Resilient City draw record attendance.

 

Not long ago one of our resident panel of experts suggested the steam had gone out of the Imps fans enthusiasm and gates were on the way down. That was before the Sheffield Wednesday ten thousand plus gate and today the record, for the all seater stadium, gate of over 10300 for the visit of Sunderland.

Even then someone suggested the gate was exaggerated although I don’t know why City would do that given that, presumably VAT would be calculated on the amount of tickets actually sold. Why would you deliberately skew the figures and pay more tax?

You wouldn’t is the answer and it’s the fans who should be congratulated for sticking by the side through this thinnest of seasons and of course if City can lay on the sort of entertainment seen today that will be reflected in next seasons sales of season tickets.

Many moons ago the Imps faithful bemoaned the fact that the two Sheffield clubs were given the Sincil Bank terrace in it’s entirety when they visited. Fans complained these areas were theirs but the club reasoned if they could fill those terraces then they were going to be allowed to. These days that’s not a problem as the home support is holding up very nicely thank you but it’s interesting to see that the temporary stand in the corner by the Selenity stand was used today. It remains to be seen how many more away fans will fill the Stacey West Stand once it is extended and of course that may well push the attendance record even higher.

I would not want to suggest City were dominant, for those one or two reading this that weren’t there, the Imps were at full stetch to stem the Mackems flow and it took a brilliant save from Jordan Wright to keep the Imps in the game. In the Selenity more than a few of us old codgers dragged ourselves to our feet to applaud that but it was another day when the team to a man performed well. I must just mention Morgan Whittaker who has been taking a bit of flack. Today though he was dishing out the punishment to Sunderland and whilst in all honesty City never really looked likely to take all three points, well apart from that effort also at the end of the game in the end they were good value for their point.

Michael Appleton will no doubt be relieved at another clean sheet, we all were and as we approach the end of the season whilst we’re not out of the woods yet City are showing themselves as tough nuts to crack although it’s a mystery as to why the deadwood at the bottom of the table can seem to do so when really quite decent teams like Sunderland, and they were a quality outfit, could not.

Oh well, ours not to reason why and all that. Sunderland will be mystified as to why they only got one point today. Me too if I’m honest but does that bother me? No it doesn’t.

 

Hold on tight please.

 

Here’s a little pointer for those of you who have joined us in the last few years. This is the reality of supporting Lincoln City, not the meteoric rise we’ve seen lately. You’ll sit through games that you’re convinced City should have won at a canter only for the team to collapse in a heap. That situation goes on for too long. Then, just like in your younger days, you land a date with that good looking girl down the road. You think, this is well out of my league but we’ll give it a go. She thinks you’re hilarious and wants to repeat the experience. You know how that one ends up too don’t you?

So, having endured a fairly catastrophic series of home games where City should have filled their boots but instead came away with nothing, not bad performances apart from Gillingham which was, well, I’ve used catastrophic already but that’s what it was and we now approach a fixture that is the embodiment of getting promoted to a higher league, glamourous, shiny, big time, according to them, Sheffield Wednesday. 

To be honest, even given the experience we’ve all had recently when, despite my previously held conviction that there was no way City were going to get relegated, we were facing just that possibility but for some reason I quite fancied our chances. The reason for that, I’ll call it no more than hope, is that Wednesday would come and play us, unlike the previous outings where our opponents’ sole preoccupation was not to be beaten, only to be presented with a gilt edged opportunity to win the game which of course, they grasp like a drowning man who will grab on to anything to survive. The only thing you could say is that their subsequent opponents are not as generous as us and you just got the feeling if City could just garner the odd point here and there that may well be sufficient.

All of which brings us to the visit of the Owls. House full signs up, metaphorically of course, the hoards in blue and white, I was glad Wednesday wore their traditional colours, the scene was set. We were going to have to be on our mettle, the fans I mean but it applied to the team too and of course that’s exactly what happened. City took an early lead, that’s not all that unusual and Wednesday equalised, that’s not unheard of either but what is a rarity is that the Imps got straight back to business, undaunted, just by way of a change and proceeded to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

I should, I suppose make a list of the players who performed well but that would merely be all the team so lets just name two that particularly pleased me. Brooke Norton-Cuffy. This lad will play for Arsenal’s first team, I’m convinced of that. Every game smooths a bit more rough edge off and he’s going to go back to London a much improved player probably equipped to fight for a place in their first team squad. We next come to a player who has frustrated me, Lewis Fiorini. I’m not going to make a similar prediction for him at Man City but, my goodness we saw yesterday a complete performance from him that may yet force me to reappraise that. I don’t know who won Man of the Match yesterday but if he didn’t, I can’t think why.

So, there we are. A wonderful experience, a marvellous performance against a very good Wednesday team. The fans stood up to be counted, our heroes stood up to be counted. No queuing up to get out of the stadium being deafened by the away fans, in fact there weren’t that many of them in the Stacey West when we left. Good.

A corner turned? Possibly. A relaxing end to the season? Don’t bank on it.