How you going to keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?

I suppose I was hoping for a seamless transition to league football after promotion. The only losses, player wise were fairly peripheral, the recruitment good. In our heart of hearts I think we all knew a really reliable striker was desirable but they’re neither plentiful nor cheap, but we hoped we had the basis of a good league team. I still think that.

After our exile from the league it was easy to lose sight of the fact that, historically Lincoln City are a league club. It felt like an eternity we were absent. Now we’re back it seems to me like meeting an old flame again. You kind of hope they’ve packed on a bit of weight maybe, lost their looks. The reality though is that usually you can see what it was attracted you in the first place, they’re looking pretty good, maybe they’ve married a millionaire or won the lottery.

Now as we try to find our feet in the new set up we can see things have moved on. City gave a good account at Wycombe and settled for a point. Morecambe received a battering. Just a point. Exeter away was always going to be difficult. Nothing to show for our efforts. It's hard to take, we're used to winning. Used to being at the top, on the telly.

The league has done well for itself, gone up a notch or two. It seems, well, more like the big time. Danny Cowley said we're a nearly team. Good point. I still stick to my view that a breakthrough is there for the taking. I’d sooner be in the bottom four in August than Christmas.

Better still though I’d sooner not be there at all.