History Of Lincoln City FC

Things could have gone one of two ways, the club either rebuilt a side to aim for promotion at the first attempt or the club died. The former was desirable so Colin Murphy was re-appointed as manager for the 1986/87 season, thus beginning "Murphy's Mission - Return To The Football League", new players were signed mostly from league clubs. Life in non-league started tough not helped by the fact that all the other Conference sides and the Conference management sought to keep Lincoln down.

Despite setting new records and often beating opponents 5-0 whilst remaining unbeaten for several months, Lincoln were matched all the way by Barnet. The title went to the final game of the season after Lincoln seized the initiative in their penultimate match. Lincoln had to beat Wycombe to go up which they achieved with a 2-0 win in front of Lincoln's biggest crowd for several years, a return to the Football League was theirs. In fact Lincoln have been demoted four times from the League and on each occasion they have returned after just one season of non-league football but please lads do not try it again!

Ten years in Division Four/Three(renamed 1992) followed as did 12 mangers, one lasted only 42 days while others got one whole season! In 1995 John Beck was appointed, in some respects he was very similar to Colin Murphy not least because he delivered promotion as promised in the 1997/98 season or he would have done had he not been sacked six weeks before the season ended.

So for the 1998/99 season Lincoln were back in Division Two, the old Division Three, however whilst Lincoln had been away things had changed and money was a more prominent factor than ever.

Lincoln did not buy sufficient new players and despite an excellent team spirit the small squad eventually succumb to relegation. That season saw Shane Westley become chairman John Reames' 13th managerial sacking and Reames, believing he could do the Lincoln manger's job as well as anyone, appointed himself as manager. The two seasons when Reames was in charge proved otherwise and Lincoln finished a lowly 15th in the 1999/2000 season when quite really they had a side capable of promotion.

Phil Stant took over as manager for the 2000/01 season and with impossible financial circumstances it was always going to a difficult task to lift Lincoln beyond halfway in the table. It was Stant's first managerial post and his job was made even harder in November 2000 when the Lincoln City FC chairman John Reames sensationally quit. This left Stant without a permanent board of directors and in December 2000 Lincoln's leading goalscorer Gavin Gordon was sold to divisional rivals Cardiff City. It was a blow upon which Stant's side never recovered and the inevitable happened in February 2001 when Stant was dismissed as Lincoln plunged to next to bottom in the table. The next day former Grimsby Town boss Alan Buckley took charge and galvanised a Lincoln side into a side brimming with confidence.

The appointment was the first act of new chairman Rob Bradley's reign, after Bradley's co-operative bid had been accepted. The take-over made Lincoln City the first community owned football club in the Football League and big things were expected. In January 2002, Bradley admitted his "sadness" that the community ownership has not been as successful as they had hoped and that debts were increasing further. The future of Lincoln City FC remains uncertain and it has been another difficult season on the pitch, only time will tell if Lincoln City can recapture past glories or simply live on past memories.

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