Ups, downs and managerial merry-go-rounds: The bygone years
Featuring three Championship wins, this was one of the Imps’ most successful times, but it was also tinged with three relegations.
City picked up winners medals in the Third Division North in 1931/32, 1947/48 and 1951/52, but were also relegated three times.
The interruption of the Second World War did little to help the Sincil Bank outfit with the Football League programme suspended between 1939 and 1945.
The 1931/32 campaign was a record breaking one for the Imps.
Their first ever championship win, City achieved it on goal average alone after finishing level on points with Gateshead.
This was in no small part because of striker Alan Hall’s 42-goal haul – the highest total in one season by any Imps player ever.
His scoring feats made up a significant part of the 106 goals City scored to help them see off Gateshead and reach Division Two.
Fine home form was crucial for City as they lost just two of their 20 home games.
It all boiled down to the penultimate matches of the season on April 30, 1932 where drama was at its best to match the recent 7-4 aggregate play-off semi-final defeat to Bristol Rovers.
A win would definitely give City the championship, regardless of Gateshead’s result, but City could only muster a 0-0 home draw with mid-table outfit Wrexham.
That left Henry Parkes’ side sweating on Gateshead’s result at relegation threatened Rotherham.
However, the Millers pulled off a surprise win as Gateshead allowed their nerves to get the better of them giving City the title with a game to go – barring a minor mathematical miracle based on goal average.
The Imps survived their first year in the old Division Two, but after Hall was transferred to Tottenham Hotspurs City found goals hard to come by, mustering an average of just one goal every two games.
This was a chief reason for their bottom-placed finish in the 1933/34 season.
Eight points adrift of safety and Manchester United, City’s relegation was confirmed after a 3-0 away defeat at Oldham on April 14 1934.
The one bright spot of the season was an historic 5-1 win over Manchester United on January 6 1934.
With the outbreak of the war and the subsequent six-year spell without a single season, the Imps were unable to improve on their status.
But it took them only two seasons to do this once the Football League resumed.
An inconsistent time in 1946/47 saw a mediocre mid-table finish in Bill Anderson’s first season.
But a year later City surged to the title finishing ahead of Rotherham by a point with third-placed Wrexham 10 points adrift of Anderson’s men.
Again it was the penultimate fixture of the campaign that went a long way to deciding the outcome of the championship as City defeated their closest rivals Rotherham 2-0 at Millmoor on April 24, 1948.
This left the Imps needing to beat Hartlepool at home – a formality with the Pool struggling all season.
The Imps achieved victory in some style hitting five with no reply to wrap up a deserved title irrespective of Rotherham’s win at Accrington.
This time, with finances severely stretched, City lasted just one season in Division Two finishing bottom and getting relegated with neighbouring Nottingham Forest with just eight wins from 42 games.
A fourth place finish in 1949/50, was followed by fifth place spot a year later.
This was just whetting the appetite for the Sincil Bank faithful, with another championship picked up in 1951/52.
Anderson had masterminded an attacking policy and fulfilled the requirement of his chairman C.W. Applewhite who had said “we shall be back in three years” of a return to Division Two after their initial relegation.
City scored a club record of 121 goals with all-time top-scorer Andy Graver netting 36 of them.
This time their stay in Division Two was much longer as Anderson consolidated by virtue of some inspired low budget signings.
They came particularly close to the drop in the 1957/58 season.
The team pulled off a last ditch escape with six wins from their last six games before finally going down at the end of the 1960/61 season.
The Imps haven’t reached what is now the Championship since this relegation which happened largely because of the 95 goals shipped in a season of heavy losses.
Things got worse when Division Four beckoned just a season later after finishing in the relegation zone before an even more dramatic decline saw them having to reapply for a Football League place thanks to finishing third-bottom in the basement league.
As this era ended City picked up an 11th-place finish, followed by two 22nd-placed finishes and finally an anticipated 24th-place finish in 1966-67, with the Imps seemingly looking at a bleak future.
By the end of this era City had finally started to show signs of moving forward, as they finished just five points off a promotion spot.
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