Time to wheel out the secret weapon.

Fridays article on Lincoln Vital. Didn't do a lot of good either in terms of numbers or the result.

A couple of days ago we had a bit of a giggle at Bob Dorrian’s expense. He had not chosen his words very carefully and told BBC Lincolnshire that City were looking for a manager on the cheap. Not the message we thought us fans should be hearing. Well Bob’s back, and this time it’s personal.


In an interview in today’s last ever daily edition of the Lincolnshire Echo and also carried on BBC Lincolnshire Dorrian lays his cards on the table and, in some detail, gives his views on the Sutton and Tilson eras and spells out his and the boards side of the story. The message is clear and stark. The board share our fears and frustration at the situation faced by the club, are working hard but have no magic solution, just like we knew all along.

You may think the board are doing a good job, you may think the board are doing a bad job but the plain fact of the matter is that unless gates improve there is very little possibility of progress on the pitch. The Tilson reign is over and we start a new chapter in our supporting lives. For the moment we have a true Imp and a favourite son at the helm, Grant Brown. At times like this the board can work as hard as they like but, and it was always the case, at times like this the club can only turn to us, it’s supporters so we suggest you give Strictly Come Dancing it takes two, Zoe Ball and all a miss and get yourself down to Sincil Bank tonight. Your club needs you.

Grant Brown cut a confident figure when he faced the press, in contrast with the previous incumbent and issued his own rallying call to the fans to return to the fold explaining even Fleetwood’s manager was surprised that City have found themselves in such a lowly league position. Those of us who have witnessed the whole sorry saga are maybe not so surprised. Let’s hope for better things to come.

Two sides to every story.

Bob and Grant give quotes to the press.

This article went on Vitals yesterday. It's just a nothing thing really something I picked up on when looking at the press in the morning. It spent 24 hours as most read story on News Now which I certainly didn't expect given everything else going on at the minute.

How nice to relax in front of the radio or whatever means you keep track of the Imps. Maybe you were at Alfreton, plenty were, and have a good solid, not much doubt about it away win. That said if City could not win there then there really was little to look forward to but they did and we all rejoice at that.

Stand in manager Grant Brown told the Lincolnshire Echo:-



“Hopefully we can do something similar in the next two days to get the fans back onside. It would be nice to have a few more come through the gate against Fleetwood on Friday”



That’s right Grant, bums on seats, that’s the name of the game and it’s a manager’s job to get the punters in. You’re a quick learner.



Meanwhile Chairman Bob Dorrian was interviewed by BBC Lincolnshire:-



“I would hope we have a manager in place, if not in charge, by the end of next week”



Excellent.



“I think in reality we have to look for a manager with non-league experience”



Yes?



“With non-league contacts”



We’re listening.



“And who is cheap”



Thanks Bob mate. On the phone right now to book a ticket for Friday, totally inspired.



It might just be of course and it is the outsidest of outside chances, that we have a manager in place and in charge right now. Just a thought.

Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

Here is todays article from Vital Lincoln. I gave it the sub title "The board have bowed to the inevitable-What next?"

What with all the articles available and going on mid morning it didn't perform as well as usual on the News Now website but still spent much of the day in the top ten Lincoln City articles so, really can't complain and thanks to my regular readers.

Not for a moment suggesting that our plea for some statement from the club yesterday had anything to do with it but, typically for the way things have been run at Sincil Bank lately the manager yesterday gave a press conference for tonight’s game, renewed a loan signing and was then promptly sacked. It’s tempting to imagine the scene in the boardroom, finger pointing at the dynamic duo and the immortal words “Steve Tilson and Paul Brush, you’re fired!” but the reality was probably the masked executioner taking five or six swings of the axe to dispatch the hapless victims, such is the air of farce surrounding the club.

Former chairman Rob Bradley was on BBC Lincolnshire this morning and, as usual there was much good sense spoken. The general tone seemed to be that replacing the manager is only half of the remedy; the club needs to find a total rebirth and reconnection with the fans and the wider community. Not many will disagree with that whatever their view on City as a Community Club. Rob also offered the opinion that many chairmen would have replaced the manager before the end of last season in order to secure that one point needed to escape the drop. He did not draw a comparison but the inference certainly was that maybe that single minded, ruthless even, determination is not there on the present board.

Lincolnshire Echo’s City reporter, Leigh Curtis also gave an insight into his own relationship with the manager, citing several spats with the media in his column this morning and stating that, with everything that has been going on at the club, Tilson had never been heard to utter an apology or even admitted he got anything wrong. Sorry may indeed be the hardest word and there are none sorrier than us, the fans for the state we now find our club in. Tilson and Brush will go on to other things as will the individual board members leaving, as usual the fans. To use another corny song link. Everything changes but you.

The undeserving poor.

My sub title for this was "A four nil defeat to a part time team. How much worse can it get?"
The only comment so far was to say someone thought Tamworth weren't part time but even meaningless comments mean more cash for the web site which can be used to invest in the Imps so thanks for that but I would prefer to hear if people agreed or disagreed. Hey ho!

Judging by the comments on Twitter on Saturday evening you’d have thought someone might have made some kind of statement on Monday morning or before but, as if Monday mornings weren’t bad enough we have the deafening silence that we are becoming used to now as our beloved club sinks ever further into the mire. Only Joe Anyon man enough to stick his head above the parapet and admit that the fare served up by this team is embarrassingly short, indeed spectacularly short of that required. Joe tells the Lincolnshire Echo:-

“Lincoln City are a big club and everyone wants to beat us”

This writer has been watching professional football for more years than he cares to remember and in all that time all the teams City have played wanted to beat us, well almost. That is the nature of sport. Don’t the other teams want to beat each other? One would think they do. Are City such a big club that they can’t ask a local school or college if they would mind if the team trained on their pitch a couple of mornings a week? This correspondent claims no specialist knowledge but surely a team afforded the luxury of full time training spends the week generally on the type of surface encountered on a Saturday afternoon. That’s not rocket science is it?

There’s the rub. It’s a good excuse having to train on the Astroturf isn’t it? Having to play in front of fans who want them to win and groan if they don’t, that’s another as is not having enough money to stay in a hotel before a game far away. Excuses, excuses, excuses. That’s what we can look forward to dear fellow supporters. Or does someone have something to say?

No quarter given or asked.

Thursdays build up article now on Lincoln Vitals. Things seem a little calmer on the Lincoln City front and a name from the recent past re emerges.

It came as quite a surprise to realise that we are more than a quarter of the way through the season and City sit uneasily in 19^th place in the division. Three defeats, one draw and two wins does, one supposes represent a miniscule recovery in form but, extrapolated over a whole season an almost certain relegation on the evidence of the first six fixtures has now been replaced by a suggestion that the Imps might collapse over the line with one or two points to spare. How inspiring.

The week in Impdom has been enlivened not only by Steve Tilson getting a bit shirty with the local media but more interestingly, the publication of Chris Suttons autobiography “Paradise and Beyond”. Presumably we’re in the beyond section. No doubt a lot of supporters will be adding this tome to their Santa’s list in the hope of learning more about, particularly, Suttons departure from the club which until now had remained shrouded in mystery although anyone with a red and white affliction will be aware that City’s long and not always distinguished history is littered with financial woes so it’s really no surprise to hear tales of inadequacy on the budget front and moved goalposts, if you’ll forgive the football metaphor, when it came to stumping up the proceeds of our magnificent cup runs.

There are those amongst the fan base who cannot bear to hear the name of our former supremo let alone boost his pension pot but there will be many, this writer included, who will want to see for themselves what one might suppose to be fairly uncomfortable reading for our present board of directors if the tempting titbits thrown to us by the Lincolnshire Echo are anything to go by. We all read, after the resignation, that Sutton was begged to stay by the chairman. Now we hear Sutton claim that said chairman, having blamed the former Celtic and Blackburn goal machine for relegation also stated that had he stayed then the club would have avoided the drop. Of rather more pertinence we also learn that the club have been attempting to sue their former boss. Curioser and curioser. Can’t wait to find out what that’s all about.

To the present now and Chris Sutton used to have a favourite saying, we are where we are. Well where we are is perched precariously above the relegation places. Tamworth are next and the good news is that they have Patrick Kanyuka in their ranks. This is balanced by the bad news, they also have Paul Green, pronounced surplus to requirements by the Imps so no clean sheet there then. After that Alfreton, glimmer of hope and away too, followed by Fleetwood. Hope abandoned. So much for us being everyone else’s cup final.

Back to black

Back from holidays now and no respite from the doom and gloom from Sincil Bank. At least my first article for vitals went to number one on the news now web site.

Pride of Lincolnshire?

I’ve always had this notion that our football club should have a special place in the hearts of the population and I’m just back from an area which, more than any encapsulates that vision. That area is Catalonia in Spain, to many Catalans a nation in its own right and of course Catalonia’s team is Barcelona. Everywhere you go there are Barca flags and shirts and the bars are full when they play.

Catalonia was repressed under Franco, the Catalan language was banned but the people united behind the team. Now free there is a real pride in Barca and the rivalry with Real Madrid is fierce and unrelenting. Here in Lincolnshire we’re hardly repressed, the powers that be would need to know we’re here to repress us but it does seem there is a certain loss of identity. City are never going to become another Barcelona but, rather closer to home Norwich City seem to engender the same local affection in Norfolk, not entirely dissimilar to Lincolnshire and Norwich is not entirely dissimilar to Lincoln albeit somewhat bigger.

Our neighbours from the north, never backward in coming forward, seem to have colonised the north of the county to judge by the accents. The Lincolnshire dialect is never heard so where better to underline our unique character than our football team? Oh dear! Another loss last night and we are back in the relegation zone. Any notion that we may be a bit down on our luck financially but at least we have our football club is frankly laughable. Can you imagine Uncle Bob on the pitch at half time berating the crowd like the, admittedly slightly worse for wear Delia? Are you proud to wear your shirt around the county or even the city? Thought not.

When City were relegated there was a hope that at least the club would be able to regroup and compete at the lower level. Those hopes were swiftly rebuffed by comments made by the club and of course by the team’s performance. We are told that the club cannot afford to put up for the night on a long away visit, not that many teams would stay over for a midweek match but it’s not very inspiring. Neither is what Steve Tilson told the press after the Barrow defeat;

“They were better than us and I don’t know why”

Club finances will not be helped by this Saturday’s gate which the club no doubt hope will top the psychological 2000 barrier. Not long ago the stadium rocked to 5000 plus attendances. Our gates are now nowhere near what the other supposedly big sides are getting as the supporters vote with their feet. A further relegation, once unthinkable now looks a very real possibility. Before I am accused of undue negativity I am feeling negative and I’m looking for someone, anyone to drag me out of it. I can’t think who that person may be but I’m willing to be surprised.

Rant over. For now.

Ps. Saturday 1^st October is Lincolnshire Day. Huh!

One year later

Feeling a bit down about all things Lincoln City I decided to have a punt at seeing how the good readers of Vitals saw things. It produced one or two interesting responses from fellow sufferers.

About a year ago, writing for a different web site I was taken to task by a reader for suggesting that Lincoln City fans could be forgiven for getting in a panic over the lowly league position Lincoln City found themselves in. I explained, as it was a football web site not just the Imps, that City were the first League club relegated from the bottom division automatically and that although the club gained promotion from the then G M Vauxhall Conference at the first time of asking such an outcome could not necessarily be expected if this terror should revisit us again.

My correspondent stated that I didn’t know what I was talking about, that we should all pull together and dismiss all talk of panic, unite behind our manager, Chris Sutton, and all would be well. I took no satisfaction in being closer to reality than the person who wrote in. I hadn’t said in fact that City fans were in a panic, I had said they could be forgiven if they were. Within two weeks Sutton was gone and we all know what happened next. One year later we find ourselves in the bottom four of the division, unable to win at home and beaten by a team that most Imps had not even thought of in our orbit let alone better than us. Is it time for a bit of panic now?

Ironically, my last game, and it will have been a lot of Imps last game was the home fixture against Stockport, a performance, let’s not forget where the vast majority of supporters thought the team unlucky not to win, the Imps were afforded, on leaving the pitch, if not a standing ovation a very generous round of applause and the after match opinion seemed to be that it was surely only a matter of time before the Imps were, once again upwardly mobile. Two defeats later, after, by all accounts a very poor showing against Darlington, let’s face it hardly a happy hunting ground for City and a one nil defeat at Braintree of all places and City fans are once again waking up in a sweat at the possibility of fixtures against Boston and Gainsborough, enticing though that possibility may be, but in a manner none of us had contemplated in our worst nightmares.

Judging by the comments made in the media and on the web, supporters remain far from convinced by the leadership shown by the board of directors, albeit they handsomely saw off a vote of no confidence. Likewise the team management where fans expect to see some tactical nouse and an ability to turn unfavourable situations around but it doesn’t seem to be happening much for us and we have a squad that is already looking threadbare and we’re hardly into September. I’ve saved the best, or should it be worst till last and that is the defence. I’ve used this analogy before but I’ll use it again because I liked it, a defence that shows all the resolve of butter when faced with a hot knife.

So is it panic or patience, another new man coming in, the budget all spent and it was all the other blokes’ fault (it’s fair to say we’re all getting fed up of that one) or steady as she goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. The chairman was in the Lincolnshire Echo this morning with the dreaded vote of confidence. So is it twist or stick?

Discuss.