps were a whopping eight wins from safety, whereas Watford ended up going into the Second Division in second.
Still, this result hastened the departure of Bell. On October 23rd, after five more defeats and three draws, Bell quit.
One wonders if hearing home supporters cheer Watford had anything to do with it or if it was because he’d already lined up his next role, coaching in America.
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