An appointment with destiny

For the writer the start of a new season offers up plenty of cliché’s to kick start the keyboard after a few weeks inactivity, new dawn, new era, change of direction etc etc but for Lincoln City and their long suffering supporters it really is a case of into the unknown despite the fact that non league is hardly uncharted territory. Even before our inaugural descent from league football at the first opportunity presented by automatic relegation and promotion, City had been dumped out of first class football before. The fact of the matter is that none of us have much idea how the season will pan out and the great fear is that the descent that, in truth started some seasons ago will continue and further humiliations will beset us.

To make matters worse, the Imps did not enjoy any tangible success from those relatively good times engineered out of adversity by the late great Keith Alexander apart from two play off final appearances and, perhaps more importantly the sort of attendances that some of us thought were gone forever. At least that interest from the wider football community of Lincoln and the surrounding area gives hope that there is still a desire locally for good quality professional football at Sincil Bank (or elsewhere if we dare say that). The gate for the final ignominious game last season showed that, even after the season we endured, an appetite was there from supporters who had largely given up on the team.

Maybe, as was the case with Keith, our management duo will emerge as men of the moment, cometh the hour cometh the men as it were, after all Keith was not a rip roaring success at the first time of asking. It’s not unfair comment to say that last season really could and should not have ended the way it did. Muddled direction and poor man management at least contributed to the debacle as did a lack of supervision and drive at boardroom level. To virtually tell a team that they were not good enough and to largely replace them and then, effectively have to rely on those same players to try to rescue the season at the death is simply no way to run a football club and fans would hope that lessons have been learned. The fact that, particularly, the season ending injury sustained by Delroy Facey when he was in his pomp and loan players being recalled blew the ship well off course is really no excuse. Should a club averaging over 5000 attendances just a few seasons ago really have been so dependant on loan players? As we found out clubs loaning out players will do with them as they wish, they pay the wages after all but having said that this supporter will perhaps not regard Sunderland FC with quite the same affection as previously.

So where do we go from here? Well pre season has produced a mixed bag. This correspondent has only witnessed the County Cup final so far but that game seemed to continue where we left off. A match that was eminently winnable, in this writer’s humble opinion. Having gone behind to a sloppy goal City then got well in contention. That in itself was a welcome improvement but then, after a reshuffle of the team we had the now customary capitulation at the end, not only to let the lead slip but to lose the tie. The manager was clearly relaxed about the outcome and will no doubt say that he was using the fixture as a further pre season friendly but fans might have hoped that the management would have understood that for a club with such a paucity of success in knockout competitions to see the captain raise the cup at the end might have made a nice change for the supporters particularly as the opposition was our dear neighbours.

It’s not all doom and gloom. The club have clearly signed some talented players who we hope will entertain us in the months to come. For this correspondent the capture of Josh Gowling was a most welcome surprise and other fans who have seen more of the team will point to others. If the players can get off to a good start the Lincolnshire public have shown that they are still interested and hopefully good attendances might convince the board that the boat could be pushed out a little further if there are prizes to be won. That would make a pleasant change too.

Enjoy the season.