As we look ahead to the weekend, hoping for an upturn in fortunes, Michael Skubala is not in any danger, nor our third-tier status.
However, 39 years ago, that wasn’t the case. The Imps were battling to save their Division Three status, a battle that would ultimately be in vain. Colin Murphy had left in the summer, and John Pickering took over, with former Liverpool hero Phil Boersma in the dugout.
The first half of the season was a veritable disaster. City struggled for wins, lumbered with a squad seemingly not good enough to remain in the division. Bob Latchford, a big name summer signing, flopped, and between the opening day and December 20th, the club won just four league matches, the last of those on October 2nd.
Awful results followed – a 3-0 reverse at home to Blackpool and a seven-goal mauling at Derby County. We scored five goals in a week against York and Wigan, but conceded seven, losing 4-3 and 3-2. Latchford, ironically, scored in the Wigan game, but he wasn’t on target on December 14th as Cardiff hammered us 4-0 at the Bank. This was a Cardiff side embroiled in a relegation battle with us, a side that would ultimately go down. Gary Richards was sent off in the first half before the Bluebirds hit three in eight second-half minutes.
Enough was enough.
It took six days for the club to make the decision, but perhaps six days for them to sound out George Kerr. Sacked by the Imps in 1977, he had since taken Grimsby out of Division Three and to the cusp of promotion to the top flight, before form collapsed. A spell at Rotherham heightened his stock, and he was the choice to replace Pickering.
Boersma was actually sacked, according to the Echo reports, because he’d been banned from driving on December 19th, and could therefore not carry out his scouting duties as the club required. Rather ironically, he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after celebrating the Imp’s win against Bournemouth on October 2nd. Pickering was sacked because, in the words of chairman John Reames, our form was the ‘worst of all 92 clubs’.
Kerr was described as a ‘tracksuit manager’ who got out and trained his players, and Reames explained they couldn’t take the risk of having nobody at the helm as the Imps faced the relegation run-in. The position was precarious City were 22nd, with 18 points from 21 matches. Below them, Swansea had exactly the same record, but with a slightly worse goal difference, and Wolves were bottom, 17 points from 21. Cardiff occupied the final relegation spot with 18 points from 22 games, but a better goal difference. Newport County, in the final safety spot, had 19 points and had played a game fewer.
So, how did it turn out? Well, Kerr picked up a point in his first game, a 0-0 draw with his old club Rotherham, and the Imps’ first clean sheet since September. Two draws and a defeat followed before a 2-0 win against Bury on January 11th. Sadly, it was never going to be enough, and even three wins on the spin in March didn’t get us out of the bottom four. In the end, defeats against Wolves and Cardiff in the final two games saw us relegated, alongside both clubs and Swansea City. The deficit is just three points from Bury in the final relegation spot.
Kerr didn’t see out the following season.
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