No quarter given or asked.

Thursdays build up article now on Lincoln Vitals. Things seem a little calmer on the Lincoln City front and a name from the recent past re emerges.

It came as quite a surprise to realise that we are more than a quarter of the way through the season and City sit uneasily in 19^th place in the division. Three defeats, one draw and two wins does, one supposes represent a miniscule recovery in form but, extrapolated over a whole season an almost certain relegation on the evidence of the first six fixtures has now been replaced by a suggestion that the Imps might collapse over the line with one or two points to spare. How inspiring.

The week in Impdom has been enlivened not only by Steve Tilson getting a bit shirty with the local media but more interestingly, the publication of Chris Suttons autobiography “Paradise and Beyond”. Presumably we’re in the beyond section. No doubt a lot of supporters will be adding this tome to their Santa’s list in the hope of learning more about, particularly, Suttons departure from the club which until now had remained shrouded in mystery although anyone with a red and white affliction will be aware that City’s long and not always distinguished history is littered with financial woes so it’s really no surprise to hear tales of inadequacy on the budget front and moved goalposts, if you’ll forgive the football metaphor, when it came to stumping up the proceeds of our magnificent cup runs.

There are those amongst the fan base who cannot bear to hear the name of our former supremo let alone boost his pension pot but there will be many, this writer included, who will want to see for themselves what one might suppose to be fairly uncomfortable reading for our present board of directors if the tempting titbits thrown to us by the Lincolnshire Echo are anything to go by. We all read, after the resignation, that Sutton was begged to stay by the chairman. Now we hear Sutton claim that said chairman, having blamed the former Celtic and Blackburn goal machine for relegation also stated that had he stayed then the club would have avoided the drop. Of rather more pertinence we also learn that the club have been attempting to sue their former boss. Curioser and curioser. Can’t wait to find out what that’s all about.

To the present now and Chris Sutton used to have a favourite saying, we are where we are. Well where we are is perched precariously above the relegation places. Tamworth are next and the good news is that they have Patrick Kanyuka in their ranks. This is balanced by the bad news, they also have Paul Green, pronounced surplus to requirements by the Imps so no clean sheet there then. After that Alfreton, glimmer of hope and away too, followed by Fleetwood. Hope abandoned. So much for us being everyone else’s cup final.