We’re 12 points from the top six, 14 from the bottom four. We’re not going down, and we’re not going up.
That might make you think there’s no real reason for much passion tonight. Sure, they’re a big club, but really, there’s not a lot at stake, is there? Huddersfield Town are 80 miles away from us, and this is only our fourth regular season league meeting in more than 40 years. It’s hardly a grudge match, is it?
If you think that, you’re wrong.
There’s nothing wrong with Huddersfield Town as such; it’s just that they always seem to be the antagonists, the bigger bullies beating on little Lincoln City. We’ve played Sunderland, Ipswich and Derby County more over the past few seasons, and yet for me, the ‘dog botherers’ as some label them, really grind my gears.
That’s why tonight, it would be lovely to help the final wheel come off their promotion campaign. It would be sweet to take our points tally up by three, apropos of nothing. I would come away from tonight’s win as happy as I did the day we stuffed Posh 5-1.
Why? Well, here are five reasons.
1994 Golden Goal
🥳 Happy 5⃣0⃣th Birthday, @iaindunn1!
📚 He wrote his name in the history books scoring Britain’s first ever golden goal.#htafc pic.twitter.com/gLIixqapyg
— Huddersfield Town (@htafc) April 1, 2020
Prior to 1994, Huddersfield Town were nothing to me, apart from the team that were thrashed 10-1 by Man City once. In terms of Lincoln City, they didn’t matter at all. However, that changed in the Autoglass Windscreens Shield game in November 1994. Why? Because they became the first club to beat us by Golden Goal. It is a little known fact we were actually the first senior club to be eliminated in such a manner.
After we drew 2-2 at their place in normal time, Iain Dunn bagged a 107-minute winner to send us home. History was made, but not good history. Like the plague, if it only affected us, or the Great Fire of London, if it were Lincoln.
And so, it began.
2004 – Pawel Abbot
I can’t write about this again, can I?
We were locked in a battle for a play-off spot with the Terriers and had taken the lead in February 2004 through Marcus Richardson. Efe Sodje levelled, and it seemed like we might get a valuable point.
Then, a big punt forward found Pawel Abbott at least 20 yards offside. He jokingly rounded Alan Marriott, who made zero attempt to stop him, and put the ball in the net. We waited for the referee’s whistle.
Outrageously, George Cain gave the goal. He gave the effing goal. It’s the worst single decision I have ever seen on a football field.
That point meant instead of Mansfield (who we’d beaten twice that season, 2-0 and 4-1) we faced the Terriers’ again, this time in the play-offs. It couldn’t get worse, right?
Right?
2004 – Andy Booth
FFS. City, trailing 2-1 from the first leg, put in a huge effort in West Yorkshire. Goals from Mark Bailey and Richard Butcher came within a minute of each other before half time, and we went from zero to hero. It looked like the winner of Northampton and Mansfield, both more winnable than Huddersfield, would await us in the final.
I really felt we’d do it. Huddersfield huffed and puffed, but couldn’t blow the defence down. So, Andy Booth tried another tactic. He dived, and for the second time in three months, the referee’s whistle took everyone by surprise. A yellow, maybe?
No, a lifeline. Booth dived, referee Mike Pike bought it and Danny Schofield scored the spot kick. Seven minutes from the end, Rob Edwards gave the home side a 2-2 draw on the night.
I still argue this was the finest Imps side I’d seen until 2016/17, and we deserved more from the games, and we deserved better from the officials.
On a side note, I had us to win 2-0, with Butch to score first this evening. 65-1, £10.
Up yours, Andy Booth. Right up yours.
2005 – Gary Taylor-Fletcher
The issue of players leaving is always emotive, and of course, I could have added Lasse Sorensen and Harry Toffolo to this list, but we got good money for them. A good, honest transaction conducted between teams is fine, but when GTF left, it hurt because we got the grand sum of bugger all.
The story goes that Keith didn’t offer him a new deal as he knew he’d get better elsewhere, but at the time, it felt like we’d been held up at gunpoint. I remember walking to the Millennium Stadium and hearing that Yeo and GTF would be gone immediately afterwards. It was probably fan talk, but we lost, and off they went. Butch and Gainy went, too, and yet for me, this one hurt more.
Gainy, I never got sad about it because I loved the man. Butch went higher, Yeo went abroad, and GTF went to the club that had robbed us twice in three months, not a year before.
Arses.
2019 – Danny Cowley
This was a transaction between two consenting clubs, one we came out well, but it’s still a reason to hate them. After all, Robert Redford was the antagonist in Indecent Proposal, and he offered Demi Moore a million quid for one night. Huddersfield took our leading men and kept them for the same sum.
It wasn’t just that they ended an era, but that I was vehement in my belief it wouldn’t happen. Dan and Nick wouldn’t go there, not a chance. I wrote a big opinion piece on the subject for Football League World, saying how they’d never leave us for Huddersfield, that was published around an hour before it was officially announced.
Then, after a bright start and keeping them in the Championship, they get the heave-ho. It’s like Redford kicked Moore out and finished himself off before midnight. Disgusting.
You must be logged in to post a comment.