Before the two meetings in recent seasons, the Dons had not played Lincoln City since a 1984 encounter was settled by a brilliant late strike from our current manager.
With less than a minute remaining, Glyn Hodges beats two men before scoring the decisive goal (the picture above shows our manager striking home the winner).
Saturday 14th April 1984: Division 3
Lincoln City (1) 1 Redfearn 23
Wimbledon (0) 2 Evans 52, Hodges 89
He was a hard man to please. Despite striking the winner and keeping his side on track for promotion at Sincil Bank 36 years ago, Dave Bassett was more concerned about the yellow card Glyn Hodges had incurred. “Yes, it was a tremendous goal,” the manager said, “but he is now facing a ban. Four of the bookings he has earned were for opening his mouth, that’s 16 unnecessary points. Now he misses two crucial games and puts the club in jeopardy. He will pay for that.”
Since taking 12 points from four games over the Christmas period, the Dons had been on a remarkable run that had put them on the verge of reaching Division Two for the first time. Home victories over Brentford and Plymouth were to follow before a showdown at Sheffield United ended in triumph. With pitiful support and no major financial backing, Bassett had fashioned a side that would be playing top flight football within two years.
“Harry put together a bit of a Dirty Dozen,” club captain Gary Peters explained. “He went and got people other clubs did not want or avoided at all costs but they had character and fighting spirit. They had maybe had a falling out at other places but he gave them another chance. What he produced was unbelievable. I don’t think anyone knew what he was going to produce but it turned out to be one of the roughest, toughest, craziest teams that has ever been put together.”
Wimbledon: Beasant, Peters, Winterburn, Galliers, Morris, Hatter, Evans, Ketteridge, Cork, Gage, Hodges.
Dons v Red Imps (1980 to 2019)
|
Season |
Comp |
H |
A |
|
1980-81 |
Div 4 |
0-1 |
0-0 |
|
1981-82 |
Div 3 |
1-1 |
1-5 |
|
1983-84 |
Div 3 |
3-1 |
2-1 |
|
2017-18 |
FAC1 |
1-0 |
|
|
2019-20 |
Lge1 |
1-1 |
|
|
Total W3 D3 L2 |
|||
This series is written by Stephen Crabtree, the editor of the Historical Don. To sample a copy contact him at stephecrab@aol.com .