‘I’ll Drive You There’ – Part 2: The Players Lincoln City Saw Turn To Gold

Gordon Hobson

Okay, so maybe McGrandles isn’t different from everyone on the list! Hobson’s inclusion comes from his second arrival at Sincil Bank, rather than the beginning of a City career that had already made him one of the club’s outstanding forwards. He had left the Imps for Grimsby Town in 1985 before earning a £120,000 move to First Division Southampton the following year, where he initially made a real impression. Hobson scored on his Saints debut against Watford and later hit a hat-trick in a 4-2 victory at Manchester City, the club’s first away treble for 18 years.

Things changed during the 1987/88 season when an ankle injury ruled him out after only a month. Graham Baker took his place and, by the time Hobson was fit enough to challenge again, Southampton’s younger attacking players were beginning to emerge. Rod Wallace, Matthew Le Tissier and Alan Shearer were among those making it increasingly difficult for him to force his way back into the side, leaving a proven First Division forward looking elsewhere for regular football. With just 33 appearances across two seasons, and a willingness to drop from the First Division to the Fourth Division, Saints fans probably didn’t cry too hard.

City paid a club-record £60,000 to bring him back in September 1988, and there was an immediate reminder of what Southampton were allowing to leave. His first game after returning was a League Cup tie against the Saints at The Dell, where he scored City’s consolation goal, and that proved to be the beginning of another prolific spell rather than a nostalgic homecoming for a player whose best days had gone.

Hobson finished as City’s leading scorer in both of his seasons back at Sincil Bank, including a hat-trick in a memorable 4-1 victory at table-topping Burnley in November 1988. He added 23 league goals in 61 appearances during that second spell and eventually finished his two periods with the Imps with 105 goals in 386 first-team appearances.