Andrew Abbott's Blog

Monday 24 January 2011

Difficult times at Lincoln

The club are trying to pull together but it's not easy.

The average Lincoln City fan would like to be humming things can only get better but down down deeper and down keeps popping into mind. It's not nice being bottom of the entire league but that's where city find themselves and over the next few weeks we will certainly find out what the players are made of and whether the management has what it takes to get the Imps out of the trouble they are in. There are games in hand but they are not much use if the team are losing every week which is the way it is at the moment and that cycle needs breaking as soon as possible.

For the record it seems that the management are not getting the blame for the situation Lincoln find themselves in, the board of directors and former management, rightly or wrongly, are but in reality it is a series of situations coming together that have led to reduced income and, as night follows day, poorer team performance which leads to lower gates and income reducing still further. There are no knights in shining armour to come to the rescue and, unfortunately, the players start to come in for some stick, some more than others and this correspondent is not going to make matters worse by naming names, suffice it to say that the team probably prefer to play away this weekend where only the most committed and therefore the most understanding fans will be in attendance. Say what you like about Lincoln's support they are at their best at away venues and can usually be relied upon to be city's 12th man. They're going to need them.

Attracting investment in to the club isn't easy though, particularly in these straightened times. Vice Chairman Chris Travers;

"We've begun to focus more on local interest where I think we've got a better chance of success.
"We need to attract more investment in the club and I think the best way to do that is to attract it locally."
He added: "I think anyone who would want to invest in a club like ours would have to have a vested interest or a love of the club, the city or the county and would want to put something back into it.
"We need investment at every level. The board of directors are also fans and we've been able to invest in the club to a certain extent, but we're not in a position to make an investment at a level which would make a significant change."

Travers was brutally frank about the current situation.

"We have to provide a reason for supporters to come and watch us but at the moment we're not, and there's no point in pretending otherwise," he said.

We haven't been giving the public what they deserve. We have to stabilise things to the end of the season, and I believe Steve Tilson and Paul Brush will then build a squad and a team next year which will excite the fans."

"We have to look at every possibility. We are still talking to people abroad and we will talk to anyone who will bring investment to the club on the right basis.
"If that means relinquishing control of the club, for the right reasons and to the right people, I have no problem with that."

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