The Imps get their man

So why don’t I feel all that excited?

This is an article from yesterdays Vitals. I do have to say having heard David Holdsworth for my self now I'm a good deal more confident. More later.

There are those, usually glass half empty merchants who will wish you good luck. Then add the words-you’ll need it. That seems to be the sentiment amongst fans at the moment following the appointment of David Holdsworth as manager. Relief that City have a manager, a decent pedigree if you don’t look into it all that closely. A feeling that things can’t be as bad as they’ve been (can they?) and the thought that at least something has been done to arrest the slide.


The City board have made all the right noises, the contract is for the remainder of the season, the club were unwilling/unable to poach someone else’s coach but what we have ended up with is a manager who has nothing to lose. He was out of work, but now he has a job, to the end of the season. It’s a bit like being given an afternoon’s gardening work. A nice bit of beer money and you don’t have to tackle that enormous hedge. Even the announcement on the web site is just nine lines and no press conference. Maybe the appointment of a new manager at Sincil Bank is no big deal anymore.

Having said the above there won’t be a Lincoln City fan who does not hope and wish that David has a long and successful stay in the hot seat. It’s just this writer can’t help but recall that story about a driver who stops to ask for directions and is told, if I were you, I wouldn’t have started from here. There have been times when an incoming manager could have told himself that here is a great opportunity at a well run club to advance the standing of the club and at the same time the manager. It just doesn’t feel like that this time. Bob Dorrian, ever the publicist said, in the run up to the appointment that Lincoln City had no luck in the last fifty years and were due some. Bit hard on Graham Taylor and Colin Murphy who older readers will recall got the club within an ace of the championship. Both those era’s essentially fell to City’s Achilles heel, money. Somehow there’s never quite enough.

Almost 8000 fans at Sincil Bank to try to will the team to survival last May will give more than enough reassurance to the incoming manager that there are enough football fans in the Lincoln area who would rather be at Sincil Bank cheering on a successful side than elsewhere. Few of those fans thought we would be here in October fighting another relegation battle so there is no hard act to follow.

All that remains then is to wish David Holdsworth a lengthy and enjoyable stay. Oh and good luck-you’ll need it.