More of the same or a reality check?

Like me you will have enjoyed last week. It’s always enjoyable to win but to win and play really well, casting off the long ball jibes, is doubly pleasurable.

You may, as I did, wonder if your own interpretation of the Imps chances this season may need a rethink after the last outing. Well tomorrow at Rotherham will go a long way to pointing us in the right direction. I’ve been there a few times, usually seen a good performance but always come away disappointed. At least there will be a good modern stadium to revive those slightly quieter will we, won’t we move thoughts. After some time in exile Rotherham are finally back in the town. After witnessing several games at the Don Valley stadium, it doesn’t seem to have done the Millers much harm to be camped out there. Camped out is the expression I’d use for it too. I can’t think of a less suitable venue for football. I think I might have been tempted to find something else to do rather than endure that.

Anyway, enough of that. I’m sure anyone with Rotherham United connections wasn’t exactly clapping with joy at the prospect either but now they’re in a much more impressive site and furthermore, like many other clubs we used to regularly rub shoulders with but haven’t for a while, they have enjoyed a considerably higher profile having been in the Championship as recently as last season. If the pundits are to be believed they could be heading back there soon.

For me, Rotherham are a blueprint we would do well to heed and I don’t just mean the stadium. I don’t think historically our two clubs are that far apart. You would have to qualify that by saying not latterly of course but City are on a sharp upward course. Tomorrow may give a clue as to whether we are in a similar orbit or like a particularly loud or pretty firework put on a great show before fading away into the night.

Wonder what the hot dogs are like at the New York Stadium? All this talk of pyrotechnics has made me quite hungry.