The long and winding road

I'm no different to anybody else, I have no idea how David Holdsworth will do as Lincoln City's manager and that includes the man himself. I do wish him all the very best of luck though as I have done all the managers. I've been keeping this blog for a bit over a year and this is our third manager, the fifth if you count caretaker managers. Five managers in just over a year!

It would be tempting to lay the blame at the boards door as they do the interviewing but the truth of the matter is the overriding difficulty in trying to bring success to Lincoln City is money. We've never had enough.

There are weathy people in Lincolnshire but it has never been possible to persuade them to invest heavily in the team so we languish, now even further down the football heirarchy. In my view we have to think the unthinkable and if Sincil Bank cannot be redeveloped to produce sufficient income to fund a top flight football team then we should consider moving.

A friend recently visited Carrow Road, home of Norwich City and he told me that it was a hive of commercial activity, on a Wednesday. That activity helps fund a Premiership team. Norwich are the club I think City could become if we have the right business model. Norwich is very similar to Lincoln and not a lot bigger yet the fans there are fervent and fill the stadium, they really relate to the Canaries all over Norfolk. Surely we could do the same?

Enough of my day dreams. Here is the article:-

The long and winding road.


That hopefully won’t lead to the trapdoor.



We now know he can talk the talk, what we need to know is can he do the other thing. David Holdsworth has started his reign with a charm offensive with the local media, they seem to have taken to him and we have even seen him on the TV, although that was arranged before his appointment as manager of Lincoln City. We all now need to get down to business and where better than Alfreton where the team came away with the spoils just a couple of weeks ago.

Holdsworth held his first formal press conference alongside a largely mute Bob Dorrian, perhaps a more apt expression might be held court and Dorrian looked pleased to not be taking the limelight and bore the look of a man who might just have cracked it this time. You might say to yourself about time too. Organisation, fight ,passion, those were the qualities the manager outlined and another word he’s used more than once in the context of his new job is method. Does that sound a little like John Beck? Don’t be scared, he did virtually get us promoted and he came into the club with the team in an equally parlous state and produced a renaissance in that side we’re going to need if nerves are to be calmed. Those travelling to Alfreton will get an early taste of the style the manager wishes to play. It’s not expected to be pretty which is what a lot of fans have been calling for.

The aim this season is not to be relegated, the club will be reorganised internally, the new manager stating that he expects it to be of a higher standard. Holdsworth also spoke of loosening the noose of negativity around the club. Did he have a prepared script? If not and it was off the cuff it was mightily impressive. He was far too polite to say but it’s quite clear Holdsworth regards the collapse of this clubs standing as shocking. The eloquence of Jackson and the determination and organisation of Taylor. There is nothing about this man which is remotely redolent of the previous manager. There’s an endorsement if ever there was one.

Describing the treatment room as Butlins, players will be “encouraged” to get fit and stay available for selection, all this with a wry smile that any players considering a sickie will do well to note. Holdsworth put in words what we fans have known for a long time, things at Sincil Bank have got to change if we are to arrest the inexorable slide that has become established. Whether this is the man to do it, time will tell but in the meantime we all wish him well.