This evening, we look back 30 years to when John Beck was in charge of the Imps.
In November 1995, the Imps hadn’t won for 11 weeks in the league. Sam Ellis had been sacked, Steve Wicks had come and gone, and John Beck finally pitched up at the Bank. On a cold Wednesday evening, he took his fledgling Imps side to Field Mill, looking for our first win at Mansfield since 1978. Indeed, a season before, we’d been thrashed 6-2 there, making it an unhappy hunting ground.
It wasn’t the sort of game to capture imaginations. We were bottom, with ten points from our 15 games. Mansfield were 22nd, packing 14 from their 15 outings. This was a relegation six-pointer before we’d even seen Christmas, and Imps fans were hardly expectant.
The team already had a John Beck feel to it. Barry Richardson was in goal, and the ten in front of him were Steve Holmes, Alan Johnson, Jason Barnett, Shane Westley, Grant Brown, Jason Minett, Udo Onwere, Gareth Ainsworth, Darren Huckerby and Tony Daws. Phil Daley, Jon Whitney and Steve Brown made up the bench.
The game had a little bit of everything. Firstly, it was Gareth Ainsworth’s debut, which is worth noting. It was also Jon Whitney’s debut, and it couldn’t have come in a more John Beck way – he replaced Jason Minett after just 14 minutes, with Minett described merely as ‘out of sorts’ rather than injured. These early subs were certainly something Beck prided himself on!
The first 36 minutes were described as ‘ideal for a journalist trying to save ink’ but everything exploded just before half time. Huckerby, playing his penultimate game for the club, went through one-on-one and was hauled down by Ian Bowling in the Mansfield net. A red card was inevitable, but it took no fewer than six minutes before the Stags opted to put Aidy Boothroyd in goal, with no sub-keeper. Udo Onwere smashed home the penalty to make it 1-0 to City.
Beck was then sent off as well, his comments being; “There was something about our organisation that was not right, so I stepped out of the dugout. The referee sent me to the director’s box, according to FA guidelines, as he was entitled to do. I’ve no complaints.”
Grant Brown then had a header cleared off the line as City looked to press their advantage home, but it took another moment from the referee to put the ball firmly in our court.
The same can’t be said for the Stags, when five minutes later, they saw a double red. Firstly, future Imps Scott Eustace fouled Onwere, gave Trevor West, the referee, some verbal afterwards and was shown a straight red. Eustace would later join the Imps, appear once, and then be sacked. In the moments after the second red, Mansfield boss Andy King was also sent off, doubtless sitting next to Beck in the Director’s Box to exchange a few kind words. Carnage.
So, City had an entire second half against nine men with an outfield player in goal. What is the most Lincoln thing to do? Yep, Mark Sale equalised after half time for the Stags, and it took us 25 minutes to even force their stand-in keeper into a save. Has anything ever sounded more ‘Lincoln City’ to you? Thought not.
Kevin Keegan was in the stands, just days away from his big bid for Huckerby, and he liked what he saw. He’d left by the 77th minute, which is when the Imps finally got the winner. Tony Daws saw his corner cleared, but Steve Holmes came up from the back and smashed a shot from the edge of the area, finally testing Boothroyd, who couldn’t make the save. It was only our fourth shot on target, and one of those was the penalty. Against nine men, remember.
What is odd is that in all the carnage, there wasn’t a single yellow or red card to a Lincoln player.
The result didn’t get the Imps off the bottom – two more goals would have done, but that looked difficult even against nine men. However, we did stay up that season, and the season after that went all the way to the final day of the season under Beck.
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