When Lincoln City and Cardiff City Battled For Promotion, And a Slip Up At Exeter City Cost Us

Lincoln City travelled to Exeter City on April 12th 1997, knowing their promotion hopes were hanging by a thread.

I often do these matches of the past, and usually I look at all the meetings between the club we’re playing and us, choose one with either a City win, or something controversial in it, and write about that. I chose this because it is a 3-3 draw, and only when I drilled down did I realise how comfortably it fitted into our current promotion challenge with Cardiff City.

With just four matches remaining in the 1996/97 Third Division campaign, the Imps were firmly in the play-off hunt but chasing rather than leading the pack. Swansea City led the race on 67 points from 42 matches, with Chester on 64 and Northampton Town and Cardiff City both on 62. Just outside the top four were Cambridge United on 61 points and Mansfield Town on 60, while Lincoln City and Scarborough sat level on 59 points from 42 matches.

It meant John Beck’s side needed a strong finish to the season, starting with the long trip to Devon to face an Exeter City side languishing fourth from bottom and with little left to play for. Beck was also forced to shuffle his squad, with Terry Fleming absent after completing a four-match suspension and Stuart Bimson continuing his recovery from an ankle injury at Lilleshall. Midfielder Mark Hone had returned to training and was named among the substitutes.

Despite the distance, the Imps were backed by a sizeable travelling support, something Beck believed could make a difference.

“It helps the player so much away from home to hear the travelling supporters making their presence felt.”

For a moment, it looked as though Lincoln might seize the initiative immediately. Just 47 seconds had elapsed when Steve Brown pounced on hesitation in the Exeter defence to nip in and give the visitors the lead.

Instead of building on that advantage, City lost their grip on the game. Exeter quickly recognised Lincoln’s lack of a natural left-back and repeatedly targeted the right flank, where Tim Steele became the main outlet. With Kevin Austin often dragged wide to deal with him, gaps began to appear in the middle of the Lincoln defence.

The hosts threatened several times before drawing level. Chris Myers struck the crossbar and Darren Rowbotham headed just over before Exeter finally got the goal their pressure deserved. Matt Hare was afforded too much room in the penalty area and beat John Vaughan to bring the scores level.

Lincoln were fortunate not to fall behind before the break. Noel Blake headed against the post and Glenn Crowe missed a good opportunity as City struggled to rediscover the intensity that had carried them to victory over Swansea City the previous week.

The warning signs continued after the restart. Exeter’s right side remained their most dangerous route forward and two goals early in the second half swung the match firmly in their favour.

From another Steele delivery, Rowbotham was given two attempts at goal and made the second count before producing a clever backheel that allowed Nicky Medlin to fire home his first goal for the Grecians.

By the time Exeter extended their lead to 3-1, Lincoln looked out of rhythm and vulnerable. A 66th-minute cross from Steele sent Rowbotham racing through on goal, but Vaughan produced an excellent diving save to prevent further damage.

Gradually, though, City began to stir. Brown drove a dangerous low cross into the box, the kind defenders hate to deal with, and Phil Stant reacted quickest to pull a goal back.

Even then the comeback looked unlikely until the closing stages. John Beck had never been a great advocate of speculative shooting from distance, believing too many efforts ended up in the car park rather than the net. But with three minutes remaining, Steve Holmes found himself 30 yards from goal with a tackle closing in and no team-mate available.

Holmes skipped the challenge and unleashed a fierce strike that flew into the top corner, sparking wild celebrations among the 255 Lincoln supporters behind the goal.

City had clawed back from 3-1 down with 12 minutes remaining to salvage a draw, Gareth Ainsworth even going close to snatching a dramatic winner in the final moments, but the ball drifted wide off the top of his head.

Lincoln City: John Vaughan, Jason Barnett, Steve Holmes, Tony Dennis (Craig Stones 49), John Robertson, Kevin Austin, Gareth Ainsworth, Mark Holm, Phil Stant, Steve Brown, Colin Alcide. Unused substitutes: Grant Brown, Jay Martin.

Attendance: 2,818

After the Match

Assistant manager John Still was honest in his assessment afterwards, acknowledging that Lincoln had been second best for long periods.

“The lads didn’t play well and they know that. We were poor in the first half and not quite so poor in the second half. Exeter got the ball wide and caused the problems.

“When it was 3-1 I thought it was more likely to go to 4-1 than 3-2. The lads kept going as they always do and managed to claw themselves back into the game but they’re disappointed because we wanted three points.

“Maybe we scored too early and after the early goal we sat back and didn’t put them under pressure until we were 3-1 down.”

The draw left Lincoln City with 60 points from 43 matches. Cambridge United held the final play-off place on 64 points, meaning the Imps had four points to make up with only three games remaining.

Ultimately, the gap proved too great. Had City won, it would have seen us move on to 68 points by the end of the season, one behind Cardiff City. However, as we’d scored more, we would have gone into the play-offs at the expense of the Bluebirds had we managed a final day draw with Rochdale, not the 2-0 reverse we suffered.

The point kept Exeter up. They finished on 48 points, ahead of Brighton (47) and Hereford (47 and relegated), but had they lost to us, they’d have had the same points, but a goal difference of -25, worse than both of the sides below them.