For all the excitement around Lincoln City returning to the Championship, there is a sobering footnote attached to it: the last time we were there, it ended with the club sliding towards one of the darkest periods in its history.

It is easy, from this distance, to treat the Second Division years as something romantic. Black and white photographs, big names at Sincil Bank, proper old grounds, packed terraces, and Lincoln City dining at a level many modern supporters never thought they would see again. The reality was rather different. By the end, City were not so much clinging on as running out of road.

1959/60

The 1959/60 season provides the real starting point for Lincoln City’s relegation story, because it was a campaign that began badly enough to suggest serious trouble ahead. City lost eight of their first ten matches in Division Two and quickly sank to the bottom of the table, with frustration growing around Sincil Bank. A heavy defeat at Stoke City, followed by another at Leyton Orient after injuries forced local teaching student Ray Long into the side, underlined how thin the squad had become and finally pushed the board into action.

The arrival of Dennis Gratton from Sheffield United helped stabilise things, and Bill Anderson’s side gradually found a way to survive. There were still problems, injuries, emergency selections and inconsistency, but City produced some remarkable results, including a 5-0 win at Hull City, a 6-2 victory over Derby County, a 4-2 Boxing Day win at Sunderland and, most memorably, a 4-2 success at Anfield, where Roy Linnecor scored a hat-trick against Liverpool. By late March, Anderson had steered a patched-up side clear of relegation, and a 13th-place finish in Division Two felt like a major achievement in the circumstances.

The Final Second Division Season

Rather than seeing survival as something achieved despite the club’s limitations, the board appeared to conclude that Lincoln could keep existing at that level on a shoestring. When long-serving chairman Applewhite resigned, his successor, Alwyne Mawer, made it clear that Second Division survival remained the height of the club’s ambition. Floodlights were not on the agenda either, leaving the supporters’ club to launch an £18,000 appeal to bring them to Sincil Bank.

If 1959/60 had been a rescue act, 1960/61 was a slow collapse.

August

The season started badly and got worse from there. On the eve of the big kick off, Gratton refused to train with the club, and was made available for transfer. Bill Anderson stated the intention was to ‘play good football’, but he said so in an office surrounded by paperwork as the club had no secretary and the office assistant was on holiday.

City were hammered 3-0, then lost at home against Rotherham and drew with Huddersfield. After the third blank in as many games, reported N.H.B stated that the rain-soaked ground’s only real heroes were the supporters.

September

September brought respite and a goal. After four games without, Andy Graver and then Roy Chapman earned us a 2-2 draw against Sunderland, before a win at Swansea. Home fans who saw five in two matches as the Imps seemed to be on the up. Crowds were on the slide, but it seemed the team were not.

Sadly, the rain kept fans away from the win against Swansea, and financial issues were never far away. The resurgence was stopped in rather spectacular fashion when the 12th-placed Imps made their only visit to Carrow Road. Norwich City, the Third Division champions, won 5-1 on what remains our only visit there to date.

October

If September showed signs of improvement, October was a horror show. Crowds remained low – only 7,899 turned up to watch us beaten by Liverpool, and that was a Saturday afternoon, not a damp midweek. Bradford Park Avenue of the Third Division beat us in the first-ever League Cup matches the club played, winning 1-0 after a 2-2 draw at the Bank.

City slipped to 22nd after the defeat against Derby County, and relegation already felt like a real possibility going into the early winter period.

November

The problems kept coming, with defeats against Ipswich and Scunthorpe United, a game in which 10,282 turned up, a bumper attendance and the third-highest of the season.

After an 8-3 County Cup defeat at Grimsby Town in November, the squad returned to find the Sincil Bank offices ransacked. Cupboards had been pushed over, drawers emptied, and glass scattered around the place. Worst of all, quantities of booze and cigarettes had been stolen, resulting in lost revenue.

Attendances fell badly after the loss against the Iron. The Footballers’ Union was threatening “no pay, no play” in its fight for freedom of contract, but at Lincoln, the supporters were already staying away. Only 4,397 turned up for a relegation battle with Brighton and Hove Albion in thick fog. There were only seven games in the Football League with fewer fans – one in the Third Division and six in the Fourth. It’s fair to say the papers didn’t think it was a classic, despite the Imps’ win.

December

Anderson had started the season with only 16 full-time professionals, and in early December, he lost Ron Allen, too. A broken right leg, suffered at home to Leeds United on December 3, effectively ended Allen’s playing career. City brought in Ian Greaves from Manchester United for £2,500 after Tommy Heron declined the move, but it was not enough.

Gratton had finally returned, only to disappear again (he eventually made 13 appearances in all). He resurfaced as City beat Southampton 3-2 at The Dell, a result that left us outside the bottom two. One Southampton fan was reported as saying the Imps were ‘one of the best teams here this season’. Could City pull away from danger?

The answer was no, as a horrible run followed that left us winless in the league between Christmas and Easter.

January

There was, oddly, one genuine high point in the season. For the first time in the club’s history, Lincoln knocked First Division opposition out of the FA Cup, beating West Bromwich Albion 3-1. Graves and Roger Holmes, both 18, starred against top-flight opponents, giving supporters a rare afternoon to remember. The biggest home crowd of the season packed the Bank, but by the time Sunderland beat us 2-1 a week later, almost 6,000 stayed away.

The euphoria did not last. Sheffield United ended the cup run in the next round, while we picked up a single point from four in the league. We had to put 17-year-old Bob Graves in goal against Plymouth, and earned a credible 1-1 draw, but to no avail. By that point, we were bottom and had played more games than other teams. The writing was on the wall.

February

If there was even a glimmer of light in January, it disappeared in February. Four defeats made it ten without a win in the league, and we got just a single goal. The visit of Sheffield United drew just 5,263 supporters, as we huffed and puffed towards relegation. The bright spot, in a month where we conceded 14, was still keeper Graves, described as making ‘many top-class saves’ against Liverpool.

Still, it was a result that saw us drift to four points from safety (under two points for a win), having played four games more than the last safe team.

March

By March, the slow hand-clap had returned to Sincil Bank, and fans were unhappy and staying away. The headline read ‘City Leave The Miracle a Bit Late This Year’ in reference to the Great Escape from a couple of seasons prior, but there was to be no great escape. Will Younger came in from Forest on loan, but didn’t have a presence in front of the goal.

The slow hand clap, described as ‘the most useless form of self-expression’ rang out during a 2-1 home defeat to Bristol Rovers, a game in which reserve Brian Wright played his final City game.

Things only got worse, despite a brave fight. City were the poor men of the division, and were described as having suffered an injustice in the 3-0 defeat against Southampton.

But it was still a 3-0 defeat.

April

Momentarily, the Imps rallied, beating Middlesbrough 5-2, and then drawing with Stoke City, both solid results. It was all to no avail. Relegation was confirmed by a 1-0 defeat at Brighton on April 8. To make the sense of an ending even sharper, it was Andy Graver’s last first-team appearance for the club.

The final weeks of Lincoln’s Second Division life were bleak. Already relegated, City came home and lost 4-1 to Ipswich Town. NHB reported that the only difference between them and us was ‘goalkeeping and goalscoring’, which in a funny way, is both damning and enlightening. City hadn’t been so woeful that we had no chance; between both boxes, we could match most sides in the division, but where the money mattered, particularly in front of goal, we were lacking.

In the final away match, 21-year-old goalkeeper Brian Bunden made his debut at Leeds United. He had impressed with West Stockwith in the Gainsborough League, but facing Albert Johanneson, Billy Bremner, and Jackie Charlton at Elland Road was another matter entirely. Leeds won 7-0.

The curtain finally came down at Sincil Bank against Leyton Orient. Middleton and Joe Bonson scored in a 2-0 win, but fewer than 4,000 were there to see it. The Echo even relegated the match report to halfway down the page, instead covering Worcestershire and Australia in cricket, and a picture of Hykeham FC who won the Village Cup ahainst Billinghay.

That was it. City finished bottom on 24 points, which would have been 32 under three points for a win, with Huddersfield on 35. Relegated, demoralised and losing £250 a week (£250,000 per year with inflation), we were no longer the club that had briefly punched above its weight in the early 1950s. The Second Division years were over, and what followed was not a reset, but a collapse.

For modern supporters, the lesson is not simply that Lincoln have been here before. It is that being there is one thing, staying there is quite another. Last time out, in 60/61, the club were at this level without the structure, money or ability to sustain it.

This time, if the Imps are to make the Championship more than a short visit, they will need to remember exactly how the last one ended.