City plot a tried but not very tested route.

I don’t know whether you watched the Class of 92 programme on TV last night, I suspect a lot of football fans did. It is the story of how the Neville brothers, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes took over Salford City. A very good watch I thought too and although they are lower down the pyramid than City, some parallels to be drawn.

I’ve said before in this blog I claim no tactical nouse at all but some things were said in the programme that I’m sure I must have mentioned in connection with the Imps and our ever elusive quest for some success.

The first was from the mouth of Ryan Giggs and he was describing the aura they had at Manchester United and one word he used was togetherness. He stated that this was needed by a club at whatever level they played and I heartily agree. I don’t think it’s being too fanciful but I believe we now have this at Sincil Bank and to underline this I quote a tweet Liam Hearn put out after the Tranmere game:-

“Having big Rheady to play off is an absolute pleasure, unsung hero! Another solid team performance #imps”

This did not go unnoticed by the fans who retweeted it successively. Like me I suspect they were delighted to read such an expression of team harmony.

The other thing that stood out for me last night was a comment Gary Neville said repeatedly and that was that his side did not appear to be a coached team. How many times have we sat at Sincil Bank and wondered what the players did all week as they give every appearance of having just met. I don’t get that impression with this team.

I’m not going to go on about it but there were some of us who would have dispensed with Chris Moyses services at the end of last season. I’m not one of them although I’ll cheerfully admit that I thought it was a leap into the unknown when he was put in charge of the team. There again the same could be said when Graham Taylor was made manager and Keith Alexander and we all know what happened after those appointments.

Unfortunately City have rarely managed to repeat those two inspired engagements but maybe, just maybe we may be on the right lines again.

So to this coming weekend’s fixture and another close encounter in prospect as our opponents Bromley sit right next to us in the table. I think it’s fair to say we’re all feeling quite confident about City’s chances at home at the moment but as another successful if ultimately doomed manager, John Beck used to say all teams will have a bad spell no matter how positive the season. There’s no getting away from that and it’s how you deal with it that can be the difference between success and failure.