David Holdsworth’s barmy army!

That’s a chant you won’t have heard before, unless you were at the Bescot Stadium last night. I don’t think I can remember an incoming manager who received less benefit of the doubt from the supporters. Downright hostility might have been an apposite description of the reception David Holdsworth was afforded. Viewed as the stooge of an unpopular chairman his first two tasks were to keep the club in the division, this was achieved, just, and to slash the wage bill and slash it again this season.


My main beef with the club was the negative publicity which I was convinced contributed to the catastrophic reduction in the numbers attending home games. Even with a struggling team fans do not want to hear about the many problems affecting a club. They’ve got problems of their own. They want to hear that their club are working hard to make things better, that rosier times will follow. We heard little of that.

Nevertheless, it was becoming apparent some time ago that Lincoln City’s fortunes were about to improve. The loss at home to Luton was, in fact a good performance. The team had not yet learned how to capitalise on good periods of play but they now seem to have fully embraced David Holdsworth’s philosophy and are turning good play into wins. I’ve been critical but I’m also happy that things are, at long last, starting to improve. I’m happy for Holdsworth, I’m happy for Bob Dorrian. The pair have had to listen to an almost untrammelled tirade of criticism and even accusations of dishonesty in Dorrian’s case. They’ve carried on regardless doing what they think is right. Neither have been blameless, who is? The major problem, for me was the appointment of Steve Tilson but who amongst us can say they disagreed with that? I can’t.

I’m happy for the players, it can’t have been easy being booed off virtually every home game but above all I’m happy for us, the supporters. It’s been a tough old road but now is the time for us to do our bit. The next stage in the rehabilitation process is for gates to return to something like what they were and for the club to be self supporting. We can’t expect the chairman and others to keep putting their hands in their pockets and it’s not a good future for the club to be reliant on people who have every right to walk away. Look what is happening at Gainsborough.

So I’m asking, if you read this blog and you’ve stopped going to home games, give your club another chance, you’ll notice a big difference.

Of course, as night follows day all good runs have to end some time and City are at home this weekend in a winnable mid table game. If that’s not a recipe for disaster I don’t know what is.