For the beginning of the 1989-90 season we had parted company with our sponsor ERA, and a new badge had been designed at Moorprint, Lincoln. and has since been slightly altered & updated by Pete. We still wore the blue strip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

Andy Mand had put us through a great pre season on the training front,  while on the playing side, there were a few new signings  Ady Potter & Stewart Locke, both midfielders, and a big feller, who sported big  Y-Fronts........Michael Reynolds........... Big Mick !!

 

We played six pre-season friendlies and were unbeaten in all, to start, a 2-1 win over Lincoln Utd, with Mick scoring on his debut. A  5-1 win over Wildlife Res. 6-1 at Welton,  a 2-2 draw at Welbourn,  a 2-1 win over Greenbank and a 5-1 win over Jollies at Wrawby. So all boded well for the forthcoming season.

So a home game to start against FV Jerusalem, and a new 4-3-3 formation, Sutty in goal, Jamie, Dave A, Mark & Maz at the back, Pete, Noel & Ady Pott in the middle with Mick & Simon up front, Stewart & Ady Coy being the two subs,  we had a fine 4-0 victory with a Simon Coy hat trick and Mick scoring the other. Next up were Plough Nettleham in the preliminary round of the Ron Eaglen, and already one of our young stars, Jamie Smith, had put in a transfer request to join up with Andy Allsop at the Wild Life,  luckily we had an able replacement at right back in the form of Locky  (Neil Lockwood).  We won by the same score as the week before, 4-0, goals from Maz, S. Locke, A. Potter and Simon.

On the 8th October we played Gatehouse at home in the league, at the break it was one a piece, then we rattled in six in the second period, Noel & Mick getting one each, then  supersub Ady Coy nabbing 2, but yet another hat trick from the on fire Simon Coy, giving us a great 7-1 victory. The following week we rode our luck in a 1-1 draw at home to Woodhall Spa, with an own goal giving us a share of the spoils. The 2nd round of the Ron Eaglen took us to Waddington Utd from the 2nd Division, and a Noel Slattery goal was not enough to see us through, as we stumbled to our first defeat of the season, 3-1. The following week in the league, we continued in the same vane, as we lost 4-1 at Woodhall with Pete scoring our consolation goal. On November 19th we got back into winning ways , as goals from Mick and two rarities from Dave A. gave us a 3-2 win over Butcher & Beast.

So into December, and the usual Hartsholme Christmas period slump, firstly losing 3-2 at Branston, Mick & Balfey the scorers, a 0-0 draw at home to St Hughs, in which Mark Edens picked up an injury which would see him miss the next 5 games, and into the 1990's with a 3-2 defeat at Aubourn with Maz starring at centre half and a first appearance of the season for Rick Skinner at left back, Pete & Ady Pott the scorers. This game was remembered because there were 5 disallowed goals, three for Aubourn, two for us and Aubourn hit the woodwork three times!!

In a friendly on 14th January against Tritton Rangers, we had a new acquisition to the squad, in the form of Patrick Coates a young goalkeeper, to challenge Sutty for the No.1 jersey. It was great having two good goalkeepers, but it was very hard to choose which one would play, a bit like England's dilemma with Clemence & Shilton !!

The next league game we lost 2-0 at William Farr, and on the 28th January, Pat made his debut in a 5-0 revenge win over Aubourn, an Ady Coy pen, one from Mick & a hat trick for Ady Pott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But Pat's clean sheets came to an end at George & Dragon the following week as we lost 4-1, Pete getting our only goal. So at the mid season point were just below halfway.

 

Sutty returned to goal away at FV Jerusalem, but again we were on the wrong end of a 3-2 scoreline,  Ady Coy getting both goals. We got back to winning ways the following week with goals from Stewart Locke, Dave A & Pete as we beat George & dragon 3-2 down on the Hartsholme. As we had no game the following week (11th March) we arranged  a friendly away at Aubourn, but sadly, this proved a mistake as we lost the services of one of our best players during this season, as Maz suffered a broken leg in a freak incident.

 Into March, and an afternoon kick off at home to high flying Branston, resulted in a 3-0 defeat. Pat returned once more, away at Gatehouse, where we notched up four goals in the first half, but after clawing their way back with three in reply, we ran out 6-3 winners, Stewart, Pete, Simon, Ady Coy & 2 from Mick.

Into April and two successive games against Green Barrel, both ending in 1-1 draws, Simon scoring in the first & Balfey in the second game. We then were heavily beaten by table toppers St Hughs, 4-1, Stewart scoring our penalty, then another mini revival as we hammered William Farr 5-2 at home, Dave A, Stewart and a Reynolds hat trick, but ended the season in our final game with a 3-1 defeat at Butcher & Beast, Simon getting the consolation goal.

After such a great pre season, our overall perfomances were poor, and we finished some way off the leading two, once again inconsistent form had proved our downfall, this mirrored the 88/89 season as we lost 9 games for the second season running, but this time having played four games less.