It must have been love, but it’s over now.

That was the headline on an article in the Deranged Ferret the day Gareth Ainsworth was transferred to Port Vale 20 years ago. I still remember it because I wish I’d written it but I didn’t. Such was the nature of fanzines I don’t know who wrote it as everyone wrote behind a pseudonym. If you younger fans wonder why you were singing there’s only one Gareth Ainsworth to a man who left Lincoln City all those years ago and who was managing our opponents that song came to epitomise what it is to be a Lincoln City fan and it’s why, humble though we are and lowly as Lincoln City are in the football firmament when we express those emotions we are superior to other supporters.

The song was eventually changed to there’s only one Lincoln City at Ainsworth’s request as he was concerned at the effect it may have on his team mates as it was repeated loud and often and as we all know football is a team game. When Ainsworth left we felt regret not anger. The pop song the headline referred to was by Roxette and part of the first chorus goes “It must have been love but it's over now.
It must have been good but I lost it somehow..”

That’s how we felt when Ainsworth left and we may experience something like it when Sean Raggett departs as the fevered media speculation is insisting although there hasn’t been the time to establish the relationship Ainsworth had.

Enough of the what if’s though and Lincoln City returned to the football league loudly and proudly. The contrast with the despair felt when the Imps slid out of the league could not be greater. I was tempted to say crashed out but you have to get up speed to crash and City were incapable of acceleration that fateful day.

Anyway, away with those desperate times, we’re back and hopefully the team showed that we’re capable of prospering in the football league. City got in the lead, lost it and salvaged a point. I do wonder if Wycombe represents a decent point for City. As was pointed out on the radio the Imps last year struggled against direct physical sides, which the Chairboys are so a point may be considered a success. There’ll be plenty more where they came from though and if we thought league two was going to be a walk in the park, heed the managers words, it won’t.

So on we go, firstly away again, to Rotherham in something of a sideshow and then to the first home league game home to Morecambe. I got my season ticket through the post yesterday, lets hope interest in this first home league fixture for years will test the new ticketing system to the limit as the supporters gear up for the match. After all there’s only one Lincoln City.