LINCOLN'S D-DAY: 1987
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In 1987 the Football League changed the rules. This time the worst team in its league would be relegated into the GM Vauxhall Conference, and perhaps they may never return.In 1987 the Football League changed the rules. This time the worst team in its league would be relegated into the GM Vauxhall Conference, and perhaps they may never return. Maybe this would give Torquay United a jolt, as they had been bottom of the barrel for the previous two years, but going into the last weekend of the 1987/88 season Torquay were down there on 47 points, just in front of Tranmere on goal difference and one point ahead of Burnley, while Lincoln City hovered above on 48 points. What was to happen that day was probably the most dramatic final day of a League season, perhaps only bettered by Carlisle's goalkeeper Jimmy Glass scoring in the last minute to send Scarborough down in 1999. This time however, there were four clubs all in the mix, but due to a bizarre decision by the League (or more likely the Merseyside police), Tranmere Rovers were allowed to play their final fixture at home to Exeter on the Friday night and they earned Division Four safety with a 1-0 win. Now it was down to three. Only 3,970 had turned up to Burnley's penultimate home game with Southend a week earlier, but with this historic club staring their League goodbye in the face, an amazing crowd of nearly 16,000 arrived at Turf Moor for the crunch match with Orient. Having seen their attendance quadruple, the kick-off was delayed by 20 minutes to let everyone in. When Burnley finally came in for half-time, Neil Grewcock had fired them into a 1-0 lead, but elsewhere the other games had already restarted. As scores stood, Torquay were now rock bottom because 20-year old David Platt had struck just before the break to put Crewe 2-0 up at Plainmoor. Meanwhile at the Vetch Field, Lincoln were also a goal down to Swansea thanks to 39-year old Tommy Hutchison, but at that moment the Red Imps still looked safe. The Swansea-Lincoln game was the first to finish, and Phil Williams had added a second to finish off the visitors. Now they could only listen to the radio and wait. Down in Devon, Jim McNichol had pulled one back for Torquay and knees were beginning to tremble. Burnley were now 2-1 up against Orient and looked as though they had done enough, so all eyes and ears were on the drama at Plainmoor. Then something unbelievable happened. A police dog had escaped the attentions of its owner and run onto the pitch at Torquay, and as the goalscorer McNichol had tried to corner it, the dog lashed out and bit him! The game had to be stopped as the defender received lengthy treatment on the pitch, and now this game was going to string out beyond five o'clock too. Finally the match resumed, with McNichol patched up and soldiering on because Torquay had already used their only substitute Adrian Mann prior to that unprecedented canine attack. The score remained 2-1 to Crewe deep into stoppage time, but then striker Paul Dobson popped up in dramatic fashion to strike home and save the Gulls. The whistle blew and it was 2-2 - Torquay had been saved, and had held onto their League status by a difference of just four goals after having levelled on points with that equaliser. For Lincoln, this was truly a hammer blow. They had only just been demoted from the old Division Three the previous season, and at New Year they were lying in 7th, one place outside the play-offs. Unfortunately in their next 23 games, only three had been won, but the cruel fact was that they only fell into bottom spot in injury time on that very Saturday afternoon. This was in fact the fourth time Lincoln had fallen out of the League, as three failed re-elections in the early 1900s had meant a year's exile from the competition on each occasion. And this time would be no different. Fast forward on a year, and the Imps returned in a blaze of glory after pipping Barnet to the Conference title. Only two and a half thousand had witnessed Lincoln's last home game at Sincil Bank in the League, a 2-1 defeat to Scunthorpe, but twelve months on there were nine and a half thousand to see Wycombe beaten to clinch the championship. Just like before, they had never once been in that final position until the very end, and Lincoln only moved into top spot by beating Stafford Rangers two days prior to winning the trophy. Despite collapsing into the bottom three at the back end of last season to finish just above Rovers, I don't think they have to worry about doing so badly this year - until a short while ago the Red Imps were trading punches in the top six. But then again, they were doing the same back in 1987: surely history cannot repeat itself, can it?
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