At a loss to understand.

They say one swallow doesn’t make a summer and by the same token a few days without spotting said bird doesn’t necessarily mean winter’s here.

It seems a bit of a memory now but when Lincoln City got off to a flyer this season almost the one voice refusing to get over excited was that of City’s manager Gary Simpson.

Hopefully you’ll still be with me what with talk of swallows and summer but the point is the good weather is now a memory as is the Imps blistering start to the season. Gary Simpson, gentleman that he is, has refused to say, as far as I’m aware, I told you so in fact he’s too busy defending himself from the Championship Manager honed armchair critics who think he’s nowhere near as good as they would be in his role.

Hopefully this weekend’s game will provide relief from the depressing recent form which has seen City’s bandwagon well and truly in the lay-by. A cup run of any dimensions will produce much needed funds for the cause but conversely an early exit from the FA Cup will see those critics shouting ever more loudly.

Personally, I’m at a loss to understand why the manager is coming under close scrutiny so early in his tenure of office. Sure, the recent form has been poor but the terrace pundits have questioned the manager’s tactics. Really? I pay my money and somebody else winds the team up, I’d be hopeless at managing and I suspect many of the armchair sages would too but of course they don’t have to demonstrate their skill, it’s the boss who takes the flack and he’s certainly doing that at the moment.

Talking of funds I see we’ve signed a striker, Marlon Jackson who, at 5’ 11” is not the target man we were chasing, I guess but quite clearly finishing is where we are falling down if I read the managers thoughts correctly and I would tend to agree with that.

City’s fortunes in the FA Cup have been slightly better of late, they could barely get much worse but let’s all hope that we’re still in the hat come 5 tomorrow to give us all a bit of relief, both from the football and the weather.