When we talk about the Imps’ best runs in the FA Cup, nothing comes close to the quarter-final against Arsenal in 2017.
But, in a strange sort of way, recalling tales of FA Cup humblings can be as fascinating as ruminating on the glory days.
And so, let’s rewind the clock to December 1997, when Lincoln City entered the FA Cup second round. Standing in their way of a potentially money-spinning third-round clash were non-league Emley. Easy, right?
Erm…
Giant Killing
The nineties were not necessarily a vintage time for Lincoln City.
They started the decade in the fourth tier of English football, while dreams of FA Cup success – they hadn’t reached the third round of the domestic cup competition since 1977 – were dashed by five first-round exits in seven attempts.
But much has changed in the world since the 1990s. Now, fans are able to watch football matches on their mobile phones – rather than the 16-inch TV sets of that decade.
Today, we can reminisce about the Imps’ FA Cup quarter-final with Arsenal back in 2017, but in the nineties no such luxuries were available to the fans. Instead, they had nightmare scenarios such as that which played out against Emley.
Now that tonight’s game is in the bag, we can officially say that our next game is @Arsenal in the Quarter Finals of The @EmiratesFACup!! pic.twitter.com/YYll3QOZuA
— Lincoln City FC 🇺🇦 (@LincolnCity_FC) March 7, 2017
If you haven’t heard of them, don’t worry: there’s a good reason for that. Emley literally no longer exists as a football club, having relocated in the year 2000 to Wakefield (becoming known as Wakefield & Emley). Six years later, the Emley name was lost altogether as the club was rebranded as Wakefield FC.
In the nineties, they mainly played in the lower tiers of English football, but having qualified for the FA Cup – before knocking Morecambe out in the first round – Emley were ready for another giant-killing act.
Hammered
The game was to be played at Sincil Bank on December 6, 1997, with Lincoln a clear and obvious favourite to prevail.
The Imps went ahead early on too, before the visitors pulled level just before half-time. The second half was an even affair, but it was Emley that took a shock lead.
And that’s the way it looked set to stay… until Terry Fleming popped up with an equaliser deep into injury time.
That set up a replay, which was played at Huddersfield Town’s McAlpine Stadium. Once again, it was expected that Lincoln would make their professional status tell, which was certainly the case when Jon Whitney and former Emley striker Colin Alcide put the Imps 2-0 up.
But Emley, as they had in the first game, continued to battle away, halving the deficit in the second period before finding a late equaliser… as Lincoln had just a matter of days earlier.
Extra time was far from an action-less, conservative affair. Emley took a remarkable lead, but once again the Imps would not lie down; this time Mark Hone coming up with the equaliser with just four minutes left to play.
So, it was off to the drama of a penalty shootout… a drama that Imps fans present at the game in Yorkshire will not want to recall. Emley goalkeeper Chris Marples saved two Lincoln spot kicks, as his part-time side pulled off an almighty giant-killing act.
To make matters doubly painful for Lincoln, Emley were paired in the FA Cup third round with top-flight West Ham. What a money-maker that could have been for the Imps!
The Hammers ended Emley’s brave run, but not before the non-leaguers had given them quite the scare in a 2-1 defeat: Frank Lampard on the scoresheet for the Londoners.
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