What went wrong with Buckley?

By Nathan Jackson
December 13 2006

Former boss Alan Buckley has revealed why he didn't have a successful spell at City back in the early part of the century. Buckley saved the Imps from relegation by winning his first 3 games but the Imps struggled in the following season, finishing a disappointing 22nd.

Buckley's first 3 games for City started with a 3-2 win at Mansfield, City's first away win in nearly a year, the second came with a 3-1 win at Kidderminster before beating eventual promotees, Cardiff City and although it took a long time to mathematically secure relegation, Buckley saved the Imps after Phil Stant had almost got us relegated to the conference. He then brought in several of his former players including Kingsley Black, Alan's son Adam, and Ian Hamilton, as well as bringing in young centre back Paul Morgan from Preston and eventually, Northwich's Mark Bailey. He also brought in former Imp, Keith Alexander as he assistant.

2001/2 turned out to be a bad time to be an Imps as City finished 22nd, with only Bristol Rovers seperating them from relegated Halifax, back in the days when there was only 1 relegation space. The collapse of ITV Digital meant that City went into administration and that inevitably saw him leave the Imps just days after City's 1-1 draw at Hull.

Speaking to Grimsby's "Mariner's World", Buckley blamed the financial position for no being successful at Sincil Bank. "At Lincoln, I went there and they were going to get relegated to the conference, we stayed up really quickly. The following season they allowed a budget to operate within, but that budget was taking into account the ITV money and basically after about 2 months, they couldn’t pay the wages of the players and it didn’t make a happy camp, we had to get a loan from the PFA and there was the transfer embargo."

When replying to a question about promising Grimsby youngster, Peter Bore, he explained that he had left him out of the squad because he hadn't done well enough in training, also comically claiming that he didn't, and never did have any "favourites!" Something that Lincoln fans can laugh at as several former Imps players seemed virtually guaranteed of a first team place.

Buckley has only returned to Sincil Bank once since leaving in 2002 and that came in September 2003 when he brought his Rochdale side to Lincoln. Marcus Richardson equalised for the Imps just minutes after Marriott's mistake had gifted Mikael Antoine Curier a very soft goal.