It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

Particularly if Lincoln City manage to grab the points against Tranmere tomorrow. I don’t know about you but I find myself wishing the days away to the next fixture and they don’t come much bigger than this. There should be another old time gate to greet the teams onto the pitch for what we hope will be a cracker. (Did you see what I did there?)

Christmas goodwill was certainly not on the agenda from the FA in their dealings with the delayed Trophy match, originally with Shaw Lane but now with Nantwich. This rather slipped under the radar for me, I was awaiting an announcement and I only checked the website yesterday to see what was what and saw that the tie had been awarded to Nantwich. It did seem to me having read Shaw Lanes statement on their website they went a long way towards acquitting themselves and could at least have been given another crack at the original match and then the winners of that would play the Imps. Perhaps the FA have their minds elsewhere.

We’ve also had the announcement of more televised games for City. With all these channels looking for good exciting matches the Imps certainly seem to have caught the eye of the media people as well they might.

We had a bit of a pause for breath but all that is now at an end as we anticipate a busy Christmas and New Year period. With City yet to start the Trophy campaign which, minor inconvenience it may be nevertheless will be something the management team at Sincil Bank will surely target as a winnable aspiration and City still in the FA Cup and in the thick of it at the top of the league, club and fans alike will be looking forward to the next few weeks with relish.

Christmas comes but once a year and this one, well, see above.