Five Fastest Lincoln City Red Cards Of All Time

The recent double red card against West Ham has prompted me to go down a rabbit hole of Lincoln City history.

Yesterday, I reached my ‘fair use’ limit when it came to the British Newspaper Library as I hunted down the minutes of Lincoln City red cards throughout history. There was some discussion after the game about Tom Hamer and Conor McGrandles making history, and they certainly did.

Firstly, it was the first time we’ve had two players sent off in the first half of a game in our history. As my article yesterday explained, it was only the sixth time in all competitions (bar FA Trophy and EFL Trophy, which I haven’t been through yet) we’ve had two off at all. It was the first time we’d seen two sent off in a home game unless you counted Cheltenham in 2009, when Ian Pearce was sent off, but was a sub at the time.

Secondly, records for the minutes of a dismissal are a bit sketchy pre-1960, so a long list of reds haven’t been checked, the first 70 years or so of our history. Technically, they couldn’t be ‘reds’ as the red card was only introduced in the 1970s.

I wondered if Tom Hamer’s red was the fastest in our history, and it turns out it was. I have looked back over the other red cards and found that, currently, Conor’s was the 20th-fastest as well. I appreciate I have done a list of all our first-half red cards of late, but for recap, here are the five fastest, starting with Tom Hamer.

Tom Hamer, 3 Minutes, October 2026, West Ham United, 0-6

Tom Hamer’s return to the starting line-up lasted barely three minutes before Andrew Kitchen showed him a straight red card for a late challenge on Joel Veltman. It was a horribly mistimed tackle in a position which offered little reason to take such a risk, immediately leaving City facing a difficult evening against West Ham’s considerable attacking quality. The Imps initially responded well, remaining organised and competitive despite losing a defender and the attacking threat of his long throws.

Any lingering prospect of taking something from the game disappeared after 23 minutes when Conor McGrandles lost possession and pulled back Jarrod Bowen as he threatened to race through on goal. City were down to nine, although they held out until Konstantinos Mavropanos headed home from a corner shortly before half-time. Five further goals followed after the break, leaving the remaining players to endure a punishing 6-0 defeat.