Half time.

No one who was at the recent league match between Lincoln City and York City at Sincil Bank recently would be under any illusions that this was going to be any easy progression to Wembley and this morning the possibility of the Imps playing at the national stadium may seem as remote as ever. The temptation as we all returned from the Emirates was to be philosophical and point to this semi-final as the winnable option. It still is of course, just not the formality we’d perhaps allowed ourselves to imagine.

Maybe we’ve treated the FA Trophy in the way that many big clubs treat the FA Cup, most of us accept that the management have been quite right in putting out a largely changed side in the Trophy due to the overriding desire to win the league. Nothing’s changed there. Yet the team that City put out last night ought to have been more than capable of securing a result, it had quality written all over it. It’s tempting to draw attention to some erratic refereeing, if we do secure promotion I’ll never criticise league referees again after the experience of non-league but in reality the ability to put the ball in the net is the acid test.

Still, we’re not out of it yet and it will be interesting to see the line-up come Saturday for the second leg. For my money I think we should treat it as the last game of the season and we need to win by two goals. Having got this far I don’t think we should abandon the quest. There are no more FA Cup games and if we progress to the final of the Trophy it will add one more game to the program.

On to Saturday.