Woody: Now we know.

It was always apparent that there was more to come out of the Bradley Wood saga than a motoring misdemeanour. We now know the full extent and it doesn’t make good reading.

On Radio Lincolnshire last night when they broke the story they expressed the view that this would reflect badly on the club. I do hope not although there are those jealous of City’s success recently who could make something out of it. The club have put out a nothing to do with us statement as well they might.

My overwhelming feeling is sadness. Sadness for us that we lost such a good player. Sadness for Brad who should have tested himself in the football league. As fans we accept that wrongdoing should not be allowed to prevail no matter how good and how popular the player was. As a footballer he’s pretty much lost everything and will surely find getting back into the game after suspension well nigh impossible.

As a supporter, I can live with most things. I accept the limitations of footballers at our level, I can forgive tantrums and loss of form. The two things I expect from our players are that they try hard and have integrity. Of the former there can be no accusation in Woody’s case but I’m afraid as to integrity I can’t see any excuse for it.

On to matters topical we have another top of the range game to look forward to, one of just two remaining home games. As fans we’ve not been found wanting and tomorrow will be no different. I see Sincil Bank was described as “a cauldron” in the Wycombe Wanderers website on Tuesday night. There will be more of that tomorrow and its music to our ears to hear that. Gone are the days when Lincoln City players preferred playing away and gone are the days when the away team saw Lincoln as a nice day out.

Long may that continue.

Gareth takes us Beck to our past. Did we really pay to watch that?

As a player John Beck was a cultured midfielder playing at the top level. When he turned to management it was a different matter. His teams had to stick rigidly to the plan, no more than three touches then the ball must be belted into the channels where an unsuspecting full back would expect it to run out of play except it didn’t as Beck had ordered the groundsman to leave the grass longer in the corners. The ball would hold up sufficiently for a speedy player to reach it and cross. If you didn’t do that an early bath ensued, usually a cold one.

I always thought Gareth Ainsworth was Becks little indulgence. Yes I’m long ball but I’ve got Gareth who will weave about making idiots of defenders. We loved him of course and still do, maybe a bit less after last night but we loved him and he loved us.

So to the tutored eye, whilst a surprise, it was easy to see where Wycombe’s game plan came from, straight out of the manual. What we didn’t expect was the Chairboys playing for a draw straight from the kick off. In fact after a couple of minutes I really thought they were heading for the corners. They didn’t but I wouldn’t have been surprised.

As the home team it was up to City to rise above the delaying tactics but Wycombe were more than a bunch of spoilers. The referee came in for some stick although it’s difficult to see what he could do apart from adding the time on at the end. Rheady got the ball in the net, in fact it was in twice although the first time the flag was clearly up and whistle gone before the shot. The second was disallowed for pushing which is frustrating but an experienced player like Rhead must know his every move will be scrutinised.

In the end I thought it might be a decent point, Wycombe are not mugs and will probably get automatic. City, for me had too many flair players having an off night, Anderson, Frecklington. Even Neal Eardley wasn’t his usual sure footed self. On the other hand Wharton was terrific as was Allsop, Bozzie off the scale and Rhead was, well Matt Rhead. Oh, and City are back in the top seven. It’s not all bad, not by any means.

The lull before the storm.

I’ve been catching up with a bit of Imps reading and feeling a little more relaxed after the furore over the will they won’t they Ipswich saga. You have to admit all this represents a sea change in City’s status as, it would appear, a predator and this time a very credible one appears to have been rebuffed and we are assured the managers will be staying put. At one time any successful manager would have been off at the first sign of an improved contract so the fact that the Cowleys are still here even after last season’s triumph is in itself a big step forward.

Over the years, to be honest, the Imps have hardly had managers of a calibre that a bigger club would want to poach. That’s the uncomfortable truth. The last one, possibly the only one apart from Keith and you do wonder if some of the stories from his era were clever smokescreens, was Graham Taylor. I was astonished when he left third division Lincoln City for fourth division Watford but we soon saw why. It was only later, in Taylor’s book that we learned that he would have stayed had he been convinced the board’s ambition matched his own.

Does that sound at all familiar? Now we have all our soldiers in a row as it were with a perfect scenario of boardroom expertise, money in the bank, a large fan base coming to games come what may and the right managers. The only imponderable is how far the club can go and the answer is nobody knows. The thing that slightly irritates me is the view, in some people’s eyes that there is a ceiling, possibly at league one, that City cannot progress through. Why?

Before I go on I should mention a reality check, when City were in the championship last, it was simply division two of three at the time, so we were already at division one level rather than having two steps up the ladder to go. Are you keeping up at the back?

Just looking at the wonderful Colin Murphy leading the team out at Wembley I was reminded that a Lincoln team of his was within an ace of getting us up to championship level. That with very little money and a boardroom in open revolt. I can think of the likes of Carlisle, Luton, Bradford City, Blackpool and of course Bournemouth and Swansea City all in the top division albeit short lived in some of those cases but nevertheless it can be done even in the premier league age so let’s have less of those glass ceilings and a bit more ambition.

Of course the reality of City’s quest has to be balanced against last weekend’s result and the considerable obstacle of Wycombe Wanderers before we can start to think about Liverpool or Spurs but both of those clubs have been opponents of Lincoln City in the same league so let’s dream big if we’re going to dream at all.

City back to earth with a bump one week after Wembley.

I suppose I’d allowed myself to get carried away after the Checkatrade Trophy win on Sunday. Listening to Friday Football on the computer on Saturday morning where Clive Nates was one of the studio guests cranked up the anticipation. He’s always such a positive influence on me and this time he brought us news that we’re always keen to hear, the impending new contract for the Cowley brothers.

Maybe this was a planned thing after all the angst over the past week and the will they won’t they surrounding Ipswich Town brought about by Mick McCarthy’s walkout. I’d refused to get too carried away by all that but it felt like I was on my own as Impdom threatened meltdown despite all the reassuring noises coming from the club. Perhaps it was felt that a word from someone in authority would calm things down and there’s no bigger boardroom authority at the moment than Clive Nates.

The new contract was the big news of course but it overshadowed another announcement, the impending joining of the board of another Sportvest member. As far as I can see from the companies house records there are three main figures behind Sportvest and this means two of them will be on the board assuming it all goes through and with it, one hopes, more significant investment for the club. I don’t normally attribute South Africans with a particular penchant for humour but one thing Nates said made me chuckle. Asked by Michael Hortin about the development, he ventured the opinion that another investor had fallen in love with the club? He’s only human was the reply, well it made me laugh.

Yesterdays result was not a reason for mirth unfortunately. Not a tale of a valiant effort unrewarded more a case of after the Lord Mayors show and Danny Cowley could not hide his disappointment after the game when interviewed by the aforementioned Mr Hortin. There was plenty of scope for optimism but Cowley was having none of it. Ask me again later in the week was the best that could be dragged out of him.

Not long to wait either as Wycombe wander into town for what was always going to be a massive game on Tuesday. Downcast as he is at the moment, matching all our demeanours this morning I’m sure but win lose or draw the Cowleys and their mentor Clive Nates have made every Lincoln City game a momentous one. You may approve of that or not but it’s certainly true.

Back to business.

If you’d asked the question would you swap your day out at Wembley for promotion or even a play-off place probably at least 9000, those who regularly attend games, would plump for promotion?

That’s not to say it wasn’t a memorable day and long overdue and of course, being Lincoln City we might have had that first Wembley experience several years ago but the stadium was being redeveloped. Chances are we’d have lost though whereas we didn’t and those memories will be all the more golden in years to come.

We should now be firmly focussed on the next few games and I dare say the management and players are but we fans continue to fret about the likelihood of the managers staying. The managers will be unconcerned because they and only they know what will happen. Players don’t worry about that kind of thing. Personally, whilst it’s very much on my mind I don’t worry about it because it’s wasted effort and I don’t like to do that. In any case I am relatively unconcerned and the reason for that is it’s the Cowleys we are dealing with. If our manager was Steve Evans or Mark Cooper I’d be equally pessimistic. Evans would be off at the first sniff of something more lucrative and we know that because he did.

However, I look at two things. How satisfied are the Cowleys with life at Lincoln and what is the likelihood of a better offer being made (not an offer, an offer better than they have with us)? There are any number of clubs who could greatly increase their wages we know that but let’s just take Ipswich as they are the ones in our minds at the moment. Massively in debt and losing money every week and with increasingly vitriolic fans demanding a return to their glory days which were some considerable time ago. Plus free flowing passing football. An East Anglian Real Madrid. A good man, Mick McCarthy, who most professionals agree did a good job, was hounded out. Would you go? Would the Cowleys be capable of delivering that style of football?

One, the most important, reason I’m so confident is the Cowleys are not motivated by money they are motivated by building, renovating, improving both themselves and their charges and their club. The Cowleys, adored, lauded, recipients of the Lincoln Civic Award, followed by 27000 supporters to Wembley. I could add the Cowleys who have stated they will be moving their operation to Lincolnshire. Plans can alter, I know that but if I were in their position, confident in my ability to keep on improving and not interested in an easy life I think I’d be inclined to stay right where I am for the present.

So we go on. In the words of the song, The road is long, there are mountains in our way, but we climb a step every day. That sums it up for me but starting with Port Vale tomorrow it will take a monumental effort to get where we want to be, however the tools are there and if they make it, given the relationship between fans and club and particularly fans and the manager you could truly say Love lifts us up where we belong.

What a day, but it’s not the end of the journey.

I delayed writing anything about Wembley and I don’t know why to be honest. I approached the day full of excitement, in fact it started the day before as we went down the club to wave the team off. I did actually wave, much to my wife’s amusement, it just seemed the right thing to do.

On to the day and we travelled by the Hogwarts Express as I seem to habitually describe it, not that I have any idea what it looks like, otherwise known as the Lincoln Loco, the special train laid on from Lincoln Central to Wembley Central. It's handy, certainly on the way down but the length of time taken to get back is a bit wearing. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking there could be other opportunities to organise another trip to Wembley so may do differently if that’s the case.

The day itself was everything I hoped it to be except that, because of the weather and because we didn’t get there with too much time to spare we didn’t have a good look round the stadium or have a drink although we made up for that after the match.

You don’t need to have a description of the game itself from me I’m sure but I had a message from my friend the Boston United supporter even before we got home to advise me that Matt Rhead should have been sent off. This was not received by me in the spirit it was intended and neither were further comments from the south of the county that there was a handball which should have resulted in a penalty and an incident involving Matt Green that could have been punished. My comment that someone seems a little jealous of our day in the sun seemed to calm things down.

My view of those incidents having watched the game again is that Rhead was perhaps a little overzealous in his “welcome to Wembley” introduction to the keeper but, whilst I’ve seen red cards given for similar occurrences I didn’t think there was sufficient intent to merit one. Having said that if it were our keeper I might think differently. As to the Matt Green incident I think any fan and any manager would expect him to go for a loose ball so I’m discounting that. Shrewsbury however would feel most dismayed at not getting a penalty for a handball, Waterfall was it? It wasn’t spotted by the officials and certainly not by their supporters as it was our end. All I can say is phew!

It’s funny how your perception from being at the game changes when you see it again having recorded it. I thought the referee sided with Shrewsbury, now I don’t. I also thought City did not impose their game on their opponents, now I do.

All in all I don’t think there was any difference between Shrewsbury, almost certain to reach the championship and City who look a decent bet for the play offs or even automatic if you’re feeling particularly chipper, apart from the fact that City took one of their chances and Shrews did not. For that I’m eternally grateful and will forever hold Elliott Whitehouse in my esteem.

As to Shrewsbury Town I wish them the best of luck and hope they do indeed attain promotion to the championship. For ourselves I’m getting increasingly optimistic, if we can keep the Gods onside, that I may yet see Lincoln City back at that level too. I don’t think I’m dreaming this.

All together now.

I had a stroll round the lower part of Lincoln the other day, downhill to us locals, hoping to see some sign that City were at Wembley next weekend. There was a bit but not that much although all around the city council have erected red and white bunting which, in these straightened times was a very cheerful sight and proof that a good proportion of Lincoln are firmly behind our heroes.

Funnily enough we were in the upper part of the city yesterday where most of the shops are locally owned and that was a sea of red and white with some very inventive displays of support for the team. I suppose in many ways that is unsurprising, being locals but in some ways unexpected as I didn’t see the boutique owners and posh chocolate purveyors to be amongst the Imps most fervent supporters but of course you don’t have to be to show you’re behind the team. My neighbours who are getting on a bit now, whilst always being interested in City and partial to attending the odd big game, are now season ticket holders and very much looking to the trip south on Sunday. A look round on match days will reveal it’s not just youngsters getting the Imps bug.

Danny Cowley refers to Lincoln as a football city which is not the way I’d have described it, certainly when compared to say Nottingham or Sheffield. However being around the stadium on a match day as I’ve said in this blog before would actually seem to bear out the Cowley appraisal.

When I was just a slip of a boy and being taken to games by my Dad perhaps it was a football city. With a population of about seventy thousand and regularly attracting gates of around twenty thousand that is a goodly proportion of the population but you have to bear in mind there was precious little else to do and of course the football on offer then was championship standard, hard to believe as it is.

Nowadays the city is a totally different place and certainly much bigger and dare I say it football mad or maybe it’s more accurate to say Lincoln City mad. With, I gather now twenty six thousand due to travel to London you do wonder what sort of gates the Imps could get if they were able to offer a much higher standard of football. Danny Cowley said at the agm he saw Swansea City as a good analogy of the potential for Lincoln. I’d add to the mix Burnley, much smaller than Lincoln. Is that what the Cowleys themselves dream of?

We’re all musing on Wembley, let’s save some thought for after that. Why not? After all impossible is just an opinion.