New look team. Same old result.

 

When John Marquis stuck a boot out to put City in the lead yesterday, we all said, there you are, that’s the missing piece of the jigsaw. Unspectacular, being in the right place at the right time, just like last week when the player arrived in the right area, stepped forward and slotted home. Just what we’ve been needing.

Unfortunately, the goal didn’t mask that other underlying problem. When a good reliable solid unspectacular centre half head was needed to clear the ball it instead was scrambled into the net, yes those old defensive failings are still there and, once again we went home disappointed after yet another home reverse.

I suppose the one thing you could say is that Burton Albion are a decent outfit, far more so than Cambridge a couple of weeks ago. Uncompromising, direct when they needed to be, well drilled and energetic. If it hadn’t been for the fact they were playing City I could have quite enjoyed their performance.

The home fans were certainly up for it, with a big crowd in and in good voice City fluffed their lines. Certain players, I wont name them, failed to back up the promise they had showed previously. It wasn’t a bad showing but perhaps Josh Griffiths’ heroics in goal deflected the fact that City were up against it dealing, as I said with a more than capable opponent coached by the biggest managerial name in the division and that showed. It’s ironic, one of the smallest clubs in the league, their biggest star was in the dugout and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, I felt, had all the answers or rather City didn’t have the answer to the Brewers threat.

Not for the first time the Imps home form proves to be their Achilles heel and I really can’t see why. I don’t go to many away games any more but I have in the past, many times and it’s not the crowd. I’m sure we’re no worse than most and better than many supporters but that same old home hoodoo rears it’s ugly head. For years it’s been better following City on their travels than at home.

Yesterday I suppose you could point to the double defensive change that sunk the Imps. The manager was quick to point out the change was forced upon him by circumstances but the upshot was, straight after the change the game was lost and City will have to go to MK Dons to put matters right. I’m encouraged by the fact that I was at that game a few years ago when an imperious City swept aside the home team to more or less seal their promotion from League Two.

Of course, that marvellous performance was quickly followed by Carlisle away which we also attended where the Imps were, let’s say less than magnificent. Oh, and we had a little shunt in the car afterwards. Happy days. Up the Imps!

Tales of the unexpected.

 

I can’t remember his exact words but I was struck by the here today gone tomorrow nature of some players employment circumstances and possibly Michael Appleton’s ruthlessness and desire to succeed when Appleton was invited to heap praise on the returning hero Max Melbourne who, after all had secured all three points with his last gasp winner. Was there any way back into his affections? Ha ha, yes, he did quite well. That’d be a no then.

There are plenty more examples of players who seem to be part of the furniture, Neal Eardley and Michael Bostwick for example, absolute bedrocks of the team, yesterday’s men before you know it. I was impressed with John Marquis’ ability to override his situation, one minute generating, for our level, big money transfers, the next, new manager comes in, out in the cold. He commented it was a long way home last night but where is home?

Yet here they all are, thrown together in the melting pot that is the modern Lincoln City, the actual permanent squad, decimated by injury and not just injury, this is a Lincoln City roster of crocks, serious medical difficulties and players that can’t play three games in a row. When will it all end I ask myself? The answer is, I would imagine, these players will be shipped out as soon as circumstances allow, see above for an example of the managers resolve.

In the meantime we reflect on the unlikely turn of events that have got even some of our legendary pessimists thinking we may yet be alright this season. Oxford, home, Sunderland away, Cambridge home, Plymouth away, that’s three points for the Cambridge fixture, forget the rest and move on. Wrong again.

How has all this been done? Well, for my money, as long as City weren’t bottom of the league I don’t think Michael Appleton’s situation was at all vulnerable as far as the board were concerned, whatever the doomsayers were predicting. The powers that be were aware that the summer transfer business had been a disappointment to say the least. I don’t think the injury situation was regarded as the managers sole responsibility either although you do have to wonder how this mayhem has come about. Is football just too hard at the moment? I think we mostly regard modern footballers as a fairly pampered lot, even at our level but something’s going awry and it’s not often City don’t have a midweek game to contend with and with the powers that be insisting that minor cup games be fitted in at the drop of a hat it’s probably no wonder players welfare is being threatened.

Anyway, where were we, oh yes, Plymouth away and, innocent that I am as regards team construction and tactics it was always my belief that this team wasn’t that far away from being a decent outfit, in fact you could almost narrow it down and say if we’d had a fit Tom Hopper and maybe an understudy, we’d have been doing a whole lot better than we have. Well now we’ve rectified that, at least for the moment. I wonder if the Marquis situation is regarded by the club as a temporary solution, until Hopper is fit. I don’t really see how the club can afford his wages once the reported support from Portsmouth ends but there again, what do I know? Nothing Lincoln City do surprises me anymore. Exciting, isn’t it?

Another one bites the dust.

 

My wife knows better than to greet me with a cheery, “Had a good time?” after (another) home defeat. For some reason I really did have an enjoyable afternoon though despite the fact City were unable to add any points to their admittedly meagre tally.

Judging by the fact that the smattering of boos were replaced by a smattering of applause from the departing fans in the Selenity Stand, a lot of supporters thought their afternoon wasn’t entirely wasted either.

City started brightly, not for the first time but it felt a bit different as Michael Appleton threw his new recruit on and it was a new look side not least because the existing team members seemed to be playing with a panache not always seen earlier in the season.

In the end though it was an outcome we’d seen so many times before with the Imps doing everything but score, an admirable rearguard from Cambridge and a keeper in sparkling form. Just our luck!

I suppose the only surprise for me was the inclusion of Scully in the starting line-up. I’d fallen for Michaels gloomy, “He’s fifty fifty” in Thursdays interview only to be replaced by a sprightly “He’s in the team” by Saturday. The player was sprightly too as City set to Cambridge with all guns blazing. They were firing blanks unfortunately but whereas I’d never felt someone’s going to get a real pasting from this team in the not too distant future, now I can well imagine one opponent is going to learn City are not the duds they thought they were but it wasn’t to be on Saturday. Of the three fixtures City faced this was surely the one they could take maximum points from? No was the reality of course.

Still, onwards and upwards and City face opponents every bit as good as Oxford and Sunderland and every bit as vulnerable too on Tuesday. That’s why we love football. Never a dull moment.

When the going gets tough.

 

Many moons ago my late father-in-law was on the board at Lincoln City, a thankless task at the time. City had a new manager, a young man plucked out of the team in his first managerial role. It was not going well but Dad saw some potential in the earnest young man who lived and died football and he had an ally on the board who thought the same. Together they persuaded the other board members to give the manager a bit longer to turn things round. You may have guessed that wet behind the ears coach was Graham Taylor. The rest is history. I was fortunate to meet Taylor, again a good few years ago and he told me that my father-in-law had effectively been responsible for saving his job and, as we know, it didn’t exactly do City any harm either.

So I’m always sceptical when people start calling for a managers head particularly when the reasons for the slump are reasonably obvious, finances, or at least an unwillingness to be held to ransom, loss of form in players, injuries and disappointment in the transfer market. When a club suffers all of those setbacks it’s difficult to see what good changing the man in charge would do, apart from what is known in some circles as a dead cat bounce.

Personally, although I did allow myself the possibility that the Imps could find themselves back in league two, I never believed that ditching Michael Appleton was the right thing to do, as my old boss used to say, in any way shape or form.

Anyway, not to put the cart before the horse, on Saturday and again last night, two of the unlikeliest fixtures to arrest the slide were faced and City emerged victorious. It wasn’t down to luck either.

We can’t yet say that we are out of the woods but things certainly look a whole lot rosier when you consider also, that a further quality addition to the squad is expected and finally the injury woes might be easing together with a return to form of some team members I had been wondering about.

It’s all particularly pleasing personally, Oxford is a team I’ve seen many times, home and away, usually with disappointing consequences and Sunderland, well Sunderland, you can forget your Ipswich’s and Charlton’s, Wigan’s and Sheffield Wednesday’s, Sunderland are right up there as the gold standard as far as away wins go. They must be highly delighted to fail to go top of the league courtesy of the leagues Cinderella side.

Hopefully it doesn’t end there, City now embark on a mixed programme for the next few games but the way things are going I wouldn’t put anything past them.