A Look Into Histories

A LOOK INTO HISTORY TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN

LINCOLN CITY – THE FIRST TO BE AUTOMATICALLY RELEGATED

At the commencement of season 1987-88 the F A brought in major changes to the system of promotion and relegation, re-election was finished and in its place came the champions of the Conference to replace the bottom side in the Football League. At the season’s close that fateful day came for Lincoln City losing 0-2 at Swansea City on 9th May to be replaced by Scarborough (Histories No 259). Lincoln City were original members of Division 2 in 1892 then after some rocky years levelled out in 1921 to ply their trade in Divisions 2, 3 and 4 at various times.

This relegation to the GM Vauxhall Conference was, on reflection the best thing for the club though not realising it at the time. Commencing their non-league life was on August 22nd 1987 with a 2-4 defeat at Barnet followed by a 0-3 reverse at Weymouth before inflicting 3-0 and 1-0 home defeats on Dagenham and Runcorn respectively.

Our colourful and glossy Match Programme is for Lincoln City’s final game in the Conference on Monday 2nd May 1988 v Wycombe Wanderers with Manager Colin Murphy’s very upbeat introduction and his Mission to be back to the League but was written before their 2-0 defeat of Stafford Rangers on the Saturday. That meant they had 79 points and Barnet who had lost 1-2 at Runcorn, 77 points. Unfortunately there is very little content although the two pages on the opposition were excellent. The Chairman is very hopeful that, despite Barnet leading the table for most of the season, all will prevail… it did, to the tune of a 2-0 win in front of the biggest Conference attendance at that time, 9,432. Wycombe Wanderers time would, of course come later. The success of the club came in terms of attendances which were 86% up on the previous two seasons. So, Lincoln City returned to the Football League after just one season and in a sound financial footing.

In 2011, Lincoln City would lose their Football League status again but in 2015-16 along came the Cowley brothers and a return to League Two, a championship following in 2019 and League One established in 2022.

One amusing aside is that Lincoln City are called the “Red Imps” but so are a Gibraltar club of exactly the same name who appear in European competitions with our National Press tending to print their results no doubt under the misapprehension that its our Lincoln!