When Lincoln City make the trip to Middlesbrough this weekend, it will bring an end to a remarkably long wait.
Our previous league visit came almost 66 years ago, in November 1960, when Bill Anderson’s side travelled to Ayresome Park and came away with a 1-1 draw on an afternoon dominated almost as much by the weather as the football.
The Lincolnshire Echo carried the headline “Within Splash Of Victory”, which gives a fairly good indication of the conditions. Ayresome Park had a reputation for resisting the worst of the weather better than most grounds, but persistent rain had finally churned the surface up badly enough to make stamina and adaptability more important than neat football. City handled that challenge particularly well, adjusting to the heavy ground much more effectively than a Middlesbrough side who had actually won 6-1 at Luton Town in similarly muddy conditions the previous week.
Borough were not naturally suited to the conditions, despite that emphatic result at Kenilworth Road. Their preference was to continue playing the same short passing football regardless of the weather, described wonderfully by the Echo as a “stereotyped short passing game of tip-tapping stuff”. City were far less precious about how they approached the afternoon, defending strongly, moving the ball forward more directly and recognising that the sodden surface made it extremely difficult for defenders to turn once they had been faced towards their own goal.
City’s back line was particularly well equipped for the battle, tackling hard and covering intelligently whenever somebody was pulled out of position. Middlesbrough were regularly forced to try to work their way through a defence that was comfortable dealing with the physical side of the contest, while much of City’s best defensive work was done outside the penalty area, reducing the number of occasions on which the home side were able to threaten from genuinely dangerous positions.
The task became more difficult after around half an hour when left-back Jeff Smith suffered a leg injury. Substitutes were not yet permitted in league football, so Smith had little choice but to remain on the field and spent the rest of the afternoon “hobbling on the left wing”. Russell Green dropped back to take over defensively, while Roy Chapman was also required to operate on the left as Anderson reorganised his side without the luxury of replacing the injured man.
Despite that disruption, City remained dangerous going forward, particularly through Andy Graver and John McClelland. The pair combined well and frequently interchanged positions, creating two of City’s best first-half chances from deliveries by Graver on the right. One produced a flashing header from McClelland which went narrowly wide, while another found Chapman in enough space to get a quick effort away before Middlesbrough goalkeeper Brian Appleby could fully set himself.
By then, Middlesbrough were already ahead, although City had survived an extraordinary warning before the opening goal arrived. A high ball into the penalty area caused confusion between Bill Thompson and goalkeeper Bill Heath, with both apparently expecting the other to deal with it. The ball struck the post behind Heath and dropped into the mud, but the surface probably helped City on this occasion because the ball died rather than bouncing away, giving the goalkeeper enough time to turn and collect it.
Middlesbrough’s pressure eventually produced a goal after five minutes. An attack was initially repelled, but the loose ball dropped to Bill Harris around 25 yards from goal and his shot went in off a post. It could easily have been the beginning of a difficult afternoon for City, especially given Borough’s six-goal performance only a week earlier, but the Imps settled into the contest rather than allowing the early setback to dictate what followed.
Captain Ken Thompson and Ray Jackson were central to that defensive resistance, with Jackson facing the particularly unenviable job of dealing with Brian Clough. The Middlesbrough striker was already a prolific goalscorer by that stage of his career, but City largely kept him quiet, with Jackson enjoying the better of their individual contest. The contemporary assessment of Clough is fascinating with the benefit of hindsight, describing him as “a static player, more so under these conditions” and noting that he only managed to get the better of Jackson on a handful of occasions.
There was also an obvious understanding across City’s defence, especially between Jackson and Heath. Jackson controlled the middle, while Heath was regularly available to take the short pass whenever there was an opportunity to retain possession instead of simply clearing the ball into the distance. Middlesbrough, by contrast, often persisted with possession for too long, which allowed City to regroup and meant their territorial advantage did not translate into the volume of clear opportunities they might have expected.
When City attacked, the approach was noticeably different. The Imps moved forward with greater speed and made much better use of longer passes, particularly when Middlesbrough’s defenders were facing the wrong way on a surface that made turning difficult. The Echo praised City’s “better understanding of the use of the long ball when defenders find it difficult to turn quickly”, and it was that willingness to adapt rather than simply attempt to play through the mud that kept Anderson’s side firmly in the game.
Middlesbrough still carried a threat, and Clough did manage to get a header on target which Heath saved at the other end, but City were creating opportunities of their own. Graver and McClelland remained at the heart of much of their best work, while Chapman offered another presence in attack despite the reshuffle caused by Smith’s injury. With the pitch deteriorating and both sides having to work increasingly hard simply to keep their footing, the game became as much a test of endurance and judgement as technique.
The biggest moment of controversy came in the second half when City thought they had equalised. A Middlesbrough attack was cleared and the ball eventually came to Bill Harris, who tried his luck from 25 yards. His effort struck a post and Lincoln appealed strongly that the ball had crossed the line before coming back into play. Referee J. Powell, from Rotherham, consulted the linesman who was level with the goal, but the officials ruled otherwise and the score remained 1-0.
City continued pushing, though, and their persistence was rewarded. With only five minutes remaining, the Imps finally found the equaliser their performance deserved, earning a point on an afternoon when they had spent long periods resisting Middlesbrough pressure but had never simply retreated and hoped to survive. The circumstances were hardly conducive to attractive football, yet City had found a way to remain competitive by playing the conditions rather than fighting against them.
The closing stages also saw Middlesbrough lose left winger Edwin Holliday, who had to retire with a recurrence of the pulled muscle that had previously kept him out for seven weeks. With no substitutes available, Borough were therefore reduced in numbers for the final part of the game, although City had effectively been carrying Smith for much longer after his first-half injury.
A 1-1 draw at Ayresome Park was a significant result in its own right, but the manner in which it was achieved clearly impressed those watching. Middlesbrough had the greater reputation, home advantage and the confidence of having scored six the week before, yet City came within what the Echo called a “splash of victory” of taking both points.
More than six decades later, some of the language inevitably belongs to another era, as does the idea of a player spending an hour hobbling around on the wing because there was nobody available to replace him. The central theme of the afternoon, though, is rather more timeless. City travelled to one of the stronger sides in the division, encountered difficult circumstances and came away with something because they adapted better than their opponents.
That was November 1960, at Ayresome Park, and until this weekend it remained our last league trip to Middlesbrough.
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