Enigma with too many variations.

You certainly couldn’t complain of not getting value for money yesterday at the 12th Imp Sincil Bank Stadium. For a start there were two different Lincoln City’s on display. The first, decent, hardworking, finding their men and bettering their, for this level, illustrious opponents.

Then there was the City that appeared after the break, half asleep, incoherent, not appearing too bothered to be honest. Then, the former team started to reappear as Stockport County first equalised and then took the lead, twice, and the home team woke up to the fact that there were points to be taken. City didn’t deserve to lose this match, a sentiment to be heard amongst us old fogies of the Lincolnshire Echo Stand, yet it looked as if that was going to be the outcome. City certainly didn’t deserve to be booed off (again) either and that would have been a predictable outcome too, such is the disenchantment with the club felt by the fans.

As it happens the Imps valiantly pressed on, refusing to give up, a trait that will have heartened the ever dwindling home support and, predictably, if anyone was to break the Hatters hearts and gladden those of Imps, it was Jamie Taylor who provided the finish. Earlier it was Taylor who initially broke the deadlock with a deft headed goal from the not always fully appreciated Jake Sheridan’s cross, as good a goal as you will see, certainly in the lower echelons of the football pyramid. An excellent free kick from John Nutter to savour too in this end to end encounter.

So what does all this tell us, are City improving? Well, the Imps are now five games undefeated which can’t be bad, they went into injury time needing a goal to draw and got one, that can’t be bad either, their goalscoring is good but on the minus side, conceded three goals having looked so solid in the first half. One other big bonus is the scoring exploits of Jamie Taylor, a major plus. Will he still be here at Christmas? Well now more than ever City are a selling club and if a decent fee is offered and that keeps the show on the road, so be it. Our much maligned manager can take credit for unearthing this particular diamond.

On the subject of the manager, is David Holdsworth any good? One thing is for certain, Lincoln City cannot go on sacking managers in the hope that they will stumble on the right one eventually. That is the tactic that has got us in the mess we are in, in my humble opinion. On the other hand, again, only in my opinion, the sign of a good manager is that he can change the teams prospects with a good substitution or with the benefit of the half time break, whether that be with the aid of the proverbial hairdryer or a more subtle approach. No sign of that yesterday when the team went in at half time looking like Barcelona and came out more like Bardney B. No noticeable improvement after the substitutions either so we await further enlightenment.

Delighted as we must all have been with that late late show, it’s a salutary thought that City are still bumping about with the stiffs at the bottom of the league and drawing at home is relegation form. Still, it’s the cup next and we’re really good at that aren’t we?