Saturday 4th January 1969

Birmingham City 2 Lincoln City 1 (FA Cup Third Round)

After the grim days of the early and mid-1960s Lincoln City had revived under manager Ron Gray to finish mid-table in the previous season and spent the first month of the current one on top of the Fourth Division, write Malcolm Johnson.

They had slipped slightly since then but had mostly been in and around the promotion places and were currently third despite narrowly losing to Port Vale in front of a Boxing Day crowd of over 12,000 at Sincil Bank. The run to the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in four years had started with a professional performance in a 3-1 away win against top non-league side Macclesfield Town which was followed by a memorable second round replay victory against fellow Fourth Division side Chester. After a one-all draw at Sealand Road a dramatic game at Sincil Bank saw the Imps win 2-1 despite goalkeeper John Kennedy dislocating his elbow just before half time. With defender Jim Grummett taking over in goal City were down to ten men having earlier brought on substitute Jack Lewis when Peter Kearns had limped off injured, but a Dave Smith goal after 80 minutes sealed a battling performance.

Birmingham City, after a ten-year spell in the First Division ended with relegation in 1965 had finished fourth in the second tier in the previous season under the management of legendary former Wolves boss Stan Cullis. They had also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, losing to local rivals West Bromwich Albion. They had not been doing so well in the current season, however, and were currently in 17th place.

The teams were:

City:

1. Jack McClelland
2. Phil Hubbard
3. George Peden
4. Jim Smith
5. Ray Harford
6. Jim Grummett
7. Gordon Hughes
8. Peter Kearns
9. Norman Corner
10. Bobby Svarc
11. Dave Smith
12. Jack Lewis

Birmingham:

1. Jim Herriot
2. Ray Martin
3. Colin Green
4. Ron Wylie
5. Dave Robinson
6. Malcolm Page
7. Trevor Hockey
8. Jimmy Greenhoff
9. Fred Pickering
10. Mick Darrell
11. Phil Summerill
12. Malcolm Beard

Former Arsenal and Northern Ireland international Jack McClelland was playing his second game for the Imps having been signed on loan from Fulham following Kennedy’s injury. The 28-year-old had been capped six times for his country and played around one hundred games in the top two divisions. He was the first player to join City on loan under the modern system introduced the previous season.

Right back was the versatile and home-grown Phil Hubbard in what his manager possibly considered his best position. The 19-year-old had recently come into the side in the absence of Graham Taylor, injured in the first game against Chester. Hubbard was partnered by the reliable George Peden who had not missed a game since joining from Hearts towards the very end of the 1966/67 season. Central defenders were the now established partnership of Ray Harford and Jim Grummett. Harford, still only 23, had started his career with a handful of appearances for Charlton Athletic before a season and a half at Exeter from whom City had signed him on a free transfer in the summer of 1967. Grummett, son of a former City player of the same name, like Hubbard had been developed by the club and was almost as versatile, playing in every position at one time or other, including half a game in goal in the Chester replay. But there was no doubt that alongside the centre half was his best position although he had appeared effectively as a striker from time to time.

The two midfielders in City’s 4-2-4 formation included 28-year-old Jim Smith, a solid lower division player with plenty of experience at Aldershot and Halifax before joining City for a fee of £1,000 as part of Ron Gray’s mid-season rebuilding the previous March. Like Ray Harford and the absent Graham Taylor, he was to go on to have a notable career in management including a spell in charge of today’s opponents. With Jack Lewis who had started the season in midfield currently out of favour there had been one or two changes in that department and for this game Peter Kearns, who had lost his place as a striker after just six goals in the season so far came into the side alongside Smith. The 31-year-old had been another player to join the previous March arriving on a free transfer from Aldershot where he had averaged a goal every three games following earlier experience with Plymouth.

On the right wing was the still-speedy 32-year-old Gordon Hughes, the third player to be signed the previous March at a cost of £6,000 from Derby County. He had made well over 300 appearances in the top two divisions for the Rams and previous club Newcastle United. On left was Dave Smith who had joined from Middlesbrough reserves in the summer and was to become a club legend, standing third in the list of players with most appearances for City and narrowly failing to win promotion with City under David Herd in 1972 before doing so as part of Graham Taylor’s record-breaking side four years later.

Centre forward for City was the tall and robust Norman Corner who had joined from Hull City’s reserves in the autumn of the previous season for £1,000. Initially seen as something of a failure he had come good later in the season, finishing with a run of 7 goals in 10 games. However, like Kearns, he had not done as well in the current season with just five to his name so far. Because of the lack of goals from the two main strikers Ron Gray had acted to remedy the situation with the signing a month before of Leicester City reserve Bobby Svarc for £6,000. He had made a low-key start to his City career, signed too late to play in the two cup games with Chester he had made his debut in a game at York before scoring against Bradford City in a 2-0 win at Sincil Bank.

City substitute was the mercurial Jack Lewis, signed as an 18-year-old from Midland League Long Eaton United in March 1967 but despite his attacking flair and occasional spectacular goals never seeming to hold a place in the side for very long.

In goal for Birmingham was Jim Herriot, signed from Dunfermline in 1965, who had recently won the second of what was to be eight international caps for Scotland. Despite a fine footballing career, he is perhaps better known these days for the use of his name as a pseudonym by the writer of the ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ books and TV series.

Full backs were Ray Martin, midway through a career that would see him play around 350 times for the Blues, and current Welsh international Colin Green. 20-year-old Dave Robinson had come through the youth ranks at Birmingham and he was partnered in the middle of the defence by another youth product, the slightly older Malcolm Page. He was another player who would go on to make around 350 appearances for Birmingham and with an eventual 28 games for Wales would for a time hold the record as the club’s most capped player.

In midfield was the vastly experienced 35-year-old Ron Wylie who had made well over 400 appearances in the top two divisions for previous club Aston Villa and before them Notts County. Alongside him in contrast was another youth product in 21-year-old Mickey Darrell, normally on the fringes of the first team and filling in on this occasion for star midfielder Johnny Vincent who was injured. Also in midfield was another future Welsh international in Trevor Hockey, the 25-year-old part way through a league career with a string of clubs that would start and end with Bradford City. In later years he would become something of a cult figure for his long beard, even longer hair, and tough tackling. On the left was yet another youth product in 21-year-old Phil Summerill. He was to go on to finish as top scorer in the current season – no mean feat with the competition provided by Birmingham’s main strike force of Fred Pickering and Jimmy Greenhoff. Pickering had averaged a goal a game with his home town club Blackburn Rovers before doing the same after a record £80,000 move to Everton where he had won three England caps including scoring a hat-trick on his debut against the United States. Now in his second season with Birmingham, although still only 27 his career was in decline due to injury troubles but he had 10 goals in the season so far. Greenhoff, five years younger, in contrast was on the way up after being a fringe player with Leeds United and would go on to have success with Stoke City and Manchester United. He was on 12 goals for the season including four in one game against Fulham.

Birmingham substitute was defender Malcolm Beard, another youth product on his way to well over 300 games for the club.

The match programme spotlighted Jim Grummett as ‘Lincoln’s Mr. Fix-it’, mentioning his performance in goal against Chester, and there was a feature about Dick Neal’s days with the Blues.

There were estimated to be between three and four thousand supporters from Lincoln in the attendance of 31,429 which was Birmingham’s third highest of the season so far, beaten only by a League Cup tie against Chelsea and the visit of local rivals Aston Villa when over 40,000 were present. It was well up on Birmingham’s last two games which had been around 20,000 and for a mid-table second tier side against one from the Fourth Division showed that the FA Cup still held a lot of magic in those days. In fact, the attendance was one that was not to be exceeded for any Lincoln City match until the 2003 play-off final.

The early stages of the game belonged to Birmingham with the dangerous Greenhoff putting a shot over the bar and having another which Jack McClelland saved with his foot. City were under pressure in the 14th minute when Greenhoff hit the bar followed by Phil Hubbard clearing Trevor Hockey’s follow-up shot off the line. From the resulting corner it was George Peden this time heading the ball off the line from Mickey Darrell’s effort. City had a chance of their own 12 minutes later when a through ball from Dave Smith found Peter Kearns in the area but his mis-hit shot was easily saved by Herriot. Soon afterwards, Fred Pickering, who had looked dangerous early on put the Blues ahead when he side-stepped McClelland to put the ball in the net amid City appeals for offside.

In the second half with Ray Harford beginning to nullify the threat of Pickering City came more into the game and Dave Smith had a fierce shot blocked on the line with Norman Corner following up to hit the ball straight at Herriot. However, Birmingham’s second goal came from the penalty spot after Pickering evaded Harford only for the centre half to bring him down. Young Dave Robinson sent McClelland the wrong way with the spot kick before City really went onto the attack, gaining ascendancy in midfield, with Dave Smith moving off the wing to play alongside his namesake Jim. It was Jim Smith who pulled a goal back in the 70th minute when he headed the ball towards goal, and although Colin Green headed it off the line the linesman’s flag was raised to indicate it had crossed the line. There were chances for both sides in the remining minutes, with Phil Summerill and Pickering both putting the ball wide of open goals, and Dave Smith robbed by Malcolm Page in the last minute when clean through.

Contrasting views of the game came from the newspapers with the Lincolnshire Chronicle reporting: “Birmingham’s defence, troubled at the best of times, sagged at the knees and so nearly collapsed.” Birmingham’s Sports Argus contended that: “Birmingham City were rarely in serious trouble,” although the Sunday Express declared, “Birmingham were lucky to hang on.”

Ron Gray’s view in his programme notes for the next match was that “Our boys played tremendously,” but “our forwards just couldn’t find the net. With all this going on spectators long before the end were whistling for the referee to finish the game. Our boys certainly scared the pants off them.”

City managed to win only one of their next twelve league games and began to slip out of contention for promotion with Ron Gray attempting to solve the scoring problem by selling Norman Corner and replacing him with the former ‘golden boy’ of English football, Alick Jeffrey. However, this did not work out, and with Bobby Svarc proving ineffective it took the emergence from the reserves of Rod Fletcher to provide a bright end to the season with a run of nine goals in nine games. This came too late, though, and City finished eighth, their best placing for years but still disappointing after the bright start to the season.

Birmingham went on to beat top flight Sheffield Wednesday in the next round then held Manchester United to a draw at Old Trafford before losing 6-2 in the replay. Their league form improved and a run of only one defeat in their last ten games saw them finish 7th.