42 years ago today, City recorded a win that is still talked about.
It was perhaps the highest point of Colin Murphy‘s Lincoln City reign, the moment when Second Division football looked assured, just before the painful collapse and boardroom wrangles that followed.
After a 10-day break from competitive football, Lincoln City returned for their final match before Christmas knowing that victory would send them into the festive period as clear leaders of the Third Division.
Bournemouth were the visitors, arriving in Lincolnshire amid off-field turbulence, boardroom uncertainty and real difficulty in assembling a settled side. Even so, City boss Colin Murphy was keen to strike a note of caution.
“If we can win this one, we go into the new year as third division leaders, but it’s the sort of dangerous fixture we have to guard against. Just like Millwall, they will be out to lower our colours and it will be up to us to make sure they don’t.”
Despite the warning, confidence around Sincil Bank was high, built on an unbeaten home record and a squad brimming with momentum. Having watched England put nine past Luxembourg a few days earlier, few could have imagined they’d see the same again against the Cherries.
Selection was left deliberately late, with Murphy waiting to inspect a frozen pitch that was slippery but deemed safe. Apart from reserve goalkeeper Stuart Naylor, the entire professional squad was included, underlining both strength in depth and the importance placed on the occasion.
Bournemouth, by contrast, arrived without former Southampton and Yugoslav international Ivan Gulac, who had departed the club the day before. The visitors were being guided by caretaker manager Harry Redknapp, thrust into the role following the controversial dismissal of David Webb, as chairman Harold Walker wrestled with a failed takeover bid that had added further instability.
All of this provided a tense backdrop, but few could have anticipated what was about to unfold once the football began.
First half lead
Despite the eventual scoreline, the opening stages were not entirely one-sided. For roughly half an hour, Bournemouth passed the ball tidily and suggested they might cause Lincoln some problems, without ever seriously threatening David Felgate’s goal. City, perhaps feeling their way back after the layoff, were slightly below their blistering best, while the frozen surface demanded care and concentration.
Even so, the warning signs were there. Bournemouth goalkeeper Ken Allen was quickly called into action, diving bravely at the feet of Glenn Cockerill and then producing an excellent save to beat out a fierce drive from George Shipley. As Shipley began to drift into pockets of space and Lincoln found their rhythm, the balance of the game shifted decisively.
The breakthrough arrived on 32 minutes and it was a goal of pure quality. Marshall Burke, operating deep, spotted Gordon Hobson’s run and hoisted a perfectly weighted pass from near the halfway line between central defenders Impey and Brignull. Hobson burst through, rounded Allen and, from a tight angle, showed remarkable composure to drive the ball home. It was the moment Lincoln truly announced themselves.
Bournemouth briefly survived further scares, including a goal line clearance from Nightingale to deny Derek Bell, but the pressure told four minutes before half time. Once more, Burke’s distribution caused chaos. Brignull reached the ball first but could only divert it past his own goalkeeper with a misplaced back pass.
At 2-0, the sense was that the contest had effectively been decided, even if the scale of what followed remained unimaginable.
Second half massacre
If the first half hinted at something special, the second half delivered total devastation. Within a minute of the restart, Bell struck the crossbar, a clear signal of what was to come. Lincoln attacked relentlessly, their pace, movement and cohesion ripping Bournemouth apart as wave after wave of red shirts poured forward.
The floodgates opened in the 53rd minute. From a corner, Phil Turner headed on at the rear post, Trevor Peake helped the ball across the goal, and Hobson was perfectly placed to hammer it home for 3-0. From that point on, resistance crumbled. Shipley then slid Cockerill through to score a richly deserved fourth on 62 minutes, before Derek Bell took centre stage.
Bell struck twice in quick succession, in the 64th and 67th minutes, displaying the instincts of a natural poacher as Lincoln surged into a 6-0 lead. Bournemouth briefly stemmed the tide for seven minutes, but it was only a pause before another storm. The crowd sensed history, urging the side forward in pursuit of double figures.
On 74 minutes, Cockerill carved open the defence, allowing Hobson to complete his hat-trick, his second of the season. Hobson might have added a fourth, but Bell chose to go alone on one occasion when a pass might have brought an even greater humiliation for the visitors. Cockerill’s own performance deserved reward, and he duly grabbed the eighth, bursting from near halfway, beating his man and converting after Allen initially blocked his shot.
Bell was not finished. With five minutes remaining, he completed his own hat-trick, his third in two months and second in successive matches, rounding off another sweeping move created by Cockerill. Even then, Allen continued to fight, producing a remarkable injury-time save to deny Cockerill a hat-trick of his own.
When the final whistle blew, Lincoln City had secured a 9-0 victory, the biggest win in the Football League that season and Bournemouth’s heaviest defeat in their history. It was City’s 10th straight home win, achieved with breathtaking authority, and a performance that still echoes through Sincil Bank folklore more than four decades later.
Lincoln City: David Felgate, David Carr, Phil Neale, Glenn Cockerill, Trevor Peake, Steve Thompson, Marshall Burke, Phil Turner, Gordon Hobson, Derek Bell, George Shipley.
Sub: Gordon Simmonite.
The story that ciiculated later was that the visitors were wearing the wrong studs. Even so Gordon Hobson must have been wearing skates. He was dancing on ice.
Sorry Gary, it was 43 years ago today 18 December 1982