Appleton clears first hurdle. Settle down at the back!

Not the first win, that was always going to come sooner or later although few would have predicted the duck would be broken against Sunderland. Their board decided a loss was bad enough but a loss against Lincoln City was too much to bear. This has happened before of course, Notts County having decided that losing to City was a sacking offence although they went on to lose a good few more and I suppose on reflection, as with Mansfield Town and the Mariners, nothing can be taken for granted and, locally, Lincoln City are now the big team up the road. How times change.

What I’m referring to in the headline is the continuation of fans enthusiasm and in particular fans resolve to stick with the Imps. Doubly so as the Sunderland fixture produced a record gate in the reconfigured stadium. There are specific circumstances demanded if this is to happen, a big draw by way of an opponent and those opponents taking all their ticket allocation. The fact that City not only won the game but did so in such convincing and entertaining fashion will ensure the turnstiles keep clicking for some time to come and if the manager can continue to produce such refreshing football who knows, the journey may not only continue but do so in such a way as to demand further accommodation be secured one way or another in order to cope with the clamour to see games.

Appleton is a totally different manager to the previous regime which keen eyed readers may notice I’m trying not to name. Students of the game will know the manager had something of a golden period with Oxford United and anyone at the Sunderland game will hope they saw something of what we might be treated to once things start to fall in to place.

I don’t think many of us, certainly not me, expect City to race on from the last home performance and start knocking seven bells out of all and sundry and sweep to an unlikely further promotion but I certainly have considerably more hope that the journey is not over yet having been at Sincil Bank last Saturday.

Further proof that division one is a step change from our briefly held sojourn in league two comes next in the not inconsiderable shape of Peterborough United, a club I have occasionally kidded myself are not a million miles away from our heroes. We will see if the Imps are now continuing where they left off before circumstances intervened when Huddersfield Town flexed their muscles. Was it leaves on the line or a derailment? We’ll know more tomorrow.

Michael Appleton. Was there ever a luckier Lincoln City manager?

I hesitate to say it of course, you’ve got to grab your audience’s attention but I hope right now Michael Appleton is counting his blessings. They say if a manager can’t be good, then be lucky. On present evidence I’d say he’s both.

Lucky because the usual lot of an incoming manager is trying to raise the spirits of an exhausted and demoralised squad and drag that team from the foot of the table. At the same time the supporters, who may well be thoroughly disenchanted with their club, have to be brought onside. Now City have suffered a blip, no argument about it but aside from that, it’s all there for an aspiring manager. A good squad, a mid table position and a large and enthusiastic crowd of which more later but perhaps most importantly a committed and knowledgeable board who are prepared to invest in the team but not break the bank and with it, the club.

The fear was of course that, post Cowleys, all semblance of progress would be lost and the club would sink back down again. The (former) dynamic duo said themselves they would never again have a relationship with the supporters as they had at Lincoln. Of course it works both ways, will we ever again have the sort of relationship we had with them? No is the answer I would think. It was akin to love, really it was and of course as with any love affair infidelity is the most difficult thing to forgive, so we’re wary.

In any event I don’t think Appleton is the sort of man to need the admiration the former managers were afforded, you can see that from his demeanour. Clearly, he wants a good relationship with us and I’d imagine we’ll see the players and manager out and about in the city and the area but I’d be surprised if we get the fist pumps at least if we were going to get one it would have been at five o’clock last Saturday, the performance and Appleton’s part in it deserved one.

A part of me does wonder if all this upheaval might just herald an even greater period in our story. I’m no tactician but the sort of tweaks made to the team, the same players as formerly lets not forget, have produced the sort of display that, dare I say it, would not have been the case before. I think were going to see City attacking more and with a purpose not previously seen. Time of course will tell if that’s right.

Finally, as promised, the support and with it noise levels. I thought the crowd have never been as loud and as we now know, Sincil Bank has never been so full in the all seater era. To be fair that was entirely down to the opposition. The only way you can get a full house like that is if the opponents are a big name and sell all their allocation and there’s no segregation but the enthusiasm, the love for the team, it was all still there. Our affection for our team is as strong as ever. Love conquers everything, or is that too soppy?

If this is the future count me in.

I pitied the sponsors having to choose man of the match after this afternoon’s game versus Sunderland at Sincil Bank. Let’s just pause there before we go on. This afternoons game against Sunderland? Yes, you heard correctly. Sunderland. Maybe they should have considered who didn’t play well, nope, no one. No help there.

I heard it suggested that this could possibly have been Lincoln City’s greatest ever performance, certainly of the modern era and you could see why that might be put forward. Yes, there have been games won that meant more. Yes, there have been perhaps more heroic efforts but for sheer unpredicted joy this one was right up there.

Yet, personally I was allowing myself to think that City could pull off an unexpected (to say the least) victory. All the signs were there. A team, having lost their manager enduring a torrid time. Opponents on a successful run but not exactly lauded by their supporters who were expecting an easy afternoon and a dominant win. A manager’s debut home league game. When you think about it that had banana skin written all over it for the Black Cats.

City didn’t come on in their comedy clowns car, door falling off, horn hooting playing it for laughs, The Imps set about with a determination and a plan designed to derail Sunderland and that’s exactly what they did.

The Imps game plan, I’m sure, demanded that the team get to half time without conceding. They did. The fact that they scored, a sumptuous strikers goal from Tyler Walker, putting the skids under Sunderland was all to the good. A long, long second half was on the cards I predicted to my neighbour in a packed Selenity Stand. How wrong could I be? City added another courtesy of Walker, another forwards effort and, with the benefit of hindsight the Imps were over the horizon. I was expecting a wall of noise from the Wearsiders and for all I know they provided it but I didn’t hear it as my fellow supporters were bellowing out their own cacophony.

Any notion that the fire was out of the Sincil Bank faithful were banished as the crowd, if anything were louder and more enthusiastic than ever dismissing thought that the steam had gone out of the Lincoln Loco and suspicion that the Cowley revolution had been quashed and consigned to history was firmly disabused, in fact it was the former management team who were the forgotten heroes.

Even at this early stage we were given a glimpse of what may follow under the Appleton tutelage and on this evidence not only are the previous regime a mere memory it might just be that the best is yet to come. Fasten your seatbelts!

Did I miss much?

Yes, I’m back from sunnier climes, considerably warmer too but, despite City turning in another loss I saw last night plenty to make me think we won’t have to wait too long to get that feel good factor back.

My first view of our Michael Appleton side and, I think much to admire and be hopeful about. In fact I’ll go as far as to say, with a bit less profligacy in front of goal not to mention a bit more luck, City could have finished up convincing winners.

In the initial exchanges, City looked every bit the accomplished league one outfit, taking the boys of Man U on and, frankly, giving them the run around. It was only a matter of time surely? Matter of time before what I hear you ask. Well for a team on a bad run, a bit low on confidence, though they didn’t look it at first, still hurting after the recent upheavals, City took the game to their illustrious, well the club is illustrious, opponents but in the end it was the same old story. If you don’t take your chances you don’t win. United didn’t quite have just the one chance but it wasn’t much more but the one they got they took, with aplomb, defended well, had a goalkeeper in fine form and City once again finished up with nothing to show for their efforts.

I’m starting to think, because there’s no use being negative, that this whole episode could end up a blessing in disguise. It doesn’t really seem so at the moment but given the circumstances, given that we’d started to become Cowley City, given that this whole circus surrounding the club every time a management vacancy came up, given that, and I’m saying this with a very heavy heart, the Cowleys focus wasn’t fully in the cause, it probably was time for us all to move on.

The pity is, because of the nature of their departure the Cowleys name will not engender the reverence that is still felt when Graham Taylors name is mentioned, yet, after all, he left us for another club too but I feel a sense of disappointment in the departure that I didn’t feel when Taylor left. Whether that was because of unfinished business or all the statements that were made that I won’t go over again or the feeling that possibly the Cowleys sensed something of a rebalancing in the wind after that wonderful start.

Whatever it is, however it came about, here we are. A new man at the helm, a new start. I didn’t feel that electricity when looking at the dugout that I used to. That is by the by. Appleton is his own man. Despite the loss I feel optimistic. The immediate objective is to steady the ship, secure our position in the division. I’m sure that can be done then, with a bit of luck, which has deserted us for the moment but will surely come back, it’s onwards and upwards.

I’ve said before the loss of Clive Nates and our board of directors would be a far bigger blow than the loss of managers who, lets face it come and go but they are still here, committed as ever, the infrastructure is still there and I don’t hear anyone from the club talking about consolidating, far from it.

Bright new dawn.

Well, I woke up this morning; it’s a beautiful late summer day. The garden that I did a bit of preparatory work for winter on yesterday is looking lovely, my wife is as good looking as ever and as far as I know my pension will be paid later this week as expected. I’ve survived the Cowley departure.

I had a look at twitter and there was Liam Scully, businesslike as ever detailing the quest for a new manager. As you might expect it was calm, thoughtful, realistic. Business as usual.

I’ve written many times about clubs that we used to share the basement with, Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, how they raised their profile and now prosper in a higher division. Bigger clubs, more prestigious, sustainable. I look at our clubs prospects, our people, the infrastructure, the business expertise, our supporters. In the words of the Fast Show I think it was, that’s us that is.

I struggled to get off to sleep last night. In one of those expressions I would have liked to have thought of myself, one of my fellow supporters said they were suffering from impsomnia. I don’t think that will be a problem tonight.

As we move on we have to assign matters to our in house experts. But as we start the search for someone to take our quest further we do so safe in the knowledge that there will be a wide choice for the boards consideration. The club is on a sound financial footing, not wealthy but not poor either, the stadium is in good order, the training facilities are the envy of many, the playing roster has us at the top end of the table, on merit and the board are acknowledged experts in the field of football administration.

As I consider all that, I think back that we attracted the Cowleys when we were an impoverished shadow of where we are now, what sort of prospect can we offer an ambitious manager keen to further their own career and our profile?

So this morning, despite the lack of sleep, I feel refreshed and reinvigorated. I hope you do too.

Thank you and goodbye.

This is the last thing I expected to be writing about but this afternoon after a day of fevered speculation Danny and Nicky Cowley were announced as manager and assistant of Huddersfield Town. The eagle eyed among you may have spotted an article from me first thing on this blog along the lines of, I’m getting bored of this now, can we talk about something else? By ten o’clock I’d deleted it and the reason for that was a tweet from someone from the Daily Mirror saying the announcement would be made later. Then all hell broke loose.

I should say firstly thank you to Danny and Nicky, thank you for the good times, for the promotion to the football league, thank you for the FA Cup, thank you for the Wembley Trophy Final win, thank you for the championship, another championship, to win league two. Thank you for getting us back to where we were in Colin Murphy’s day.

Does that sound a bit odd? It’s meant to because tonight I’m afraid my principal emotion is anger. I’m angry that the Cowleys said they would never desert us mid season. I’m angry with myself that I believed them, that I believed they were not like anyone else in football. I’d hoped, as you probably did, that they would lead us to the championship and then take their leave. I even entertained thoughts that they might do an Eddie Howe, ridiculous as that may seem. They said they were ambitious, I understood that.

Off they’ve gone then, to Sheffield Wednesday, to Derby, to Forest, to West Brom? No. Huddersfield Town. Huddersfield Town who you may remember broke our hearts when they knocked us out of the league two playoffs, that Huddersfield Town. At the risk of sounding like Braintree’s chairman when the Cowleys joined us, is that the best they can do?

Quite why this has happened after the reassuring move of the families to Lincolnshire, the hope of our first season in League One in ages, the announcement of the competitive budget from the board one can only speculate. Danny constantly refered to the budget, to the small squad, but wasn’t that his preference? After all, Danny always hinted about the budget, they all do.

Its pointless speculating. I personally believe after that blistering start, if it had continued, Huddersfield would have been rebuffed, until the next time of course. Don’t worry about things you can’t change I’m always saying. To be honest by the late afternoon I found myself thinking, I hope this all goes ahead, I can’t be doing with this.

Thanks to the Cowleys of course, we now find ourselves a highly saleable proposition, solvent, with a good fanbase, a state of the art training facility and a list of favourites for the vacancy that makes encouraging reading. With the compensation due, City are well placed to hit the ground running when it comes to recruitment. The worry is that all the goodwill so carefully nurtured could be lost if the right appointment is not made.

Personally I would like to see Gareth Ainsworth come to Sincil Bank, a man, the only man who can engender the same affection that Danny and Nicky Cowley were afforded, other managers available.

Up the Imps

Walker one two and City’s losing streak is passed.

I suppose when you’ve been treated to Everton’s high tempo passing game and Lincoln City’s spirited response to it midweek, sitting through Joey Barton’s poor mans version is likely to be less of a pleasure.

I bracketed Barton and Forest Green Rovers manager Mark Cooper together as two managers who like to criticise Danny Cowley’s teams as crude and workmanlike and it would be churlish to deny that their two sides are easy on the eye yet in their visits to Sincil Bank and in Coopers case several games against the Imps for all their possession the net result of their efforts is, literally, pointless.

Barton is a great one for controversy although his after match comments as told to the Blackpool Gazette seen fair enough to me but I’ll just share with you his final thoughts:

“We came here and barring a 90 second period taught them what the top end of League One is all about”

Well, as that great manager Brian Clough and our own local sage Chris Ashton have said football is all about putting the ball in the onion bag. City did that twice and for all their possession Fleetwood did not. Oh, and the last time I looked which was two minutes ago Lincoln City are more at the top end of League One than Fleetwood. If that’s the case at the end of the season I’ll be a happy man. For all my griping Fleetwood look to be a very good side and if we’re ahead of them we’ll have done well.

Yesterday was not Joey Barton verses Danny Cowley though it was Lincoln City verses Fleetwood Town and whilst the game did not reach the heights of Wednesday evening in terms of excitement and City looked decidedly second best until that double strike, the Imps stopped the rot of those two away defeats and, this being the beginning of the season rocketed up to second in the table. Still no start, in fact no game time at all for Cian Bolger who must have been bitterly disappointed after another excellent outing midweek not to face his former employers and, for the moment the game plan incorporates cameo roles for one of last seasons stand out players, Bruno Andrade and record signing (as far as we know) John Akinde. You have to say though, whilst neither player must be exactly delighted at playing bit parts they are most effective when coming on to shore up the team as the final minutes tick by.

All in all then a game to savour the result rather than the performance perhaps but none the worse for that.