Memory Match: Lincoln City Slip On Preston Plastic

Saturday 24^th January 1987

Preston North End 3 Lincoln City 0  (Football League Division Four)

Following the departure of manager Colin Murphy at the end of the 1984/85 season, City had appointed his assistant John Pickering in his place, writes Malcolm Johnson.

However, after a moderate start to the following season he had been dismissed following a run of 10 defeats from 11 games with the Imps fourth from bottom of Division Three. New manager George Kerr, in his second spell in charge of the Imps, had overseen a marginal improvement but had never got the Imps to higher than 19^th, and a final placing of 21^st meant relegation back to the basement division after a stay of five seasons in the third tier.

After an indifferent start to the current season which had seen the Imps down to 20^th place before the end of September Kerr had adopted a more defensive formation, including four full backs in the side. This had produced an improvement with four successive wins putting the Imps up to 7^th place at the beginning of January. Defeat at Colchester in the last game, however, had seen them slip to 8^th going into this game but still just three points off the play-offs.

Preston North End had been one of the leading clubs in Victorian times, doing the double of winning the championship in its first ever season along with the FA Cup. They had proceeded to win the league championship the following year, but their last major honour had been the FA Cup in 1938. Something of a revival had seen them twice finish as runners-up in the league in the 1950s along with being beaten finalists in the FA Cup, but they had spent five seasons in Division Three during the 1970s and had returned there in 1982. Further relegation to Division Four had come in 1985 followed by a 23^rd place finish and an application for re-election. The appointment of former Newcastle and Southampton centre half John McGrath as manager in the summer was now bringing about a revival and the club had been in and around the promotion places all season. They were currently third and on an unbeaten run of seven games in the league.

Preston’s revival, with a record of having lost just twice in a total of 17 league cup games at home so far may have been partly due to the installation of an artificial pitch during the summer. Queens Park Rangers had been the first league club to install one in 1981 and had been followed by Luton and Oldham, with the idea being to increase revenue from hiring the pitch out, and the staging of events which couldn’t be done with a grass surface. Another selling point was that of fewer postponements due to weather conditions – but artificial pitches still proved not to be 100% free from freezing or waterlogging.

The main objection to these 1980s ‘plastic pitches’ was their carpet-like look and feel, with a far harder surface than grass which was also likely to cause joint injuries in players. However, several other clubs at the time were keen to install them – including Lincoln City themselves.

The teams were:

City:

1. Trevor Swinburne
2. Neil Franklin
3. Steve Buckley
4. Peter Daniel
5. Gary West
6. Gary Strodder
7. Simeon Hodson
8. Kevin Kilmore
9. Gary Lund
10. Bobby Mitchell
11. John McGinley
12. Tony Simmons

Preston:

1. Alan Kelly
2. Bobby McNeil
3. Michael Bennett
4. Bob Atkins
5. Alex Jones
6. Sam Allardyce
7. Les Chapman
8. Gary Swann
9. Nigel Jemson
10. Gary Brazil
11. David Miller
12. John Thomas

In goal for City was the experienced Trevor Swinburne with around 250 appearances for Carlisle earlier in his career. He had been signed by George Kerr from Leeds United’s reserves as a replacement for Stuart Naylor, sold to West Bromwich for a big fee the previous February.

City’s two full backs showed a contrast in experience, with 17-year-old YTS player Neil Franklin playing his sixth league game, partnered by the 33-year-old Steve Buckley a veteran of over 500 games for Luton and most recently Derby from whom he had joined in the previous summer. In central defence were Gary West and Gary Strodder. The 22-year-old West had been signed by John Pickering from Sheffield United for £35,000 prior to the previous season and would be voted as Player of the Season in the current one. A year younger, former apprentice Gary Strodder had made his debut in 1982 and was now in his third season as a regular first-teamer. He would be sold in a couple of months’ time to West Ham for a £100,000 fee.

On the right of City’s 4-4-2 formation was local-born Simeon Hodson, signed from Lincoln United in January 1986 after previous league experience with Notts County and Charlton. Normally a full back, he had been moved further forward by George Kerr earlier in the season when a more defensive formation had brought some success. Similarly, on the other flank 32-year-old Bobby Mitchell had also been moved forward after featuring at left back earlier since joining City during the previous season. Mitchell had previously played for George Kerr at Rotherham and Grimsby where he had had some success as a midfielder, but it’s fair to say his best days in that position were behind him.

In the centre of midfield was former England Under-21 international Peter Daniel, a player with over 300 games in the top two divisions, mainly for Wolves. The 31-year-old had been signed by John Pickering from Sunderland for £20,000. Playing at right back for most of the season he was currently in midfield due to an injury to Richard Cooper. Alongside Daniel was Kevin Kilmore, who had started his career with Scunthorpe, being hailed at one time as the new Kevin Keegan, although the main resemblance turned out to be having the same initials. However, he had been signed by George Kerr at Grimsby for £60,000, later, like Mitchell, following him to Rotherham and had been brought in by Kerr a year ago to provide goals. With these lacking, he had been moved into midfield earlier in the season.

Another former Grimsby man was 22-year-old Gary Lund who had joined from the Mariners in an exchange deal for midfielder Phil Turner in August with a record of 24 goals in 60 league games. He was currently top scorer for the Imps with 15 goals in all competitions, but was to manage only one more in the rest of the season. Alongside him was the tall John McGinley who had been signed by Colin Murphy in the autumn of 1984 from a club in Belgium after playing for various non-league clubs in the north-east and making a handful of appearances for First Division Sunderland. Missing most of the second half of the previous season, he had then, to some disquiet among supporters, been transferred to Rotherham soon after the start of the current one for a small fee plus striker Tony Simmons. After making just three appearances for the Millers he had returned in January at a cost of £8,000 just prior to this match with George Kerr admitting that he may have made a mistake in allowing him to leave earlier.

Substitute Tony Simmons, father of later Imps youngster Alex, had at the age of 18 been the subject of a big money transfer from Sheffield Wednesday to Queens Park Rangers. However, after suffering an early injury with the London club he had joined George Kerr’s Rotherham and become another player to follow him to City. With six goals in the season so far, he had featured only on the subs’ bench since the end of December, and had now been placed on the transfer list following the return of McGinley.

Preston goalkeeper was 18-year-old Alan Kelly deputising for injured regular David Brown. Kelly had made his debut the previous season but featured mainly in Freight Rover Trophy games in the current one. He was following in the footsteps of his father, also named Alan, who had played around 450 games in goal for Preston, and also like him, would go on to play for the Republic of Ireland.

Full backs were Bobby McNeil and Mike Bennett. McNeil had spent a month with the Imps on non-contract terms the previous season, making his last appearance in a 7-0 defeat at Derby before joining Preston. Bennett had started his career with Bolton before a brief spell with Wolves and then spent time with Cambridge United before joining Preston in the summer. Centre half Alex Jones, aged 22, had brief experience with Oldham and a loan spell with Stockport before joining Preston in the summer since when he had been first choice. Alongside him, plenty of experience was provided by the ten years older Sam Allardyce who had also joined in the summer after over 350 league games for the likes of Bolton, where he had started his career, Sunderland and Millwall along with several others. He would go on to have managerial success with several clubs most notably Bolton, along with a controversial two-month spell in charge of England.

Midfielder in a defensive role was Bob Atkins who had joined the club in 1985 from Sheffield United along with striker Gary Brazil in a transfer deal worth £25,000. 28-year-old Les Chapman had started his career with Oldham, also having much experience with Huddersfield and Bradford City. He had been player-manager of Stockport for a year before joining Preston in the summer as player-coach. Gary Swann had joined in November for a fee of £10,000 from Hull City for whom he had played around 200 times. David Miller had come through the ranks at Burnley and was making his debut in this match after signing from Tranmere.

Up front, Gary Brazil had spent several seasons with Sheffield United before joining Preston along with Atkins and currently had five goals to his name although he was about to embark on a scoring burst which would see him finish the season with 18. He was partnered in this match by 17-year-old Nigel Jemson who had made his first team debut in the last game of the previous season aged 16. In a year’s time he would be signed by Brian Clough for Nottingham Forest for a fee of £150,000 and go on to have a lengthy league career.

Jemson was in the side due to former Imp John Thomas being confined to the bench due to a recent injury. The 28-year-old had made his name as a prolific scorer with Chester before becoming one of the players Colin Murphy was not permitted to sign midway through the 1982/83 season to revive City’s flagging promotion campaign. Eventually joining the Imps the following summer for £12,500 he went on to register 18 league goals in two seasons before being sold to Preston for £15,000 in the summer of 1985. After scoring a total of 18 in his first season he was currently top scorer with 16 goals in all competitions and would go on to finish with 27.

Prior to the game George Kerr had said that despite his team only scoring five goals in the last six games he was convinced “some team must be in line for a real beating before too long.” City had prepared for the plastic pitch by playing in the gymnasium which had ‘a lively surface,’ with Kerr saying it would be interesting to see how the game went, “I don’t think it will pose any problems.”

The attendance of 7,821 was Preston’s highest of the season so far and they saw striker Gary Brazil inspire their team to victory, although North End did not find it easy at first to break down a rugged City side with Gary Strodder and Peter Daniel prominent in defence. The game was played at a furious pace with the ball skimming around on the plastic, with shots from Nigel Jemson, Brazil and Gary Swann showing what was to come. In the first half, City’s occasional attacks came to little, with Simeon Hodson being closely marked on the right and Gary Lund held in check. John McGinley did manage one attempt at goal, but put a looping shot well wide. It seemed just a matter of time before Preston broke through, and it came in the 37^th minute when Trevor Swinburne blocked a first time shot from Brazil only for the striker to put the rebound in the net.

City’s best chance came after the interval when following a corner Hodson put in a cross which saw Kevin Kilmore’s header skim the cross bar. Kilmore then put in a left foot shot which went just wide. But Preston came back in the 65^th minute with another shot from Brazil blocked by Swinburne which again saw the rebound put in, this time by Swann. Tony Simmons was then brought on for City in place of young Neil Franklin with Hodson moving to right back. It was Simmons who had a chance but he headed the ball straight at the keeper from a cross by Lund. Four minutes from time former Imp Bobby McNeil laid the ball on for the 17-year-old Jemson to curl the ball round Swinburne and into the net.

George Kerr’s view afterwards was that the artificial pitch certainly played a part in the defeat, claiming it was responsible for two of the goals, although he admitted that Preston were the better side and that “our marking was non-existent for their first goal.”

The defeat saw City slip a further place to ninth but still only three points off the play-offs. However, things then slipped badly with six defeats and a solitary win out of the next seven games seeing them down to 17^th place, nine points clear of next-to-bottom Torquay who had two games in hand. Although Rochdale were well adrift in the relegation place, they had five games in hand on the Imps. The consequence was that amid fears of, as chairman John Reames put it, “the GM Vauxhall Conference beckoning”, George Kerr lost his job and was replaced by Peter Daniel. The new player-manager did at least manage a couple of wins in the remainder of the season, but a drab if not unexpected last day defeat at Swansea saw City end up in that Vauxhall Conference.

As for Preston, they lost only two league games in the rest of the season to finish runners-up to an outstanding Northampton side. However, progress then stalled and they found themselves back in the basement division again for the 1993/94 season to give the Imps one further chance to experience their plastic pitch with a 2-0 defeat in February 1994. The last to be in use with a Football League club it was then removed before the following season.

My own view on witnessing this game was that the artificial pitch was dreadful to play on, in the glare of the late January floodlights appearing to be a completely smooth and solid green surface. But although still banned by the Football League and Premier League artificial pitch technology has moved on since 1987, and having in more recent times spent three and half years watching Southern League football on a 3G pitch I’m convinced that if anyone didn’t already know it was an artificial surface they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. In fact, it could be said to be more conducive to passing football with the ball rolling more truly than on a grass surface.