End of term report: exceeded all expectations.

 

Well here we are, end of the season proper and we’re in the playoffs. Not unexpected, in fact we’ve looked nailed on for it, give or take a few wobbles, most of the season.

As we enter that period, bit like in between Christmas and new year in many ways, where nothing much happens, that we know about anyway, and we anticipate the climax to come. Will they, won’t they? It doesn’t much matter as City face the prospect of either Forest and Sheffield United or Wednesday and Rotherham. Boo hoo.

So as we contemplate the season past. How did we do? It’s all good.

The board of directors and Chairman. What can you say? Ten out of ten. In a world where strong and stable are words somewhat discredited, that is exactly what we got. Firm management, no complaining about our lot, goodness only knows what has been going on behind the scenes but the outward view has been business as usual. This is, I appreciate, out of our orbit, but the Super League debacle, nonsensical sackings, Sheffield United, Spurs and, yes Forest Green Rovers. City sail on. Up the A46 a club in freefall takes another lurch downwards. There’s a bump but is it rock bottom or a tree temporarily arresting the fall? It’s mildly amusing but personally I take no pleasure in a local club floundering. The same can be said for Scunthorpe United, all seemed to be well as they defied gravity. They too hung on by the skin of their teeth.

The manager and team. I’ve experienced some good managers but Appleton is the pick of the crop in my view. Bill Anderson was before my time. Colin Murphy has to be given credit for sustaining multiple successes, including restoring our league place and of course Graham Taylor and the Cowleys but Appleton shows every sign of being the best of all. Furthermore, and I hope I’m not being naïve here, the pain he has suffered in his management career may make him think twice before moving on although it has to be said being the Lincoln City manager is not the pinnacle of a career but lets hope he sees his job here as unfinished. When you look at the bench with all those specialists about it does make you think how far the club has come.

The fans. I have to mention Matchday Live. I don’t know what other clubs do, maybe the same but my one regret, when everything returns to normal, will be that we won’t have this fantastic entertainment, pre match. Well done Sam and Gary. As for the rest of us, we’ve done all we can. Stuck with the club. Those that were able to afford it, have invested in the club by taking shares rather than a cash refund for season tickets and paid for ifollow, home and away.

So to the team. If I was to list all the players who have done well this season it would be, well, a list of all the players. Within the confines of ifollow I’ve enjoyed seeing them all. In the player of the season vote I went for Jorge Grant but it was with a bit of a heavy heart this year as I think Conor McGrandles ran him close, as did Lewis Montsma and Tayo Edun and Alex Palmer. Harry Andersons eclipse is a bit painful, hopefully the summer will see him rejuvenated and of course there will be some of our favourites we will never see in the flesh, in a City shirt but I thank them all for their efforts and for the entertainment and joy they’ve brought us.

There we are then, but it’s not the end of the matter. The Imps go into the playoff competition minus something all the other players and managers will be bearing. Expectation. Whatever happens we will either be somewhere very few of us can recall or somewhere most of us have very little experience of. That’s not too shabby is it?

City pay the penalty for defensive lapses.

 

Right, well there’s only one thing to talk about after the pulsating draw against Peterborough United where Lincoln City sealed their place in the league one playoffs but instead of being the ones celebrating a superb and exciting win that not only secured their place in the end of season promotion lottery but also kept alive their albeit slender hopes of automatic promotion, thus prolonging the agony for Peterborough, instead found themselves trooping off the pitch, for the second week running with the sound of their opponents celebrating their own promotion to the championship.

Thanks to ineptitude, inattention to detail, stardust, call it what you will the referee conspired to hand promotion to Posh when, instead of seeing Szmodics slip/dive for what it was, and either booked the player for simulation or waved the penalty away by which time City would have survived the onslaught and claimed the win that would have seen the Imps seal their play off place and take the season on. It should have been City whooping with delight as Peterborough trooped off dejectedly and we, watching at home could have recognised City’s achievement and praised a remarkable campaign in which the Imps extended the season and gave themselves a golden chance of promotion at only the second time of asking, having been promoted the season before last.

One can only hope the referees assessor gave referee Busby a hard time in his after match assessment of the match and reminded him that his gaffe has handed Peterborough an unwarranted promotion, at this moment and denied City two points. Of course, that would have surely been a temporary situation and Posh would have gone on to gain the point they needed to go up, but we’ll never know now will we?

As for Busby, who will surely find his photograph pinned up on many a dartboard in the Lincoln area, a salutary season in the National League would appear to be a suitable punishment, always assuming he is ever trusted with a game again.

And City? Well they must be shell shocked at having to watch their opponents celebrate for the second week running and hopefully will go on to show the assorted doubters, disgruntled fans and clubs jealous of our recent elevation to relative success, that they are deserving of their new found status and finish the job tackled so bravely and, lets face it, against all odds this season.

When all said and done it’s an unlikely achievement and even if the Imps come away from this season with no more than some good memories and a bit of experience I don’t think any of us will forget the journey.

Anyway, enough of this wallowing in pity due to a referee’s poor eyesight, City have work to do, they can see the prize, now go and grab it, you’ve seen first hand how to do it.

City show they’ve got what it takes.

 

Lincoln City went toe to toe with Hull City and, whilst Hull took the spoils, Lincoln showed they have nothing to fear should the season pan out to reveal the Imps also gain promotion. After the almost usual early scare City regrouped to equalise, good to see Montsma returning to goalscoring form, and if any team was going to win it, Lincoln City would.

Except they didn’t of course and it was the Tigers who will play in the Championship next season and rightly so. For quite some time this season it looked as if it would be the Imps topping the table, unlikely as it seemed until the almost inevitable blip when, after a season of quite blissful cruising along beating all and sundry, City succumbed to injuries and illness as covid took its grip.

A larger squad maybe would have weathered the storm but City are not in a position to fund those kinds of numbers. Instead the Imps battled on with what they’ve got and it was, as we now know, not quite enough. However, it looks like the immediate emergency has passed and for the last few days the teams heroics had us believing unlikely though it seems, that City could yet go up automatically if they could get back into their stride. Saturday punctured that balloon.

Yet I come back to my original view, City really did look like they could take the match. Instead, a penalty and I saw no one who thought it wasn’t one and even then the Imps battled to the end and almost pulled off another equaliser.

I’ve said many times, success in the playoffs, not that we’ve any experience of that, depends on a side being in good form going into the lottery. On this evidence City certainly have it within their capabilities to succeed. If they can keep up this latest good spell then it may be the Imps cavorting around the Wembley pitch, as Hull did on ours.

Talking of Hull cavorting around our pitch, I certainly didn’t want to see that so I turned ifollow off at the final whistle so I didn’t have to. I had been watching the live game on Sky Sports prior to Matchday Live so my picture reverted to that channel. What was on? You guessed it, Hull City cavorting around our pitch in celebration. Not my day really.

Battling Pirates can’t get aboard City’s play off cruise.

 

Talk about a team matching their managers persona. Bristol Rovers, already in big relegation trouble tried to bully Lincoln City but came to grief as the Imps, profligate in front of goal, managed to get one to stick and resolutely fought off Rover’s spirited resistance.

He’s a strange enigma, Joey Barton, capable of great eloquence and thought. You do wonder what sort of career he could have had if he’d stick to the football and cut out the belligerence. After the game it was hard to argue with his reasoning, apart from a bit of complaining about the sending off, for the audience at home presumably, his assessment of the game was spot on, Rovers keep on making the same errors and, instead of trying to harness their admirable enthusiasm for the fight simply concentrated on the, well, the fight. I don’t think personally the sending off made a ha’porth of difference, you have to give them credit as Bristol piled on the pressure but were no match for the Imps who were superior in every department.

The Imps, once again were a patched up outfit, manager Michael Appleton mixing and matching to get every ounce of value out of the squad. A substitution here, forced on him otherwise it would have been ten against ten, a substitution there, to try to keep the show on the road. Why do we love football, goes the trailer on the telly. This was why.

Actually, I anything but loved this, particularly with twenty minutes to go. You do wonder if those people who just watch on the TV might have a point. They’ve never seen “their” club in the flesh but it’s we this and us that. They’re not wetting themselves at the prospect of Bristol Rovers equalising are they?

Bristol Rovers are going down. You have to admire their fighting spirit but it’s all wrong. They need a schemer, a strategist, they need ooh, lets think, Michael Appleton but they haven’t got him. They’ve got Joey Barton. Still, at least we won’t have to play them next season, whatever happens.

Lincoln City, you scored four goals and no passes.

 

Well not compared to M K Dons who did nothing but. Way back more years than I care to remember, my boy was at the Nottingham Forest centre of excellence where the mantra was definitely pass pass pass, in fact in five a side games five completed passes earned your side a goal. I was never convinced of the sense in that. At the other end of the spectrum we had our old friend John Beck whose rule was more than two touches, I think it was, and you’re off, substituted. I was lucky enough to know a player in one of the Colin Murphy teams. Murph was not known for his love of the possession game. This was not strictly true, he did like to see his teams keep hold of the ball but maintained that in divisions three and four, as it was then, the players were incapable, skill wise, of playing that game.

Admittedly, back then the British game was much more a test of strength and fitness although I do think the modern players are fitter now if only because of more scientific training and conditioning techniques. Todays league one player is probably in better condition than even top level players of the past and technically not that far behind

We saw last night the extreme version of the passing game, little good that it did M K Dons. After our game I watched the second half of Porto taking on Chelsea and their game plan was the same. I say game plan, it didn’t seem to envisage overhauling Chelsea’s two goal advantage, although they did score a worldy at the end when it didn’t matter.

I didn’t bother listening to MK’s manager’s comments afterwards but I can imagine what was said, City should have had a man sent off, yes probably, we were the better side and we passed the ball better. Both these statements are true and on the Forest scoring method M K would have won fifty to four but football doesn’t work like that and it’s the ball in the net that counts.

City regained their prowess at doing that, mainly courtesy of Brennan Johnson although they were team goals and City at the same time rediscovered their own passing game. The  Appleton version of it is a much more pragmatic and purposeful product. Maybe Michael might care to use some footage of M K Dons laughable attempts at looking like Real Madrid in defence of their goal to demonstrate how dangerous it can be trying to play your way out of situations where even top practitioners would put their foot through the ball.

So here we are on a lovely morning looking back on that really rather marvellous display. We’re none the wiser as to whether that was a last hurrah on a successful season or whether City are going to maintain that level and finish the campaign on a high.

It’s now back in City’s hands whether or not they reach the playoffs and as I’ve said many times before, the secret of success in the playoffs, not a secret really, is being on a good run of form. As we know, through bitter experience, being in the playoffs is all well and good but unless you’re on a roll you’re just making up the numbers.

City burst Blackpool’s bubble. Is that it?

 

At two nil I’d more or less given up on the season. Who though, apart from the most misty eyed optimist, fantasist more like, or maybe one of our newer fans, brought up on success all the way, would deny that this has been a successful season?

Our board of directors had taken the long term view and slashed the budget in preparation for what? A season of unremitting hardship. The aim, surely, was to try to ensure there was a team to support next season.

It’s tempting to say Michael Appleton had other ideas, I don’t know what ideas he had but somehow he fashioned a team, from the slim pickings he’d been given, which for a long time looked as if it would finish in the top two in league one and deliver for his employers and us, the lifeblood of the club, the fans the promised land of the Championship. A destination so distant that only old codgers like me can remember what it is like to operate at that level.

So then, it’s over, for another season. Or is it? Michael Appleton certainly does have other ideas, maybe you are not as pessimistic as me but somehow, from the wreckage of yet another defeat something began to stir, there’s life in the old dog yet. Appleton said it would be like a pre season game and so it was as the manager, what did he do, shuffled the pack seems too weak for whatever it was. Like some mad professor he pounded the computer keyboard, applied the electrodes, it lives!  It lives! I tweeted, I’d settle for a goal. A GOAL. Several others replied, you got what you wanted. Alright, let’s have another. We got it.

As we know the winner didn’t come, that was maybe too much to hope for but it wasn’t a loss. That I would suggest really would signal the end, for now but City gained another point. It’s a terrible cliché I know but we go on. The walking wounded at least can jog a bit now, every day that goes by and were still in it gives us a bit of hope that we can hang on in there, like Mister Micawber (look him up) hoping that something will turn up.

I don’t think we can underestimate the devastation that this dreadful pandemic has wrought. Players recover from covid and rejoin the team. Are they the same player they were? Lewis Montsma certainly isn’t. Harry Anderson?

City’s season depended on more or less all the squad remaining fit and available. Had that happened, we’d be laughing. If we’d been in the stadium would our home form be as poor? Who knows?

What we do know is the manager hasn’t given up. The players haven’t given up. We know, from bitter experience, there’s little point in getting into the playoffs on a poor run of form. I wouldn’t like to be the one to explain that to the big Apple though.

Where to now, City?

 

Occasionally I watch a game, Burnley perhaps and I think, could we? Is there any way? Then something happens, I wake up maybe or something like Lincoln City 1 Rochdale 2 and I think, be careful what you wish for. Do we want be Wycombe, a season of struggle followed by immediate relegation?

Of course, we have been there before and you may say to yourself, yes, I do want that, I do want my team to play even one season at the second level, even if it is unsuccessful, I’ll take that.

A few weeks ago, I had little doubt, the Imps were ready. A few tweaks here and there, the loan players will go back and will be replaced but yes we’re good to go.

That was when City were easily disposing of comparative minnows like Rochdale. True, we’ve often struggled with teams fighting for their lives but City marched on, top of the league or thereabouts. Our young side were untroubled by the task ahead, undaunted by the challenge. Then came the inevitable squad reduction, the losses and draws. We often wonder what the lack of us fans in the stadium means. Saturday was the first time I thought, I’m glad we weren’t there, I’m glad I didn’t see that, I’m glad I didn’t hear the reception and there would have been one.

For some people, I won’t call them supporters if the team lose, they boo. I don’t think our young side need to hear that right now and for the first time I don’t really know what I want to happen. I haven’t enjoyed a game all that much lately. Yes, Crewe was a good result, but did I enjoy it? Ipswich was OK afterwards; I did like the fact we’d gone there and survived but is that what I want?

Yet even now, were still third in the table. True not the promotion candidates in waiting we were but we’re still there. We know, or we’re pretty sure we know what’s required, it’s to get some of the walking wounded back playing, principally Bridcutt and Walsh. We need to get the heart of the team back together again, pass the ball, get bodies in the way of shots, the simple things.

Next come Gillingham and our nemesis. Well, he knows what to do now doesn’t he? Play like Rochdale and those lesser lights before them who have come to the LNER Stadium with the combination in their notes. Question is, can they do it? Or can City negate those tactics and keep the great tactician quiet, or as Michael Appleton put it, put him back in his box?

I’m not sure I want to see that or not, but of course I will and so will you. How do I answer the questions I posed at the start? I don’t know, and I don’t suppose you do but ask me again in a couple of days.