Sunday 8 March 2009

Classic Matches – Lincoln City 4 – 1 Manchester City, 17/09/1996

This was a typical David v Goliath encounter. Lincoln City were struggling in 15th place in Division 3 (currently League 2) and Manchester City were in the top ten of the division currently known as the Championship. It was the first leg of the second round of the Coca Cola Cup and I had a ticket for the terrace area of the Stacey West End. As an adult I paid only £8 for my ticket. An absolute bargain considering what I was about to witness!

Manchester City were a team that lacked direction at the time of playing them. They were without a manager. The caretaker in charge for the game was Asa Hartford, who actually was part of the Manchester City team that won the trophy twenty years prior to this game! Manchester City had 10 players out injured for the game, including the mercurial Georgi Kinkladze.

Lincoln City fell behind within the first 40 seconds of the start and I like most others around me sensed a real drubbing. Uwe Rosler scored from a left wing cross from Paul Dickov who is still playing today! After this poor start Lincoln failed to cave in and started playing the style of football that manager John Beck is so well known for. We started to batter Man City’s goal and the equaliser duly arrived in the 29th minute when a Gareth Ainsworth cross (I think) was turned in by Terry Fleming with a sweetly executed volley! Terry is still playing his football in the city of Lincoln, currently plying his trade for Lincoln Utd!

Just before the break Lincoln City went in front from a typical John Beck set piece goal. Mark Hone (Danny Hone’s dad) put in a free kick that landed kindly on Steve Holmes head for him to place a bullet past Andy Dibble. I remember reading the next day that Dibble was unhappy with this goal as he felt Ainsworth had impeded him when the cross came in! So, Lincoln went in at the break leading 2-1 and it wasn’t long after the break that Lincoln City went further ahead! Another typical John Beck style goal it was too! Terry Fleming put in one of his trademark long throws and Gijsbert Bos’ near post header looped over Dibble to land in the far corner of the net. Sincil Bank was rocking. The atmosphere was amazing. The Railway End / Stacey West terrace was in full voice and the 1,500 or so Manchester City fans were very quiet.

Manchester City started pressing and came close on quite a few occasions. Nigel Clough even hit the post for them on about the hour mark. Lincoln however wanted more and we got more! Another Terry Fleming throw wasn’t dealt with and Jon Whitney stabbed in from close range in the 79th minute to send the Lincoln faithful wild and cue the hordes of Manchester City fans heading for the exits!

This ranks as one of my all time favourite city games. Ok, the style of football under John Beck wasn’t for the purists but he knew how to grind out results which led to promotion the following season. Did anyone else go to this game? What were your memories of this amazing game?

The teams that played that day were:

Lincoln City: Barry Richardson, Steve Holmes, Grant Brown, Jon Whitney, Gareth Ainsworth, Mark Hone, Terry Fleming, Worrell Sterling (Colin Alcide 34), Gijsbert Bos, Jae Martin.
Manchester City: Dibble, Lomas, Wassall, Symons, Ingram, Summerbee, Clough, Whitley, M Brown (Crooks 63), Rosler, Dickov

Goals:

Lincoln City:
Fleming (29), Holmes (44), Bos (49), Whitney (79)
Manchester City:
Rosler (40 seconds)

Attendance: 7,599.

We fared pretty well in the second leg, taking well over 2,000 fans to Maine Road! That match will be discussed in a future blog entry!

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