Getting all the ducks in a row.

You’re probably getting a bit tired of me waxing lyrical about City’s progress but they are getting there I’m sure. One thing that has exercised me is the lack of news on the training facility. My fear was that the management team would get disillusioned and start to wonder if they’ve taken the club as far as they can.

It was heartening then to read in the Echo that progress is being made albeit more slowly than had been hoped. I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Danny Cowley is involved to a large degree. This in itself is heartening too. There’s a tendency to wonder, every time a vacancy is announced, is he in the frame? There will always be speculation but, for the moment at least the impression I get is that club and management are as one and my fears may be groundless. I suppose we should have realised that these brothers are in the business of building a lasting legacy wherever they go. True we snatched them away from Braintree and I do sometimes feel a bit guilty about their plight but in all honesty, despite their chairman’s bravado could they really have provided the platform City have, or anything like? I think they knew it was time to go when they did.

When City stayed full time after relegation there was a thought that they somehow remained football league in a kind of exile and that, once promotion was achieved they would be able, seamlessly to slip back into fully professional ways. We now all realise that was hopelessly optimistic. Last season’s scramble over tickets proved that was not the case and almost everywhere you turn there’s work to be done but the club is doing it. Running an outfit like Lincoln City was always akin to climbing a mountain but, in terms of time and place, an expanding and vibrant city like Lincoln needs a football club that matches its ambition and now we have it. It is a bit frustrating that it is such a mammoth quest but exciting nevertheless to be involved and gratifying that the club has invited us to be a part of it and so many have accepted.

As to the playing side, Cheltenham away, another club who have been through it although they largely avoided the pain of realignment by getting promoted straight away after relegation. Danny Cowley has a good relationship with Gary Johnson and his son Lee at Bristol City, not that there will be any sentiment for old time’s sake as the Imps look to extend their recent good run. It’s a difficult place to go but I wouldn’t put it past them.