History of Lincoln United F.C.

Lincoln United Football Club began life as Lincoln Amateurs in 1938, just one year before the outbreak of World War Two, and were admitted to the Lincoln League.

By 1951 the club was in a more stable position financially, so much so, that they were able to sign Ray Bean from Football League side Nottingham Forest, offering him a wage of five shillings which was equivalent to twenty-five pence a week.

Name change
However, this action meant that Lincoln Amateurs were no longer amateurs so a name change was required. The obvious choice of Lincoln City had already been taken in 1882 so on a trip to play Sleaford the player’s swapped ideas. It became a straight choice between Lincoln United or Lincoln Rangers; the vote went to Lincoln United.

Lincoln United were also readmitted to the Lincolnshire League as they could now afford to travel further a field to their away games. It was in the Lincolnshire League that they won their first honours of the Lincolnshire League Championship and Lincolnshire Senior "B" Cup in the 1963/4 season; effectively this was a league and cup double. Three years later, United had out grown the Lincolnshire League so they withdrew to join the Yorkshire League where better opposition awaited them. Once again United completed a league and cup double, this time in Yorkshire during the 1970/71 season.

A variety of leagues followed including being among the founder members of both the Northern Counties East League and the Central Midlands League.

Free transfer and FA Cup 1st Round
During the 1987/88 season a strange decision was made by neighbours Lincoln City, they decided to give their striker Tony Simmons a free transfer. Possibly even more surprising was that the ex-Rotherham and Queens Park Rangers player Simmons joined Lincoln United.

Without a doubt this was the most important and influential signing ever made by United, as Simmons' goals were the catalyst for the success of the next seven years. The goals and class of Simmons helped the club to three promotions in four years though the team was nowhere near a one-man show.

The glory trail began in the 1990/91 campaign when the Central Midlands League's Wakefield Cup was added to the trophy cabinet. Next in was the Central Midlands Supreme Divisional Championship in 1991/2, it was also during this season that United reached the FA Cup First Round Proper but lost 0-7 away to Huddersfield Town; still, the players enjoyed the day and were featured on BBC's Match Of The Day programme. Promotion followed to the Northern Counties Eastern Division One where they won the title at their first attempt in 1992/3.

Unibond Division One
The Club missed out on a third successive promotion in 1993/4 and instead United had to wait another season before winning the Northern Counties Premier Division. This granted the Whites entry to the Unibond Division One. In their first and second seasons in their new divisions they finished third. At the time, the top two teams only were promoted hence United suffered heartbreak, though not worse than in their second season when they again missed out, this time by goal difference.

As a new century dawned, the dream of reaching the Unibond Premier Division and subsequently the Football Conference was placed on hold. In January 2000, manager John Wilkinson, who had steered the club through their recent success and near misses, quit to join local rivals Grantham Town.

Departure
The departure of Wilkinson and the players coincided with the resignation of the chairman. So in January 2000 a depleted club existed at Ashby Avenue; Peter Doyle was appointed as the new chairman and he in turn immediately appointed ex-Sheffield Wednesday player Ian Musson as manager. It was simply a case of making it to the end of the season as best they could, fortunately relegation was not a possibility.

A new era dawned for the club, however the 2000/01 season that had promised much got off to a bad start. Ultimately it was Musson who paid the penalty by receiving the sack in November 2000. In Musson's place came former manager Allen Crombie as caretaker manager before being given the post on a permanent basis.

The 2000/01 season seemingly saw Lincoln United progress towards the fulfillment of their desire to make United a senior non-league side in the Conference division. The club has in place a good youth structure which has already seen their players reach the later stages of the FA Youth Cup plus various players have attracted attention from Football League clubs. October 2000 also saw the opening of the club's official web site.

Season of change
A year later and the 2001/02 season proved a season of change and disappointment. Optimistically several new players arrived at the club during the summer of 2001 with Lincoln targeting the UniBond Division play-offs, however that failed to materialise.

At the beginning of the new year, 2002, Lincoln found themselves without a chairman and a manager after Doyle and Crombie resigned. Robin Taylor took over as Chairman and, in January 2002, former manager Gary Goddard resumed control but by now several of Lincoln's summer signings had quit the club. A relegation fight loomed, however Goddard succeeded in stabilising Lincoln United's 2001/02 season and began to rebuild the squad.

Lincoln United began the 2002/03 season with a series of high-profiled friendlies, including fixtures against Hull City and Lincoln City.

Goddard pulled off a coup as he continued to build a "Lincoln side for Lincoln United", with the announcement that Jason Barnett had signed following his release from Lincoln City.

By October 2002, Lincoln were in the top five and seemingly heading for the play-offs at the very least but disappointingly finished the season on a run of 14 games without a victory.

Target
Within weeks of the 2002/03 season ending, Goddard quit. Coincidentally, a few days later, Grantham Town were also looking for a new manager following the resignation of John Wilkinson. As expected, in late May 2003, Wilkinson was appointed as Lincoln United's new manager, setting the target of a high final Division One placing as his goal, in a season when the whole non-league pyramid would be restructured.

Wilkinson set about rebuilding the side including the notable signings of Gary Bull and Mark Hone as well as a number of former Grantham Town players, some of whom had played under Wilkinson in his first spell as United Manager.

The season went well, with United finishing fourth and collecting the Unibond Fair Play Award for the Division. As a result of their league position, United moved into the restructured Unibond Premier Division. It was United's highest finish since 1998.

Seasons 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 saw United struggle to consolidate their position in the Premier League and last season, only a victory on the final day of the season ensured their safety.

However, the season finished on a bright note when United beat Brigg Town to win the Lincolnshire FA Senior Shield.

Mid table finish and major change
Last season started brightly and the re-signing of goalkeeper Mario Ziccardi from Grantham Town was a major boost. However, despite a mid table finish, the season ended disappointingly with three successive defeats. John Wilkinson left the club by mutual agreement at the end of the season to re-join Grantham Town.

United quickly appointed former Hucknall Town Manager John Ramshaw to replace Wilkinson and he set about totally rebuilding the squad. One of his first appointments was to sign former United player Chris White as his assistant.

With the majority of last years side having followed John Wilkinson to Grantham, many of the new players came from outside the Lincoln area and included Ben Scott from Ilkeston and Justin Jenkins from Hednesford Town.  In fact, of the previous seasons team only four players remained.

The season started well with an opening day victory over promotion favourites Witton Albion and impressive away wins followed at Prescott Cables,Ilkeston and Ashton.

However, by the beginning of October the club was in decline and saw the departure of a number of players including fans favourite Alex Rodman to neighbours Gainsborough Trinity.  A run of only one win in eleven games saw the departure of John Ramshaw and his assistant Chris White was put in temporary charge.  White was unable to arrest the decline and after taking just one point from a possible fifteen available, he was replaced by former Retford boss Mark Shaw.

He was given the task of rebuilding the team and there were a number of key departures from Ashby Avenue including Ben Scott to Hednesford.  Amongst Shaw’s first signings were former Scarborough keeper Leigh Walker, Nathan Swindells, Joel Burks and Scott Brough.  Brough’s previous clubs included Scunthorpe United where he played 57 games and scored 3 goals.

Despite Shaw’s best efforts, he was unable to turn the situation around and the Whites suffered their first relegation since the 1978/79 season.

New Beginning
At the end of the season Mark Shaw was dismissed by the club and reserve team manager, Seamus Lawless was appointed in his place.

Seamus was keen to refocus the club with the acquisition of more locally based players and some of the first signings saw the return of familiar faces to Ashby Avenue including Mario Ziccardi, Brendan McDaid, Sam Wilkinson and Ian Wilkins. From the previous seasons campaign only long serving Gary Walters, Gio Carchedi and Tom Mallinson remained.