Ten Of The All-Time Worst Refereeing Decisions To Go Against Lincoln City

6: Chris Garland Dive

Graham Taylor’s Fourth Division Imps had already knocked top-flight Stoke City out of the League Cup when they visited Leicester City for a third-round tie on 8 October 1975. At Filbert Street, we produced another performance worthy of the occasion and were level at 1-1 with five minutes left, with a replay at Sincil Bank within touching distance. This was no mean feat; they too were top flight and would eventually finish seventh, above Man City, Spurs and Arsenal.

Then referee Gordon Kew awarded Leicester a penalty, ruling that skipper Sam Ellis had pushed Chris Garland in the back of the neck. The photograph of the incident made that explanation difficult to swallow: Peter Grotier had the ball safely in his hands, while Ellis was positioned in front of the airborne Leicester forward. Taylor described it as “the start of the perfect dive”, and said Ellis had told him afterwards that he never touched Garland.

Jon Sammels put the penalty into the top corner to give Leicester a 2-1 victory, turning a potential replay against top-flight opposition into a bitter cup exit. Taylor felt we had created enough chances to win, but his immediate reaction was that Kew had been conned. A side he described as magnificent had been denied the chance to finish the job in front of their own supporters, all because of a push the photographic evidence suggested Ellis could scarcely have delivered.