Was there ever a better time to be an Imp?

If you’re anything like me you probably at some time looked at some clubs and thought, is it ever going to be our turn?

I’m talking about the likes of Rushden and Diamonds, Burton Albion, Fleetwood. Even the likes of Scunthorpe United and Grimsby Town have had their day in the sun and not a tickle for us. Until now that is.

I think of all those clubs, Mariners excepted, as smaller clubs than the Imps yet there they were, up in league one or the championship possibly. We on the other hand, had to pedal faster and faster to stand still until one day the chain broke and down we went. Would we ever have the money to visit the mechanic and get ourselves fixed up?

We know the answer of course and when you look at the cup run that went a long way to underpinning the rapid rise that we have all enjoyed, Oldham Athletic, who apologised to their fans for being beaten by us I recall, Ipswich Town, Brighton and Burnley, we’re ahead of one and on level terms with another. Ipswich are a very good example because by rights, going on population, they shouldn’t have had anything like the success they did. What was it that got them and kept them at the top for so long? Good club management.


Lets just pause there, good club management, not just good managers, they had those too but behind them was good, practical, pragmatic management and guess what? We’ve got that too. The Cowleys will move on, we know that, not for a good while we hope but they will but the board of directors won’t, not all of them at any rate.

All of this brought my mind to Southend United. It probably didn’t yours but mine works differently. Strictly speaking we should have leapfrogged them when we played them at Cardiff in the league two playoffs but of course we didn’t, we stayed put and eventually sunk almost without trace.

Now, once more, we play them again. It’s tempting to say our old friend Steve Tilson but he’s no friend of mine or yours, Steve Tilson, Southends manager that day is rooting for Southend. I bet he is. Despite the fact they sacked him he’s rooting for them. Well he wouldn’t be rooting for us would he? I’d imagine there’s nowhere he’d rather not be than Lincoln right now and I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say clearly he had ability with one club but not ours. He admitted as much recently.

Anyway, Southend, once they were above us now they’re not, just like Oldham and Ipswich. The last three games have given us Imps something of a shot in the arm. Trouble and strife were anticipated instead of which we have basked in the glory of three wins on the trot, no goals conceded and progression to the next round of a cup competition where we really will meet some old friends.

This will not last of course but, if there is a football God, and he is smiling down on us, just not this weekend if you don’t mind? This is one club and one ex manager we definitely owe one to.