Back to basics and the new kids on the block-but not to everyone else.

In a new encounter for both clubs City play Crawley tomorrow but that’s because Crawley’s rise has coincided with the Imps’ demise. Still, better late than never and it’s, unusual for the Imps to have absolutely no history between themselves and opponents. Danny Cowley will be clued up on them though, as usual.

It’s back to the league after an interesting week which some tried to dress up as controversial but when you look at the gate, given that City are on a high as far as support is concerned the actual percentage of regular supporters, and by that I mean this year’s average, the number of fans attending against Everton was about the same as would be usual for this sort of minor competition. I don’t know what the formula for dividing up the proceeds of the gate is for this competition but looking at it logically with the best part of 4000 in attendance at least there was the possibility of City banking a bit of money even if it was only sufficient to top up the tea bag fund.

Off the field City added further to the back office if you like capability with the appointment of an in house lawyer to add to CEO Liam Scully’s cohort then I think you’ll agree City are planning for the long term and dare I say it not particularly anticipating remaining in the position they are in either. It’s all very exciting.

Personally speaking I thought City would push on in terms of results more or less where they left off last season and that has certainly not been the case given the fact that the league has itself moved on to a greater degree than we’d imagined but even so the Imps are very handily placed and I’m certainly not giving up on further glory this season whether or not the club is ready.

I suppose the worry for the club is that this present wave of euphoria will wear off with a resulting drop off in support. This could happen of course but I do think City have latched on to something the city of Lincoln has. You can say to people here are some shops, come and do some shopping or you can offer them an experience, nice food, music, special events. I think this is working for the city and Lincoln City too. It’s more than coming to a game now. City are offering a footballing day out, better food choice, the fan zone, legendary players to meet as I did the other week.

All this make home games a not to be missed event in my view and City haven’t had that since Keith’s days but more than that there is the very real possibility of even further progress or at the very least the sort of consolidation financially that the Imps haven’t enjoyed in many a long year.