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.