Hero and Villain.

Had Lincoln City hung on to their lead in Saturday’s eventful clash with Woking the headline was going to be “City win the lottery” for lottery it was given the weather.

Poor old Paul Farman had every goal keepers worst nightmare not once but twice as relatively routine saves squirmed through his hands as Woking firstly took the lead and were then pegged back as City applied themselves to the task in hand.

Back to the weather and it looked so threatening as the start of the match drew near we retreated well back into the Echo Stand, fairly close to chairman Bob Dorrian. Not in the posh seats you understand but within eyesight and he cut a strange figure as he watched the game. If anything he is enjoying his football even less than us long suffering fans and was a picture of, well whatever the opposite of enjoyment is and that was after City had just scored!

The game progressed and I’m sure fellow fans, like myself were fearing the now familiar calamity and so it seemed to come to pass as Farman let one in. Worse was to follow as the Imps conspired to let slip all three points and in a stroke of disastrous defending the onrushing Betsy was upended in the box to give Woking a stone wall penalty.

Just time for a final drama, this time of the good variety as Farman went some way towards making amends for his afternoon as the City stopper not only saved the penalty kick but also the rebound to preserve the point. Had City’s plight not been so pressing this could have been cause for much celebration and as it was it still felt like a win as we all made our way home.

Manager Simpson felt there were positives to be gained from the match and, whilst it’s never a bad thing to have a penalty saved in the last moments of the game, particularly when a point is rescued, nevertheless three points was really a minimum requirement and City find themselves, once again precariously placed in the league as the winter drags on.

Talking of precariously hanging on it would be interesting to know what the manager’s thoughts are on his beleaguered goalkeeper and what he is going to do about him. Many fans will be thinking that with a perfectly adequate back up in Preece maybe the time is right for Farman to have a couple of games to get his head sorted out. After all it worked wonders for Joe Hart at Manchester City.

Bob’s yer Chairman.

It’s been a bit quiet on the Lincoln City front and certainly quiet on this blog mainly due to me not attending any matches.

Bob Dorrian has relieved the tedium though as he tries to rally the troops or is it deflect news of the latest loss by tossing a few sweets to the audience, pantomime syle? “Oh no he didn’t” “Oh yes he did!”

Bob tells the Echo he’s been putting his money where his mouth is to get the club over a lack of home games:-

"We had a series of away fixtures which hit us quite hard so I had to put £20,000 in to pay the wages."


However, stories about the board being unresponsive to potential investors are wide of the mark:-

“Back in 2011 I was contacted by a potential investment consortium who were looking to get involved," said Dorrian.
"There was a lot of talk between intermediaries, but no concrete offer came forward.
"By this point the club was in a serious position financially and myself and other directors had to step forward and form the holding company to keep the club going.
"I hear how we have turned down investment. The truth is there was nothing concrete to turn down.
"I hope that if there is anyone in that group of people still interested in investing that they will come forward.
"I cannot stress enough how we are willing to take a new investor onto the board.
"In the last three years we have brought in David Parman, David Featherstone, Roger Bates and Chris Moyses.
"They have all brought something different, so we would happily add to that."
Crowds, we are told are better than budgeted for and, in an effort, no doubt to take the heat off his beleaguered manager the Chairman praised Gary Simpson’s financial and man management skills whilst confirming that any money raised from player sales will go on the squad:-


"If you sell a player for £40,000, it means you are able to think about wages, or bid for a player worth, say, £10,000," said Bob.
"It is about being shrewd with the deals, but also being aware of who potentially could be sold.
"That's why Gary Simpson is a good manager for Lincoln City.
"He knows that if he cannot keep hold of a player, he already has a target in mind of someone to bring in.
"Furthermore he has a superb record for selling on players, making £1.3million in his final season at his previous club."


As we all now know another thumping loss is on the cards but not as bad as previously and furthermore, it’s all under control and the club will not be going part time:-

"It would be unambitious of us to go part-time,"
"Also, to do so would make it very difficult to then go full-time in the future.
"I have seen a lot of clubs called part-time in this division, however my impression is that only three or four are 'properly' part-time."

Work. The curse of the drinking classes.

Apologies if you’re getting up for work in the morning. I’m sorry I really am. Not as sorry as if I were going mind you.
We’ve occasionally discussed opening the office in between Christmas and the New Year but it’s my contention that the only calls we’d get would be from time wasters and troublemakers. It’s not my decision but I hope things will stay as they are and a nice long holiday, the only one apart from Easter where work is closed and no possibility of those “Mr so and so came to see you. He wasn’t very pleased you were off” type conversations.
It’s been really blissful mooching round the house not getting any of those jobs done. I could get used to this. It’s like being retired except there’s a pay cheque at the end of the month.

Don’t suppose there’s any possibility I’ve won the lottery? No, thought not.

The secret of success; Take Kerr.

You know what it’s like, you’re doing ok when along comes a new boss. Try as you might your face doesn’t fit any more. Usually there’s only one winner, the boss and all of a sudden the door looks a lot closer than it did.

That’s what happened to Scott Kerr at Lincoln. Twice. First Chris Sutton didn’t like the look of him but the diminutive midfielder rolled up his sleeves and fought his way back into the team. Then, this being Lincoln City, soon enough along came another manager, Steve Tilson and it was the same old story. Did he jump or was he pushed? Bit of both possibly and off Scott went, to York. Very picturesque and, you know, a better class of supporter, very pleasant.

Kerr enthused some Lincoln City fans, others agreed with the managers but he went on to enjoy success, in the form of promotion and frustration with a bad injury. Football being football he was released by York and duly arrived in Cleethorpes, home of Grimsby Town.

Now it’s often the case that players return to haunt their old team and in the Imps case, usually. Even Kyle Perry managed to do it, in his case even before he’d left officially. And so we come to the Boxing Day clash between a slipping Lincoln City and a renewed Grimsby Town. Played before a large crowd most City fans, it’s safe to say, were expecting a pasting and it seemed that was to be as Mariners raced to a two goal lead in the first half.

I’m often amused by some of the comments made by my fellow fans on the radio and on the message boards, the manager’s playing the wrong formation, this is wrong, that’s wrong. The truth of the matter is often simple. Can you make the most of your limited resources? In the case of Conference football the limitation is skill, or rather lack of it. The best chance of scoring a goal at the level we are at is often a set piece, be it a free kick, corner or even a throw in. The difference between poor results and good ones is often a goal or two nicked from a situation where you can have all of your resources in the right place and deliver the right ball.

It would be churlish to deny Mariners are having a good season, picking up plenty of points and it would be over optimistic to think that City are going to have a barnstorming second half of the season. It usually happens that you will end up roughly where you are at Christmas and yet there was not a lot of difference between the two sides. In fact the main difference was that Grimsby had a player who could deliver free kicks into the right area, Scott Kerr, and it does help if you also have the ability to stick the ball in the net from that good delivery. This being Lincoln City they were ably assisted by having almost no defenders to get in their way. Kerr went off at half time and that was that of Mariners as an attacking force and a neutral observer would have been hard put to identify which team were battling for the play offs and who were the strugglers, football’s often like that.

Quite where that leaves us I really wouldn’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me if City were to get something at Blundell Park and it wouldn’t surprise me if Grimsby were to deliver that pasting. I did actually manage to enjoy this Boxing Day encounter, I thought Mariners fans were in good voice and I thought our fans were too. There was plenty to admire. Some reckless tackling saw yellow cards for City, which will displease the manager and an even more reckless lunge from Sheriden resulted in a red which will definitely displease the manager. It’s bad enough having your main playmaker, Newton, out but when a player comes in who has barely featured this season, but is also capable of delivering a surprise or two rules himself out for three games you know it’s really not your day.

Merry Christmas.

Restless natives.

I was on the road last Saturday as night was falling, listening to Radio Lincolnshire as we were just about in the county. I rather like listening to the football on the car radio but I never tune in for the match commentary when I’m at home.

Anyway City’s game slithered to its inevitable conclusion with the final score flattering to the home side according to those at the game and the non league paper too, I learned today. I was not expecting anything if I’m honest and a season that started off with such hope is now once again causing disappointment.

Gary Simpson sounded a tortured soul in his after match interview and it’s an all too familiar refrain these days as a puzzled manager attempts to put some kind of a gloss on the performance or explain what went wrong. Except he didn’t put a gloss on the performance and couldn’t explain what went wrong.

All this was grist to the mill of the texters who offered their considered opinion of the current state of Lincoln City and many of them were, guess what? Calling for the managers head. Any fans who expressed themselves satisfied with the current managerial position were denounced as deluded and it was stated that David Holdsworth would have been slaughtered after such a run. That much may be true although I dare suggest that general results this season, even given the slump of late were surely not as bad as last and at least we have had some decent home performances.

Given that I am not calling for the managers head I suppose I am one of the deluded ones. I’ve been following City for 40 odd years now and, apart from a period in the seventies when we really seemed to have established ourselves as a third division side (that’s league one in new money) my demeanour has largely been one of hoping that things will improve. As things stand now, that’s my current mood, as it was last season and the one before that recurring.

I dare say I’m no different to most other fans who are not disposed to contact the radio station demanding blood but by the same token I am not unhappy with the manager as much as not happy with the current situation. Who would be?

Simpson told a very interesting story when invited to comment on the Andrew Boyce saga, the players agent was agitating for a move, very much sideways, Mansfield Town was one of the clubs interested, I can’t remember the other, at the end of last season but it does underline the real movers and shakers in the football world and moan though we may at the manager and the clubs chairman and board therein lies the frustrating truth about football at this level. You can chop and change as much as you like and the result will probably be, well, exactly what happened to the Imps.

Should I stay or should I go.

Much speculation in the press and amongst the twitterati at the moment about Andrew Boyce and his release clause.

Personally, whilst I would miss seeing Boyce’s performances, he is one of my favourite players, I don’t think the club should seek to prevent the player leaving and indeed I think the fact that there is conjecture is a good thing. At least we have a player who is coveted by a football league club. Alright, I understand that club is Scunthorpe United but, leaving aside slightly hurt pride no one can deny they are a well run club whose recent status has been considerably higher than the Imps.

Boyce reminds me of a slightly less beefy Gareth McAuley and I believe with the right guidance he can go on to emulate that player and perform at the highest level, at least in club football. I’ll say this through gritted teeth; I believe he will get at least the start of that guidance from the Iron, Brian Laws et al.

Given the fact that former Blues owner Peter Swann is now at Glanford Park we have all the evidence we need to support the theory that Boyce will be playing his football next season up the A15. If he does, good luck to him, he’s done us a good job and at least we’ve had the opportunity to see him for a couple of seasons.

Slightly more concerning is the pronouncement that Gary Simpson did not know about the release clause in the players contract. If he didn’t, he should have done.

A case of déjà vu-only the other way round.

As I sat in the Echo Stand at Sincil Bank last night watching City cruise past Worcester City to reach the first round proper of the FA Cup, I couldn’t help thinking I’d been somewhere before in some of the many Imps games I’d watched.

City did indeed cruise past their opponents, four goals wouldn’t have been flattering but they didn’t particularly dominate Worcester in fact at times it was a bit of a tussle. Certainly poor old Conner Robinson knew he’d been in a battle as he was felled very early on by a tackle that could be described as robust at the very least and that’s being kind. A yellow card was shown but it just goes to show if we thought the premier league was a bit rustic pretty much anything goes in the division below.

I found myself seeing things from Worcester’s point of view or at least their fans in that they were doing ok when City scored then they settled down and City scored again and so on. I’ve watched the Imps play countless supposedly better teams in various cup competitions, give a good account of themselves but still go down to a few well taken goals.

I’m not complaining though. City continue to labour although Tomlinson was in sparkling form, really enjoyed watching him, I thought the new boy did well and Newton is a splendid mix of belligerence and pace. I really like seeing him play.

Plymouth Argyle next, in fact the next home game and a good time to be playing what will be to many City fans quite an exotic opponent, certainly one whose orbit we have rarely encountered but who are somewhat down on their luck at the moment. The FA Cup is not quite the graveyard of our hopes it was hitherto and if that’s not tempting providence I don’t know what is.