Super Imps bash sorry Brewers.

 

Conventional wisdom has it that very few teams will go through a season not losing at all but it’s how you bounce back from a loss that marks a successful outfit. After the predictable setback against Sunderland and the more surprising blank against Shrewsbury, City once again have their mojo back firstly against the nobblers from Northampton and yesterday defeating a bedraggled looking Burton.

I’d looked forward to seeing our old friends, the returning Neal Eardley and Michael Bostwick but I suppose should have been warned that these two colossuses of our team for the last couple of seasons may be a bit past their sell by date on matchday live when the Brewers fan seemed distinctly underwhelmed by the performances of our former heroes and neither of them stood out particularly in a very ordinary looking Albion side.

City themselves did not put in the complete performance, or was that just me expecting too much? Nevertheless, when the Imps put their foot on the gas they had far too much for their opponents  and even Eards and Bozzie could not rescue them as we had seen them do time and time again for us.

I’m perhaps being a little unkind here but Lewis Montsma again showed that he is not yet the complete footballer and any scouts watching to see if our flying Dutchman may fit into a championship side may hopefully be put off or is that a false hope? They wont judge him on a couple of slips you’d think and that other worry, Brennan Johnson put in yet another classy stint and has already been the subject of a will he stay or will he return speculative article in Nottinghamshire Live pointing out that Forest fans have been alerted to his stellar shifts for the Imps and are thinking it might be a good idea to recall him. Let’s hope not.

In other news, as they say, Harry Anderson was again reminded that his inclusion from the start is not guaranteed, something that was a bit of a mystery to me but what do I know? I suppose the theory is give them a bit of a softening up and then bring on the racehorses after a while to really give them something to think about and certainly, apart from what you might call a comedy goal for Burton Albion which had almost nothing to do with any guile on Burtons part, you can call it comedy when City have their shooting boots on although I suspect the manager struggled to see the funny side. That apart the Imps just shoved aside a Brewers team as they had done the week before against the more agricultural Cobblers.

It’s a shame the Hull game is off for the moment. I’m sure those aristocrats from the Humber, as they probably see themselves, weren’t relishing the thought of us country cousins from the south turning up and possibly embarrassing them, not for the first time, in their luxurious abode. After Wimbledon we have another set up who rather fancy their chances, Peterborough United. They probably regard the Imps as a fly to be swatted away, top of the league or not. As ever, we’ll see about that.

City triumphant in a victory for good over bad? Not really.

 

Happy Christmas, the blip is over. Well, we hope it is after yesterdays win over a workmanlike Northampton Town. If the theory is correct we could soon progress from regarding our local rivals as North Ferriby and Boston United to Grimsby and Mansfield, to Hull and Peterborough and then to Forest and Derby. If we don’t actually overtake those two that is. Perhaps we had better stop there but the fact of the matter is we have now got to Christmas and the Imps are joint top of league one and the accepted wisdom is it is likely that the teams at the top at Christmas may still be there at the end of the season. Think about that.

Northampton Town, how can I put this without sounding like those managers who prefaced their press conferences for games against City with the words “we know what to expect from Lincoln”, often before a loss against us. Northampton Town have gone down a different route, tactics wise to City and, as we know, the City approach prevailed. Beauty and the beast, David verses Goliath.

City fans were quick to accept that there is more than one way to win a football match and, no doubt recalling those mealy mouthed comments, they’re good at what they do, it’s not for us but….. you know the thing but the fact remains that Northampton weren’t very good at what they did and, just when some fans were allowed back into their stadium conspired to get booed off probably as much as a result of the rather ruffian nature of their game as opposed to the somewhat silkier Imps. I always got the impression that Cobblers fans saw themselves as the southern sophisticates when compared to us northern oiks rather like Peterborough who are not that far away and similarly not particularly southern.

There was a time when the majority of teams outside the top division played a version of Cobblers tactics, power and athleticism over skill and anticipation. I remember my Dad saying, with some distain, of Portsmouth in a game he’d seen, they played the passing game. Now of course a majority of teams in league one play a more measured approach but not Northampton but I’m going to leave it there. It’s not for us, or rather it’s not for our manager but the fact remains that a version of that football got us where we are now, with many tweaks along the way but it has been recognized that a different ethos must prevail if we are to progress still further.

That goes for the whole operation of the club not just tactics and it is clear from listening to Michael Appleton that the potential sale of any not just some of his players does not faze him one bit. The trick is to have a replacement ready to cover for any losses of personnel and in that respect he’s no different to the Cowleys although I do have to say he seems to sign very few duds which was not always the case.

City swept past Northampton and that could have been the case against Shrewsbury had things panned out differently although the Shrews did not resort to the dark arts the way Cobblers did. Sunderland are a different kettle of fish. Sometimes you have to accept that you were beaten by the better team. Yesterday that is exactly what happened to Northampton.

Is this really happening?

 

I’d imagine you’ve probably had the same sort of daydreams to me. You know, the one where you win the lottery and buy Lincoln City, invest in lots of wonderful players and the club miraculously start to rise through the leagues and next thing you know they’re looking down on most of the others. It’s a daydream not complete fantasy so you make a deal. Don’t get carried away, the club enjoy an extended run in the championship rather than the prem. You choose something that is actually achievable but the thought of doing it is pretty much in the realms of, well your wildest dreams really.

After yesterday, for me at any rate those wildest dreams are starting to unfold before my very eyes except of course they’re not. I haven’t seen any of that first hand. I either see it on my TV or hear about it on the radio. Am I in some weird sort of parallel universe? Is this the trade off? Your team will get to the promised land only you won’t get to see it? Even more strangely, how many of us would actually accept that deal? I think I just might.

Just trying to come back to earth for a moment something that is starting to dawn on supporters, accepting that this really is happening and City are really second in league one with Christmas just round the corner is the, again nightmare thought that one or two of these players of ours, and I think you know which one in particular I’m talking about, may be on their way before we’ve even seen them.

Supporters are starting to drift back into stadia, not us, typically, and judging by the scenes on Lincoln High Street yesterday not anytime soon either. The infection rate in our neck of the woods remains stubbornly high. Will the vaccine, as has been speculated elsewhere, ride over the horizon to our rescue?

I don’t know. Anyway, don’t wake me. I’m having the most wonderful dream.

City look a bit off the pace, but still win. It’s all coming back to me now.

 

I suppose if there are any advantages to our present situation you could say at least we watched last nights win, or at least I did, in front of the fire nice and warm but certainly not comfortable. If someone on twitter perhaps, had said to me only bother with the last half hour it’d be just about perfect.

I’m not complaining, every fan watches his team grind out a win and will usually say, well that’s the mark of a good team, play badly and win. Of course City didn’t play badly. The passing was maybe a bit wayward and quality was at a premium but the effort was there, the skill, a bit elusive possibly but in evidence and in the end Wigan were upskittled by a piece (should say another piece really) of Jorge Grant excellence. After the equaliser there was only one team in it. In fact, looking at it in the cold light of day there always was only one team in it although during the game I for one, was far from certain about that.

For me there were three real plus points about last night. City came from behind to defeat a team bottom of the league, that’s not always been our forte even with a good side. Two players in particular did the business, Jorge Grant and Tom Hopper. The latter maybe quietened his detractors a little bit, I’m not sure what some people thought they were getting when we paid a few quid for Hopper, Alan Shearer perhaps? The third plus for me was the use of the substitutes bench underlining, and I don’t think there are many fans left who need this pointing out, what a good manager we have.

It was always going to be the case that the bandwagon that was the Lincoln Ferrari was going to need to come into the pits for some new tyres at some point but last night reminded me of those glorious years of the Cowley era, those comebacks, the last minute winners, getting outplayed by some teams that thought they only had to turn up to take the points and still winning, beating those guardians of the spirit of football who huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow our house down.

Of course virtually no one is outplaying us now and our style is as good as anyone’s, it must be, Mark Cooper said so, and if we have difficulties with teams it’s usually because they pay us the compliment of raising their game against us.

 I’m still amazed that we seem to be able to overcome most opponents and we sit second in League One and I’ve done my Christmas shopping. I’ll repeat that in case anyone at the back didn’t hear. Second in League One!