There’s a kind of hush all over the world (of Lincoln City)

Quiet isn’t it? Both Lincoln City and Mansfield Town who meet this weekend in the FA Cup, second round, a match being well and truly drummed up by the press what with red wigs and all, have suffered similar fates lately. Both are on parallel trajectories, good unbeaten runs followed by fairly ignominious exits from the FA Trophy to lower league opposition. Both clubs will have wanted to and been expected to progress in that competition given that they are both in good form at the moment and are amongst the most senior clubs in the competition. Both can now concentrate on the, er, cup.


For both clubs the FA Cup represents a good chance to do some rebuilding of balance sheets and no club budgets for doing anything at all in the FA Cup, not at our level anyway, so Saturday represents an unexpected windfall, especially when you consider City’s dire record in it. Both clubs have been holed beneath the waterline by relegation but at least they are showing some signs of regaining their buoyancy just to continue the watery analogy a bit further.

The good thing about the defeat to Tamworth (if there is one) is that expectation levels are brought slightly more into focus with the realisation that, even on their present good run, the Imps are beatable so it’s certainly not a case of simply showing up, not that the manager would tolerate such chutzpah. Having said that the mood I detect from fellow fans is that City slightly have the edge over their local rivals. Try telling that to Stags though.

Talking of the manager, not too long ago David Holdsworth could have expected a good verbal kicking from Mansfield fans with the City faithful not far behind but Holdsworth has enjoyed something of a reappraisal in the supporters mind of late even to the extent of a bit of David Holdsworth’s barmy army being heard now and again. This must be a very welcome turn of fortune for the former Stags boss and he can surely look forward to a very positive reception from home fans even given the defeat at Tamworth which was largely not laid at the managers door by the supporters who understood the need to keep our big guns in good order for this clash.

So, we enter the last few hours and there’s a sort of lull before the storm as surely it will be with Mansfield getting through their initial allocation of tickets in no time and are now into the second tranche of tickets. City fans too are starting to rediscover the joys of supporting their local club. We can but hope that the biggest gate of the season so far will be at Sincil Bank come Saturday to see if the Imps can progress at the expense of the Stags. Don’t forget it’s a one o’clock kick off so you can get your Christmas shopping started afterwards. What’s not to like?