Oh dear what can the matter be?

The manager loses no opportunity to explain that the budget is one of the lowest in the league. The board are working hard but hamstrung because few fans are attending home games. The fans, to read some websites, suspect that there is investment available but there are few new faces appearing on the board. Au contraire, say the board, watch this space. Everyone is fed up of watching the team lose.


The visit of Luton Town at least raised the prospect of a decent home gate although at a touch short of 3000 even that much improved attendance is still adrift of the break even figure but something like 2100 home fans represents a significant increase in the previous interest and an impressive 800 odd from Luton made for a good atmosphere in the stadium.

The stage was therefore set for City to raise their game and have a right good go at the opposition to let the stay away fans see what they have been missing; City’s last two home fixtures have produced wins. To be fair the team did have a good go at the Hatters although the manager’s choice of formation with just Jamie Taylor up front caused a few groans. Undaunted, City set about Luton with a vengeance before the game took a depressingly familiar look. Chances created and spurned before goalkeeper Paul Farman of all people gifted the opposition the lead with an uncharacteristic flap that saw the ball end up in City’s net.

Home fans were expecting some changes at half time but it was the Hatters who, no doubt stung by their complete inability to make headway against the Imps, that goal apart, Shaw and Rowe-Turner coming on to beef up Luton’s resolve. No sooner were the formalities completed and the second half underway when Luton doubled their lead again with with more than a little assistance from the home side. The defence like rabbits caught in the headlights leaving Jon Shaw the simple task of slotting the ball past an unmoving Farman.

City did finally get on the score sheet in spectacular fashion as Farman repulsed a Luton attack and the ball went all the way to the other end where Taylor lashed a thunderbolt past Tyler in the Hatters goal to bring the home fans to their feet

David Holdsworth did at last send reinforcements to the attack with the introduction of Colin Larkin and, a little later took off Peter Bore which baffled me a little as Bore was having a positive influence and surely experience was needed, and replaced him with the boy Robinson. Didn’t understand that, didn’t understand one up front. The changes proved too little too late and the game fizzled out as did City as an attacking force.

The game ended with the now familiar boos but it had been an upbeat performance from the home team but who, once again unhinged themselves with sloppiness in defence not to mention that howler from Farman. City really should have won this game on the evidence of their performance and now enter the twilight world of the bottom four of the division.

Do you remember the theme tune to that old sitcom “Auf Weidersehen Pet”? Some of the words went “no one said it was going to be easy” and I don’t think any one with Lincoln City connections were so presumptuous. By the same token I don’t think any of us thought it was going to be quite as difficult as it is proving either.

Roll back the years.

There was a time when the visit of Luton Town to Sincil Bank would have barely caused a ripple in the Lincoln pond although they have always seemed a much bigger club than City thanks to Eric Morecambe and that run in the top division that seems many moons ago now. It must seem like it never happened to Hatters fans just as Forest supporters must wonder if their heyday was a dream.


Did we have a heyday? Yes, of course but it was never along the lines of our illustrious opponents and you would be getting on a bit now if you remember the days when City regularly battled it out with the biggest names in football. There I go again, getting all morose. Tomorrow is a chance to relive those heady days when we were a football league club at least and occasionally a successful one.

The big time was far from the mind of manager David Holdsworth this week as he discussed in his regular column in the Lincolnshire Echo the relative virtues of a regional league. In yesterdays Echo, an article on the fact that City cannot afford, as a matter of routine, to send players for a scan to assess the extent of injuries. Any fan will be aware that our football club must cut its cloth according to its means and we should applaud them for trying, at least, to run a tight ship. The problem is, for this fan, that I feel we are being prepared for continued life at this level or below.

Football is about dreams and escape. City fans dream of an escape from the drudgery of our current existence. Do they really want to hear about the present straightened circumstances? David Holdsworth will want us to hear the message to justify the Imps present lowly position but does that sell tickets? I don’t think it does. In my view, whilst acknowledging that no one will be inspired to watch a side struggling at the bottom of the league, we are after all down to the real hardy few, a bit of inspiration might not go amiss. Surely there is something uplifting we could hear about? Paul Farman’s selection for England C perhaps? That has hardly been shouted from the rooftops.

A look at the Dunstable Today website reveals an article all about the forthcoming game, just football, no sob stories at all as well there might not be with a club sitting fourth in the table, two above you know who. Our own website features an admittedly tongue in cheek offering entitled “Your club needs you” as indeed they do but is that what we’ve come to? You can download a flyer and what? Put it in your window, hand it around at work? Anyway, I’ll be there and I hope you will be too. Your club needs you.

Life in the old dog yet?

There was a certain inevitability at Sincil Bank last night as City took a sucker punch early on to provoke some half hearted cries of Holdsworth out! The Imps laboured on to little effect and no doubt many were wondering what they might had done with £18 other than be at the match.


My mate Stewart offered the opinion that watching the Imps these days is akin to looking at your poor old pooch mournfully seeing out the remainder of his days, a sad reflection of his former self. It only seemed yesterday that he was chasing rabbits and frightening the postman?

City fielded a new look strike force, little good it did them and the crowd were certainly in no mood to make Conner Robinson’s full debut something he would look back on with regret but to say there was any punch up front would take much rosier tinted glasses than I possess. The manager responded with a triple substitution.

Then a funny thing happened. Well it’s not funny if your name is Simon Forsdick. Vadaine Oliver was on a charging run towards goal and Forsdick brought him down. There was little doubt of the foul but would the referee deem the Nuneaton man the last defender? He did and that meant only one thing and Forsdick made a very slow trudge to the dressing room.

Now this sort of scenario hasn’t produced rich rewards for City in recent years so there was some light hearted conjecture as to where the ball might end up from the resulting free kick. Few expected what happened as Nutter rolled the ball to Nicky Nicolau and he absolutely buried it to put City level.

The Imps were like a dog with two tails now but would they go on to sink their teeth into Nuneaton’s nether regions or go back to whimpering and farting by the fire?

Tom Miller provided the answer although not that many could see how the ball ended up in the net to put City on their way to three points. Just to dispel any thoughts that City might be out of the woods the referee, previously not disposed to right the wrongs perpetrated on the Imps, awarded a penalty. Plenty would not have done. Again, inevitably, Taylor rattled the bar with his effort. The fact that a centimetre lower and City would have been 3.1 up more an indication of the Imps lack of luck at the moment than judgement on Taylor’s ability as a penalty taker. Still, the journey home was a lot pleasanter than it had seemed it would be an hour earlier.

This year I'm off to sunny Spain.

Same as last year actually. This time we are at Heathrow terminal 5. We tried the Heathrow Express too but only because we got in the wrong car park. Life's rich tapestry eh?
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Adding insult to injury.

It’s tempting to say same old story, fragile City once again throw away a lead and end up getting booed off having capitulated to a side that they ought to have wiped the floor with. Whatever the new players think they’ve let themselves in for goodness only knows.


I got talking to a scout before the game and no I didn’t ask who he was looking at, he was from Shrewsbury. After he’d finished going on about how long it took to get to Lincoln, Shrewsbury? He’s a one to talk, not exactly the centre of the universe is it? He asked me how things were here. Well it’s difficult to sell the club isn’t it? All you can say is it’s a very unhappy ship at the moment. The scout commented on how big the stadium is, seemingly oblivious to our recent history, play offs etc, some scout but I had to recall that a few short seasons ago a goodly proportion of those seats were regularly taken every game. Not last night, as expected another desperate gate as the fans voted with their feet again but for some time it looked as if the ones there were the ones in the know as City tore into a robust Alfreton Town.

It’s easy to dismiss the manager’s talk of injury as excuses but there are more than a few at the moment. Alan Power was first off, well, not being unkind but if anything that did us a favour, certainly no harm but there was worse, much worse to follow as Andrew Boyce, again a rock in defence was well and truly felled making a last ditch tackle. The stretcher was called but declined but he might as well have got on it as he could barely manage a limp as he went off, arm round a girl on each side, scant consolation.

Scant consolation for City too as the shape went as did much of the purpose, an equaliser then a winner for Town. An outraged David Holdsworth stormed up to the referee at the end, little good that was going to do. Alfreton were, lets put it like this, uncompromising but City are going to have to deal with much more of this if they are to survive in this league let alone prosper.

Whether City survive at all may have nothing to do with football. I’ll rephrase that, whatever the activities of the management and team, although that is woefully inadequate at the moment City’s immediate future depends on how long the club can continue making the thumping losses they are. Sorry to say this because I have every sympathy with the board of directors for the situation they find themselves in. None of the board can have anticipated the horrors they were going to have to deal with when they agreed to take on the role but these problems came from somewhere and it’s not from the fans. Not this time.

Is that the sound of a tumbril? – Or an open top bus.

It’s all getting a bit repetitive but surely Lincoln City can register a second home win to get their season off to some kind of a start? We said that of course last Saturday and thinking about it dispassionately City almost did but for a missed chance and a poor decision from a player who will remain nameless but we all know who he is, shooting (after a fashion) when a gilt edged pass was there for the taking. Surely a second goal would have finished off Ebbsfleet? As it was the Fleet went on to score and in all honesty few could deny them a share of the spoils. We’re not here however to be fair to the opposition, winning is the name of the game, an outcome we fans have not been too familiar with lately.


Alfreton scraped home to remain in the division last season and are continuing in similar vein, as are our heroes but surely tonight’s the night? Injury woes continue to beset the Imps though and Miller, Duffy and Smith are doubtful, I can’t find anything on redimps.co.uk at the moment to settle that question one way or another. Just looking around the net it’s fair to say that a win should dissipate smouldering thoughts of revolution but a loss, a draw even will herald the sound of blades being honed in readiness for another round of blood letting, figuratively speaking.

As any writer will do, I’ve just been back through this article to check the punctuation. There are an awful lot of question marks which certainly reflects Lincoln City’s season so far.

A glimpse of a better future – and a big reality check.

Here are some words that ought to strike fear in the heart of every Imps fan. One thousand six hundred and eighty two. That’s the number of fans present at yesterdays game with Ebbsfleet United. I’d previously thought around two thousand two hundred was just about the absolute rock bottom for a Saturday fixture and even that is well below the budgeted gate figure even for this cut price season. It’s a measure of the disenchantment the fans have with their team and a reflection on the negative publicity coming out of the club in my view with pronouncements from the chairman, now mercifully few, putting people off and the manager, who cannot seem to give any kind of quote at all without slotting in a reference to the fact that his budget is insufficient, admittedly with the caveat that he doesn’t mind. Well the fans mind, in fact they’re appalled.


One of the best bits of radio, for me, when you get back to the car and tune to BBC Radio Lincolnshire is the period when Michael Hortin is waiting for the players or manager to become available for interview and prevails upon the Echo’s reporter, Leigh Curtis to have a chat on air. The topic was, of course that terrible gate and what that means for the attendance on Tuesday when there is another home game. One shudders to think. There was disagreement on whether a resurgent City would be able to pull the crowds back but agreement on the fact that the nature of football as essentially a working class spectator sport has changed. Of course it changed some time ago with the advent of the prawn sandwich brigade and these wealthier supporters are now evident at all games, Lincoln included but what is missing is the tribal almost, group of fans, usually coming from mass employment situations, factories etc who will support the club come what may. Of course the nature of employment has changed, certainly in Lincoln where even the largest of employers are a fraction of the size they were at one time.

I’m starting to ramble a bit here but the point I’m trying to make is that the club can no longer expect the fans to roll in come what may as a result of some allegiance to their team although sometimes I think the club thinks they should and they will simply out of loyalty. Well now they know differently. Times are very hard and Lincolnshire is far from a wealthy area. The club has to offer something that will lift the ordinary fan out of his or her hum drum life and give them a couple of hours of escape from it and they are not doing so. Every pronouncement drags them back into the reality of their own situation. Lincoln City’s problem is that, unlike their heyday in, say the fifties or sixties, no we’ll leave it at the fifties, there are lots of other things to do of a Saturday. For example for the price of a season ticket a fan could buy a decent lightweight bike and spend their afternoons tootling about Lincolnshire’s attractive (and flat) leafy lanes pleasing both their doctor and their wife, once the beer gut starts to disappear. For the price of one season’s football that investment could provide twenty years of healthy recreation and yet footballers wages and therefore admission prices continue up and up as opposed to the very people who provide those wages.

This game did though, provide a glimpse of what might be as an early goal, never a bad thing, settled City’s nerves and they produced some terrific stuff, moving the ball around well and quickly but as is, dare I say, usually the case, the failure to capitalise on their advantage when a couple of gilt edged chances were spurned, they lapsed back into trying to sit on a one goal lead only for the inevitable to happen and Ebbsfleet deservedly equalised.

At the risk of perpetuating the gloom, this situation cannot continue and certainly Lincoln City cannot survive as a full time club having alienated their supporters to the extent they have, already it’s starting to look too late for any success to accrue this season, quite the opposite. I do hope I’m entirely wrong about this.