If ever Lincoln City needed their supporters, it’s now.

Supporter: A person who supports, promotes, advocates or champions a cause or movement; an adherent. A person who provides moral or physical support to another; an attendant.

I suppose if you’re reading this you’ve probably never left a game early without good reason, booed your team, barracked a City player or wanted a squad member to fail. There are people who would, they’re called the paying public, not supporters or fans.

I’ll freely admit though, it’s difficult at the moment. The Imps are actually playing well but cannot score, it’s as simple as that. We’re all now looking forward to the January transfer window and the signing of the player who can put us out our misery, the twenty goals a season man. What’s the likelihood of that would you say? Top strikers cost top money, the sort of money that some teams seem to have but we don’t. We can pay the wages, make some stadium improvements, put on a good show on a match day, fan zone, the state of the pitch, pick up the litter.

I’m quite sure though that we will see additions to the squad. There well may be departures, in fact that’s almost assured, but adding to the squad will be gradual and organic I’d say. Presumably most of the budget is accounted for although hopefully the club will see the necessity for some spending. It won’t be a million though and even then what does that buy you?

In the meantime what can we do? What are doing already would be my assessment, what else can we do, have a whip round? This is league one and that doesn’t come cheap. This is what we wanted so it’s no use complaining about it. When the going gets tough and all that. If you want continued success, watch Sky and “support” Manchester City.

You won’t enjoy it nearly so much as following your own local team though, honest, you won’t

City in flux at the moment but do get the point.

I don’t really understand the flak the Imps received after Friday nights draw with Shrewsbury. I thought some of the early play was, if anything something of an improvement on that previously. It didn’t last, you don’t need me to tell you that but in terms of what Michael Appleton is trying to achieve and the incremental way he is implementing his plans, I say keep going. At least there’s a plan and it’s well worth sticking to.

Of course there are squad deficiencies or at least deficiencies in the make up of the squad that Appleton will need to address. City have been operating with a very small squad. I expect that to change. The practice of playing one up front is also frustrating. Teams like Shrewsbury, as we saw frequently last season, will come to Sincil Bank to stymie the Imps. It’s not rocket science and it’s not limited to league one, teams will come set up not to lose, it’s up to the home team to get round that conundrum. For that reason Christmas can’t come soon enough, presumably, for the manager and with it the possibility of shaping the roster more to his liking.

In the meantime City must continue to rack up the points. After the barren spell which was the result of the upheavals at the club (or was that going to happen in any event?) City are now averaging four points per three games. It’s not promotion form but neither is it relegation. Personally I’d be more than happy with a mid table finish for this season and subsequent ones for that matter as long as we are progressing.

If you look at Peterborough (told you I had something of an obsession there) which is, for my money a club we could look to emulate, they have had several seasons in league one but seem to be significantly wealthier. It does help when you’ve got a rich backer but they are now able to speculate with players for the future and a couple of big sales a season does offset the limitations a club must overcome in terms of spectators through the gate and investment in general.

Of course, Lincoln City, in an ideal world could attract significant financial backing in the future. I think the club were rather hoping that would arrive in time to tempt the previous management to stay but it didn’t and it’s no use crying over spilt milk but, as long as the club can continue to progress and retain its enthusiastic support you would think, if a club like Wycombe can be on an investors radar a well run outfit like City might be too even if we are some way off the beaten track. That doesn’t do Norwich City much harm does it?

So we go on with another big game on the near horizon. As stated earlier they’re all big but, as we saw with Sunderland previously, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that City could upset the league one applecart and give another big name a red face, we’ve been doing that for some time after all.

Too Posh to push. For promotion.

We got caught up in a bit of a melee coming away from the Peterborough game. The police seemed to be intent on holding back part of the departing fans and I got talking to a fellow Imp who said if we play like that for the rest of the season we’ll be alright, or words to that effect. I think he was right, in fact I thought City were better than that and really the difference between the sides were the two, admittedly well taken, goals.

In terms of the play, in the first half particularly, it seemed to me if anything the Imps were the more fluid and of course, we know where the bulk of the Peterborough spending has gone and that showed. I’m probably going to get a few groans from certain quarters but I thought if John Akinde had a bit longer to rough up the Posh defence, that elusive goal may have come. Whether City could have then added another is debatable.

I’m not high profile enough to attract comment from other supporters but I gather the Peterborough fans seem to be developing delusions of grandeur when it comes to their team. If I’m honest I can see them getting promoted with that strike force but as for being a big fish in the championship, dream on would be my reaction to that. There are big enough creatures in league one never mind above.

Our concern is red and white however and another big test tonight. They’re all big tests of course but if City can produce the tempo they showed in the first half at Peterborough and the determination and potency of the Sunderland match, the season will be right back on track.

Today I’m wearing red to give the red card to racism. Not that difficult for a retired Imp on match day. I thought the usually tongue tied Chris Kamara was very eloquent on TV this morning and when he was describing the things he had to put up with in his playing days my head hung a little. I don’t think I ever joined in with the sort of chants that emanated from the terraces back in the day but the fact I can’t definitely confirm makes me uneasy.

I actually feel sorry for those black clad buffoons at the England game the other night. If you can’t respect others you surely don’t think yourself worthy of respect and I don’t think we can hold our heads all that high at the booing of the Bulgarian national anthem either.

It’s a small step from what went on in that game towards some of our players to picking on people for disability and where after that, the elderly? Widen the net still further and we could all be included in the treatment. Personally I’d say if you’re an Imp you’re one of us. Regardless. If you’re a football fan. Respect. Even if you’re clad in black and white or claret and blue or yellow. Respect. I still want my team to beat yours though.

Lincoln City are like Peterborough. Not all that far away.

I seem to have a bit of a bee in my bonnet when it comes to Peterborough. When I first started to work in Boston the folks there used to venture to Peterborough as their shopping venture of choice and I could never understand why they would go there instead of their own county town. I later formed the view that they saw themselves as very much on a par with Lincoln (remember all that Bostonshire stuff when they were in the league?) And why would you go somewhere virtually the same?

Regular readers will know I like a bit of history with my football but did you know that there is a sort of connection between Peterborough and Lincoln in that way back in history the diocese of Lincoln was considered too big, it stretched from the Humber to the Thames and it was decided to divide the geographical area into a Lincoln Diocese in the North and a Southern section. Peterborough was a sizeable town and with a rather fetching abbey so Henry VIII, rather than raze the abbey to the ground as he did with many, turned it into a cathedral and with it upgrade Peterborough to a city. Much later, the sixties I think, Peterborough became a new town despite the fact it was neither new or a town and all those lovely dual carriageways sprang up, the sort of roads the Lincoln area should have but can’t seem to get, not that I’m jealous.

So in my mind Peterborough is a kind of son of Lincoln but the powers that be seem to regard it as much more important and it’s the same with the football team. I don’t think there’s all that much between the clubs but of course there is, there’s a world of difference. The question is, are we making up any ground? I think we are.

So to yesterday’s game, you knew I’d get there eventually, and City set about their more cash laden rivals with gusto. I’ve seen reports that said City outplayed Posh I’ve seen it said we didn’t, I’m in the outplayed group and I sent a text to my son at half time saying I do hope we don’t regret not scoring in the first half. I thought our play warranted it but of course if you don’t you’re liable to suffer the consequences.

If this had been league two I have every confidence City would have got a least a point maybe three but it isn’t and City paid the price but not necessarily on football ability. I didn’t see it with my own eyes, the first I knew of an incident was the sight of Michael O’Connor flat on his back where he remained for a considerable time. The only surprise was that O’Connor came back onto the pitch but that situation did not last long. It was only later that I started to see accusations of skulduggery and that the “accidental” collision was anything but. I repeat, I didn’t see it and I don’t think anyone around me did, certainly no comment was made other than it seemed to be inadvertent.

What I would say is if an opponent was going to attempt to put a player at a disadvantage that player would be Michael O’Connor who was at his imperious best. Had he remained on the pitch and with young Ellis Chapman more than holding his own on his debut start, City would have been good value for at least a point but as it turned out Posh started to run City ragged and when Tom Pett, perhaps surprisingly on for O’Connor when a match fit Callum Connelly was available, put a square ball across straight into the path of a gleeful home team, Peterborough got the break they were hoping for although I have to say it was a lovely finish from Reed. City finally started to get their second half going but it was too little too late and it was irony of ironies when Ivan Toney got Posh’s second as City chased the game. Another exquisite finish from, you guessed it, the player bent over Michael O’Connor’s prostrate figure to say how sorry he was for the collision. I bet he was.

As for City, on we go. This was always going to be difficult and now a Friday night game to look forward to. No one was predicting this season was going to be easy which is exactly how it is turning out but for my money, on yesterdays evidence the Imps should be able to steer clear of trouble playing like that.

Appleton clears first hurdle. Settle down at the back!

Not the first win, that was always going to come sooner or later although few would have predicted the duck would be broken against Sunderland. Their board decided a loss was bad enough but a loss against Lincoln City was too much to bear. This has happened before of course, Notts County having decided that losing to City was a sacking offence although they went on to lose a good few more and I suppose on reflection, as with Mansfield Town and the Mariners, nothing can be taken for granted and, locally, Lincoln City are now the big team up the road. How times change.

What I’m referring to in the headline is the continuation of fans enthusiasm and in particular fans resolve to stick with the Imps. Doubly so as the Sunderland fixture produced a record gate in the reconfigured stadium. There are specific circumstances demanded if this is to happen, a big draw by way of an opponent and those opponents taking all their ticket allocation. The fact that City not only won the game but did so in such convincing and entertaining fashion will ensure the turnstiles keep clicking for some time to come and if the manager can continue to produce such refreshing football who knows, the journey may not only continue but do so in such a way as to demand further accommodation be secured one way or another in order to cope with the clamour to see games.

Appleton is a totally different manager to the previous regime which keen eyed readers may notice I’m trying not to name. Students of the game will know the manager had something of a golden period with Oxford United and anyone at the Sunderland game will hope they saw something of what we might be treated to once things start to fall in to place.

I don’t think many of us, certainly not me, expect City to race on from the last home performance and start knocking seven bells out of all and sundry and sweep to an unlikely further promotion but I certainly have considerably more hope that the journey is not over yet having been at Sincil Bank last Saturday.

Further proof that division one is a step change from our briefly held sojourn in league two comes next in the not inconsiderable shape of Peterborough United, a club I have occasionally kidded myself are not a million miles away from our heroes. We will see if the Imps are now continuing where they left off before circumstances intervened when Huddersfield Town flexed their muscles. Was it leaves on the line or a derailment? We’ll know more tomorrow.

Michael Appleton. Was there ever a luckier Lincoln City manager?

I hesitate to say it of course, you’ve got to grab your audience’s attention but I hope right now Michael Appleton is counting his blessings. They say if a manager can’t be good, then be lucky. On present evidence I’d say he’s both.

Lucky because the usual lot of an incoming manager is trying to raise the spirits of an exhausted and demoralised squad and drag that team from the foot of the table. At the same time the supporters, who may well be thoroughly disenchanted with their club, have to be brought onside. Now City have suffered a blip, no argument about it but aside from that, it’s all there for an aspiring manager. A good squad, a mid table position and a large and enthusiastic crowd of which more later but perhaps most importantly a committed and knowledgeable board who are prepared to invest in the team but not break the bank and with it, the club.

The fear was of course that, post Cowleys, all semblance of progress would be lost and the club would sink back down again. The (former) dynamic duo said themselves they would never again have a relationship with the supporters as they had at Lincoln. Of course it works both ways, will we ever again have the sort of relationship we had with them? No is the answer I would think. It was akin to love, really it was and of course as with any love affair infidelity is the most difficult thing to forgive, so we’re wary.

In any event I don’t think Appleton is the sort of man to need the admiration the former managers were afforded, you can see that from his demeanour. Clearly, he wants a good relationship with us and I’d imagine we’ll see the players and manager out and about in the city and the area but I’d be surprised if we get the fist pumps at least if we were going to get one it would have been at five o’clock last Saturday, the performance and Appleton’s part in it deserved one.

A part of me does wonder if all this upheaval might just herald an even greater period in our story. I’m no tactician but the sort of tweaks made to the team, the same players as formerly lets not forget, have produced the sort of display that, dare I say it, would not have been the case before. I think were going to see City attacking more and with a purpose not previously seen. Time of course will tell if that’s right.

Finally, as promised, the support and with it noise levels. I thought the crowd have never been as loud and as we now know, Sincil Bank has never been so full in the all seater era. To be fair that was entirely down to the opposition. The only way you can get a full house like that is if the opponents are a big name and sell all their allocation and there’s no segregation but the enthusiasm, the love for the team, it was all still there. Our affection for our team is as strong as ever. Love conquers everything, or is that too soppy?

If this is the future count me in.

I pitied the sponsors having to choose man of the match after this afternoon’s game versus Sunderland at Sincil Bank. Let’s just pause there before we go on. This afternoons game against Sunderland? Yes, you heard correctly. Sunderland. Maybe they should have considered who didn’t play well, nope, no one. No help there.

I heard it suggested that this could possibly have been Lincoln City’s greatest ever performance, certainly of the modern era and you could see why that might be put forward. Yes, there have been games won that meant more. Yes, there have been perhaps more heroic efforts but for sheer unpredicted joy this one was right up there.

Yet, personally I was allowing myself to think that City could pull off an unexpected (to say the least) victory. All the signs were there. A team, having lost their manager enduring a torrid time. Opponents on a successful run but not exactly lauded by their supporters who were expecting an easy afternoon and a dominant win. A manager’s debut home league game. When you think about it that had banana skin written all over it for the Black Cats.

City didn’t come on in their comedy clowns car, door falling off, horn hooting playing it for laughs, The Imps set about with a determination and a plan designed to derail Sunderland and that’s exactly what they did.

The Imps game plan, I’m sure, demanded that the team get to half time without conceding. They did. The fact that they scored, a sumptuous strikers goal from Tyler Walker, putting the skids under Sunderland was all to the good. A long, long second half was on the cards I predicted to my neighbour in a packed Selenity Stand. How wrong could I be? City added another courtesy of Walker, another forwards effort and, with the benefit of hindsight the Imps were over the horizon. I was expecting a wall of noise from the Wearsiders and for all I know they provided it but I didn’t hear it as my fellow supporters were bellowing out their own cacophony.

Any notion that the fire was out of the Sincil Bank faithful were banished as the crowd, if anything were louder and more enthusiastic than ever dismissing thought that the steam had gone out of the Lincoln Loco and suspicion that the Cowley revolution had been quashed and consigned to history was firmly disabused, in fact it was the former management team who were the forgotten heroes.

Even at this early stage we were given a glimpse of what may follow under the Appleton tutelage and on this evidence not only are the previous regime a mere memory it might just be that the best is yet to come. Fasten your seatbelts!

Did I miss much?

Yes, I’m back from sunnier climes, considerably warmer too but, despite City turning in another loss I saw last night plenty to make me think we won’t have to wait too long to get that feel good factor back.

My first view of our Michael Appleton side and, I think much to admire and be hopeful about. In fact I’ll go as far as to say, with a bit less profligacy in front of goal not to mention a bit more luck, City could have finished up convincing winners.

In the initial exchanges, City looked every bit the accomplished league one outfit, taking the boys of Man U on and, frankly, giving them the run around. It was only a matter of time surely? Matter of time before what I hear you ask. Well for a team on a bad run, a bit low on confidence, though they didn’t look it at first, still hurting after the recent upheavals, City took the game to their illustrious, well the club is illustrious, opponents but in the end it was the same old story. If you don’t take your chances you don’t win. United didn’t quite have just the one chance but it wasn’t much more but the one they got they took, with aplomb, defended well, had a goalkeeper in fine form and City once again finished up with nothing to show for their efforts.

I’m starting to think, because there’s no use being negative, that this whole episode could end up a blessing in disguise. It doesn’t really seem so at the moment but given the circumstances, given that we’d started to become Cowley City, given that this whole circus surrounding the club every time a management vacancy came up, given that, and I’m saying this with a very heavy heart, the Cowleys focus wasn’t fully in the cause, it probably was time for us all to move on.

The pity is, because of the nature of their departure the Cowleys name will not engender the reverence that is still felt when Graham Taylors name is mentioned, yet, after all, he left us for another club too but I feel a sense of disappointment in the departure that I didn’t feel when Taylor left. Whether that was because of unfinished business or all the statements that were made that I won’t go over again or the feeling that possibly the Cowleys sensed something of a rebalancing in the wind after that wonderful start.

Whatever it is, however it came about, here we are. A new man at the helm, a new start. I didn’t feel that electricity when looking at the dugout that I used to. That is by the by. Appleton is his own man. Despite the loss I feel optimistic. The immediate objective is to steady the ship, secure our position in the division. I’m sure that can be done then, with a bit of luck, which has deserted us for the moment but will surely come back, it’s onwards and upwards.

I’ve said before the loss of Clive Nates and our board of directors would be a far bigger blow than the loss of managers who, lets face it come and go but they are still here, committed as ever, the infrastructure is still there and I don’t hear anyone from the club talking about consolidating, far from it.