Lincoln City Football Club - The Imps

Lincoln City History

2006-07 Season

5th in League Two; lost in the play off semi finals to Bristol Rovers
League Cup: 1st round; Scunthorpe United a. 3-4 aet.
FA Cup: 1st round; Port Vale a. 1-2
JP Trophy: 1st round; Grimsby Town h. lost 5-3 on penalties.

Highlight:
7-1 win over Rochdale, 21/10/06

Low Spot:
1-4 home defeat to Hereford United, 20/2/07

Good:
Lee Frecklington
Busy, clever midfielder who was effective both in the centre and on the left of midfield. Likes to get forward and is a threat when he does so.
Jamie Forrester
This was a good season for the much travelled forward. His 18 goals included three hat tricks and he laid on plenty more for his colleagues.
His intelligence and awareness make him a class act at this level.

In Brief:
The Imps made a cracking start to the campaign with 11 wins from their first 16 league games and were top after a superb win at Swindon.
Three defeats in November saw their progress stall but a strong December saw them bounce back into a promotion place. This momentum was lost, however, and only 2 wins in the last 13 games saw the club once again taking their chance in the play offs.
Meeting the in form Bristol Rovers looked a tough proposition and so it proved. The Imps lost 2-1 in the away leg but were then blown away at Sincil Bank, losing 5-3 on the night.
That makes it five years in a row the club have lost out in the play offs. Ouch!

Lincoln City FC - Club History

Lincoln City Football Club was formed in 1884 at a public meeting held at the Monson Arms Hotel. The club was one of the founder members of the Midland League in 1889 and became the first champions of that league.

In 1892 Lincoln City became founder members of Division Two. The club failed to be re-elected on three occasions in 1908, 1911 and 1920. Each time they were re-admitted the following season. On the first two occasions they went back into the second divsion but in 1921 they joined Division Three North.

Lincoln won the championship in Division Three North on three occasions, in 1932, 1948 and 1952. On the latter occasion the club managed a nine year stay in the second division before suffering successive relegations in 1961 and 1962 to drop into the fourth division for the first time in their history.

The Red Imps did not escape Division Four until 1976 when they claimed the championship ahead of Northampton Town, scoring 111 goals in the process under the management of Graham Taylor.

Lincoln were relegated back to the fourth division in 1979 returning to the third division as runners up to Southend United in 1981.

Lincoln had assembled a strong side boasting David Felgate in goal; Phil Neale, Steve Thompson and Trevor Peake in defence; Glenn Cockerill and George Shipley in midfield with Tony Cunningham and Gordon Habson up front.

This side immediately challenged for promotion to the second division and went into a final day showdown with Fulham at Craven Cottage needing to win to overtake the Cottagers and clinch promotion. Alas they could only manage a 1-1 draw and missed out by the narrowest of margins.

A gradual decline saw the club fall back into Division Four in 1986. Lincoln went into the season as favourites for promotion from the fourth division but a dramatic collapse in the second half of the season saw the club end the campaign at the bottom of the table. As this was the first season of automatic relegation into the Conference Lincoln lost their league status.

Happily the Imps were able to make an instant return into the league after being crowned champions of the Conference in 1988.

In 1998 Lincoln won promotion from Division Three after finishing 3rd, one point ahead of Colchester and Torquay United. They were immediately relegated in 1999, however, and have remained in the leagues' basement ever since despite reaching the play offs for three seasons running since 2003.

In 2003 Lincoln enjoyed a thrilling 6-3 aggregate victory over Scunthorpe United in the semi finals with Simon Yeo scoring three goals over the two legs. They then suffered a 5-2 hiding to Bournemouth in the final at Cardiff.

In 2004 they fell at the semi final stage following a narrow defeat to Huddersfield Town but reached the final again in 2005 after defeating Macclesfield Town in the semi finals. There was more misery at Cardiff, however, as they fell to a 2-0 extra time defeat to Southend United.

The club have a dismal record in both the major cup competitions having never progressed beypond the 4th round in either the League or FA Cup.

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