LET’S LOOK AT:
LINCON CITY
Lincoln City were formed in 1884, though there had been a team playing in Lincoln since the early 1860’s. In 1887, City won their first trophy, the Lincolnshire Senior Cup. That season, they also reached the last 16 of the FA Cup beating Middlesbrough 2-0 in the 2nd round, after a replay, Gainsborough Trinity 1-0 in the 3rd round, again after a replay. They received a bye in the 4th round and went out to Glasgow Rangers in the 5th round, Scottish clubs being eligible for the FA Cup in those days. In 1889/90, the Imps reached the last sixteen of the FA cup again. They beat Chester 2-0 in the 1st round, before losing 4-0 to Preston North End in the 2nd round.
!892 was a big year for the club as they turned professional and won the Lincolnshire Senior Cup again. They were also made founder members of the Football League’s second division which was made up of 12 clubs. The Imps finished 9th in their first season in the league, improving in the following season to 8th in a division that had expanded to 15 clubs.
In 1895, the club, who had been playing at the John O‘Gaunts ground moved to their current ground, Sincil Bank. Two years later, the club finished bottom of the Second Division, gaining just 12 points from 30 matches. However, their league performances improved after that and in 1902, the club finished 5th, which, even now, is their highest ever placing in the football league.
The club now seemed to be a stable Second division side, but in 1907, the club finished second from bottom and the following season, things got worse as they finished bottom, only gaining 21 points from 38 matches in a division that now boasted 20 clubs. They lost their place in the league along with Stoke City and joined the Midland Counties League. They won the league in their first season in 1909, also winning the Lincolnshire Senior Trophy and were re-elected to the Second Division of the Football League.
In 1910, they finished 15th in the Second Division, but the following season, they again finished bottom and lost their place in the league for the second time. In 1912, they won the newly formed Central league, which was later to become a reserve league for Midland and Northern football league clubs and were once more re-elected back to the Second Division finishing 8th in 1913. The following season, the club slumped to 19th, second from bottom but recovered to finish 16th in 1914/15 the last season before the end of the First World War.
In the first season following WW1, Lincoln finished second from bottom of League Two and they again lost their league place. The Following season, their trend towards ‘yo-yoing’ in and out of the league continued as they won the Midland Counties League and in 1921 they became founder members of the Football league Division Three (North). In their first season back in the league, they finished 14th.
For the next few years, the Imps made little impact in this new division, though they did finish 8th in 1925. However, in 1927/28, Lincoln finished as runners up to Bradford Park Avenue, but failed to win promotion as, in those days, only the Champions of the two regional third divisions were promoted to the Second Division of the Football League.
The next two seasons saw top six finishes for the Imps and they went even closer to promotion in 1931, finishing runners up again, this time to Chesterfield and missing out by just a point. Happily, the club didn’t have to wait long for promotion, winning the Division Three (North) title just a year later, on goal average from Gateshead.
In their first season back in Division Two, after a gap of 12 years, Lincoln struggled somewhat finishing just 18th and in 1933/34 they finished bottom and were relegated along with Millwall.
Lincoln finished 4th in Division Three (North) in both the next two seasons and in 1936/37, they were runners up for the third time, this time round to Stockport County. However, in the last season before the outbreak of World War II, the Imps had slumped and they finished just 17th.
In the second part of this article, we will look at how Lincoln fared after the end of WWII.