Can no news possibly be good news? I really wouldn’t know.

Well how’ve you been, had a holiday yet? It’s certainly been quiet in Impdom lately. Personally I stepped back my twitter following as a result of all the West Bromwich Albion speculation. It’s not safe to say I told you so as the Albion haven’t yet appointed a manager although the latest speculation is it’s going to be Slaven Bilic. With that sort of name in the frame was Danny ever really in the mix, whatever the bookies might have said?

Albion let it be known, if we’re to believe what we read, that Danny Cowley’s demands were more than the former premier league outfit were likely to concede. A tenure of more than six months presumably. That assumes there was contact and the club said no permission was sought to talk. I know who I believe.

When you think about it, what was in that for the Cowleys? Apart from Sir Alex when he was manager I can’t think of a management team who are more secure than them at the moment. I’m not so naive as to suggest their remuneration package is anything like that which could be offered by any of the big boys but Danny has said he’s not motivated by money. Lincoln City is a club in their image. Let’s be a bit more realistic and mention two local clubs, say Peterborough United and Doncaster Rovers, both incidentally not looking for a manager so don’t read anything into that but can you imagine the Cowleys having anything like the sway they have at Sincil Bank with those sort of clubs, ambitious as they undoubtedly are? It’s going to happen but not with the likes of WBA or Hull City for that matter who, I hope I’m not flattering City here, are even less of a draw than the Albion.

I suppose in my heart of hearts I’d hoped for a flurry of activity starting with the capture of Mark O’Hara but that hasn’t happened and neither has anything else. According to Posh’s vocal chairman, who I have a lot of time for incidentally, a deal isn’t going to happen because City can’t afford the fee. I’m not sure about that either. A communicative chairman is one thing but business is business. It suits Peterborough of course to put out speculation like that about City, now uncomfortably on the same competing level as Posh and inconveniently on the rise as opposed to United’s seeming plateau. It’s good publicity for MacAnthony to remind Posh’s fans that we’re not on the same level financially, which were not but since when did finances get in the way of the Cowleys or City’s ambitions?

I think the truth of the matter may be that a bid or bids may be in the offing for one or more City players, the name bandied about is Bruno Andrade and if that happens that may trigger transfer activity. Even before the end of last season I was talking to a supposed friend of Bruno who indicated that in all likelihood he would be off and he may not be the last. Is that the end of the world? I would suggest not. Like all the others we’re a trading club and none more so than our friends down the A1 who seem to be in the enviable position of being able to speculatively take players on with a view to selling them. That, and a productive academy programme is surely the way forward for the Imps?

We’re Lincoln City, we’ll lose when we want.

I suppose I’d kind of expected something like yesterday. Lincoln City limped over the line to gain promotion, stayed on their feet long enough to claim the championship then, in supposedly their finest hour, fell flat on their faces.

I’ll not pretend it didn’t spoil the celebrations afterwards and it’ll be at the back of my mind as we watch the open top bus tour today. It’s a reminder too that we’re far from the finished article, nothing that Danny Cowley hasn’t warned us about. As the saying goes, in order to ride a bicycle you’ve got to keep moving forwards otherwise you’ll fall off.

Yesterdays defeat didn’t happen by accident. Colchester were certainly given every encouragement not least by the third goal that’s bound to find it’s way on to one of those football DVD’s they release at Christmas. I suppose one day we’ll laugh about it. Just to highlight one aspect I particularly noticed. I didn’t think Harry Anderson had an effective afternoon but when you analyse it, every time he got the ball he was immediately pounced on by three opponents. That wasn’t an isolated incident, it happens all the time at home and we’re going to have to deal with it a lot better if we’re to progress.

Might as well say it now it hasn’t always been an easy watch, particularly at home. We’re certainly not Brazil, more dare I say it, Germany or at least we would be if we could pass the ball a lot better. That’s something that’s going to have to be improved on too.

Might as well say this too. Those boo’s. Not many but in evidence certainly. I’ll not pass judgement but I’ll pass comment. When I was working I didn’t need telling if I’d messed up. Our players didn’t need telling either. Those players have run through brick walls for us. Not for them Christmas morning opening presents with the kids, no family holidays when everyone else is away. Friday nights in a hotel rather than being out with the wife or girlfriend. No sports day, no parent teacher evenings. They’ve given us a lot.

It shows a chink in our armour. We have no friends in league two and we’ll have none in league one either. All we’ve got is each other. No one owes us anything, no ones going to give us anything. In fact the more successful we are the less other teams and fans will like us. I’d rather Colchester had gone home thinking we beat them three nil but we still didn’t break them. As it is they’ll think they really got under our skin which they did. It’s just I’d rather we hadn’t let them know they did.

Anyway, rant over. Sometimes life throws something at you that you decidedly don’t like. It later transpires that it did you more good than you’d care to admit. Let’s look at it that way. If we thought we were good enough to win league one clearly we’re not. If the board were thinking little investment is going to be needed clearly it is. We’ve got where we are by sticking together so maybe we should spare a thought for those nearby clubs who have spent a fortune and still not got a prize or worse still spent a fortune and got relegated. On second thoughts lets not. They wouldn’t be thinking of us would they?

Decisions decisions.

Here we are then, after all the excitement, all the ups and downs, well ups mainly, we’ve made it, the last game of the season.

To any notion that City’s season is over I’d say two words. Danny Cowley. I would like to see a good performance myself though, not that the players owe me it, but the tail off in form has been a little bit scary. I don’t expect that to carry through to next season though. Far from it. In fact I suspect, great though this group of players have been, next seasons side may show significant changes. I wouldn’t be bothered if I’m wrong though.

There are now three things I’m looking forward to. The trophy presentation, the open top bus tour and the player of the season award. That has been difficult if only because, across the board, there have been some great performances. The flowering of Harry Anderson and Tom Pett, the marvel that Bruno Andrade has been. The all round contribution of John Akinde, the evergreen Matt Rhead. Unlike evergreens he’s not been too much in evidence but you know what I mean. I’ve enjoyed Michael O’Connor, I’ve enjoyed the fact that Notts County let him go for him to have the season he has although, as a Notts lad (very briefly) I don’t find any pleasure in their demise, if it happens.

Up front, all over the team in fact, there have been some great and spectacular goals but the essence of the side, the boiler room if you like, once again, has been the defence. You can’t single anyone out but I’m going to. With a slightly heavy heart, because I missed him out last season too, I did not vote for Bozzie but instead went for Jason Shackell as my player of the season. Then came Carlisle. Had I voted after that game it would probably have been Michael Bostwick. I was at that game, the sending off was silly and unprofessional as was the further indiscretion with the fourth official. Understandable but nevertheless unprofessional. He’s paid me back though by signing for another year. Bozzie, I suspect, couldn’t give a monkeys whether I voted for him or Shacks but to him, all the players, all the squad, those who didn’t get much game time I thank them, thank you for one of the best football seasons of my life.

This brings us to the Taylor team. Are they top dogs or the present side, or another? Does anyone care? For me, in terms of domination, Taylors team just pips it. Far from a put down that is meant as an enormous compliment. When you factor in fitness, the amount of learning and classwork involved, sports science, nutrition, dedication then I think we have the best Lincoln City side of my supporting life. For that I thank Chris Moyses, Bob Dorrian, Clive Nates and the board of directors and of course last but not least Danny and Nicky Cowley.

This is starting to sound like the Oscars so I’ll sign off now. (Blub blub)

Stop the league, I want to get off.

Talk about after the Lord Mayors Show, the end of the season, post championship was always going to go one of two ways. Either a resurgent Imps, freed from the shackles of league responsibility would put on some real displays or fail to gain much more from the remaining fixtures. It’s the latter.

MK Dons was our finest hour it would seem. We were superb that day. Carlisle, the less said about that the better. I did feel Tranmere, for a nil nil was good entertainment and now Newport. Entirely predictable to be honest. I’m not brimming with confidence about the final game either.

We shouldn’t complain though, it’s been a sparkling season of mainly highs but, now that we're a league one side or at least we will be I suppose I was expecting that the results would reflect that. Instead we’ve had something of a reality check.

Of course, if the last championship and promotion is anything to go be the team that lines up next season may not be entirely recognisable. Danny Cowley is, I’m sure a very nice man but he’s uncompromising in his ambition and I don’t think sentiment will come into it. As Cowley said, he’s not in the business of consolidating. We may be perfectly happy with a mid table finish next season but I don’t think the managers will be. They will want, at least to have a tilt at the playoffs and if that means jettisoning players we hold dear or we think of as stars they will do it so I’m expecting some surprises.

The big imponderable is finance. Danny Cowley feels City are a tempting investment. Clive Nates says irons are in the fire. I could probably spare a couple of hundred quid for some more shares. I don’t think either of them had that in mind when they said more local investors would be desirable and I don’t do the lottery so I’m out. That side of things is a worry, players come and go and we know Danny can find them but I think we’re all agreed, whilst this seasons performance has been more than adequate what holds us back as real high flyers is the lack of a twenty goal a season man.

Personally, I think we’ve got one, potentially, in the shape of Akinde but to see him at his productive best he needs a partner and that isn’t going to come cheap so if a big money offer comes in for Anderson or Toffolo or Andrade it wouldn’t surprise me if we take it. I could be entirely wrong but one things for sure, it’s not going to be a quiet summer.

The best of times.

There was an element in the crowd at Carlisle trying to encourage a Nicky Cowley fist pump. There was no way that was going to happen. To be fair I think the motivation was to say to players and management, look we’ve come all this way but we don’t want you to feel you’ve let us down. Actually come to think of it, for a variety of reasons that was the first league loss I’ve witnessed. My son used to play in a junior football team that won all the time and when they did finally drop a couple of point none of them knew what to do. It felt a bit like that last Friday.

Nevertheless I wouldn’t be surprised if that loss didn’t hit the managers hard because with it came the loss of a potential record as the Taylor side only lost four times over the season and that reverse took us to five.

All of which brings us, seeing as we’ve got nothing else to occupy ourselves with, who is the greatest manager? Taylor dragged the club from a seemingly never ending cycle of failure but his was a record ended with the fourth division title. We now know from his memoirs that he wanted to stay at Lincoln but was deterred by a perceived lack of enthusiasm, or at least inability to conjure up the necessary finance to underpin a tilt at further promotion. There’s no doubt the team, with very little tinkering, was capable of it.

Colin Murphy, who I sometimes think of as something of an unsung hero not only returned City to the football league but had another promotion to his credit and got the club almost to the Holy Grail of the championship (as it is now called). Murphy’s problems too can be partly attributed to boardroom upheaval, a depressingly familiar problem.

Each manager did foster great interest in the team but it is the Cowley brothers who have harnessed the enthusiasm, as well they might given the unprecedented level of success, to the extent that the present hierarchy can afford to invest in the club to keep the show on the road. Indeed the incumbents of the boardroom are determined to use this period, wherever it ends up, to enhance the standing and reputation of the club to make the likelihood of us descending back to those dark days less of a threat.

It is this harmony between boardroom, support and players that sets this management apart and of course, unlike the last time City played at the level they are about to, the Imps are not hamstrung by a lack of proper budget.

There are allegations, I really don’t know why they’re expressed in those terms, that City have somehow bought their way out of the division which is claptrap in my view but in any event why shouldn’t the manager who has the best support not have the best budget, if that is the case?

Anyway, we have to fulfil the remaining fixtures and as I write City will be at Bristol City training before tomorrow’s game at Newport County. That in itself is a sign of how far the club has progressed. Despite the dead rubber feel the Imps will still take with them the sort of following most clubs would give their eye teeth for.

As previews go that’s a bit sketchy I realise but you don’t come on here for that kind of thing do you?

Campeones campeones ole ole ole.

At a time when the world is wondering whether we Brits were turning a bit inwards Imps fans went all continental as they realised the cherished prize of another football league championship was ours, after all this time and the triumphant cry of Campeones! Campeones! Rang out at Sincil Bank.

Any doubts that City had fallen over the line rather than sprinted has to be taken in the context of what was happening to our competitors. In our heart of hearts we knew that Mansfield and MK Dons couldn’t win all their remaining games to overhaul the Imps. We knew that but didn’t dare say it and it was the fact that City’s season has been so complete and their dominance so irresistible that have given us promotion and now the championship before anyone else.

Just as we express our joy in European terms, see I told you Barcelona would come into it, we are probably going to have to celebrate amongst ourselves as the mealy mouthed “compliments” and sniping from the other embittered and dare I say it, jealous rival managers not to mention the media, local versions excepted, will not give us the credit we deserve. This can no better be illustrated than by the frankly pathetic choice of Bury’s manager as manager of the season. He may yet not even achieve promotion in comparison with the Cowleys who have not only done that, twice. As champions, twice and totally rebuilt our club and have seen the stadium regularly full to bursting and the clubs finances, always an Achilles heel at Lincoln, restored to balance. I certainly don’t revel in Bury’s financial discomfort but, thanks to the Cowleys City have emerged as one of the leagues big hitters with gates that they and Mansfield and Forest Green Rovers, can only dream of.

There aren’t all that many of us that can say they were in Sincil Bank that wonderful day in 1976 but I was. Comparisons are inevitable but in my view they would be unfair, They were a marvellous side, the present champions are a marvellous side. As we contemplate a possible ground move in those days the Bank was a crumbling wreck. It was to get worse as City’s fortunes waned. Taylor left, seduced away by Elton Johns millions. By comparison, City are well placed financially to make the leap to League One and, I really hope I’m correct in this, our present managers, the Cowleys, show no signs of wanderlust.

I believe this situation has come about because the city and county, the fans, the volunteers, the directors, have engendered a “were all in it together” feel. Lincoln City Football Club are the Cowleys club, indivisible. This time, unlke the last football league promotion, City go into the league above well capable of holding their own and prospering. Clive Nates tells us substantial new investment will need to be found for us to further progress but that investment can be found. I believe him.

So, as we contemplate the last couple of weeks of the season we have nothing but pleasure to look forward to. Enjoy it. We will see our team, our heroes, receive another trophy. It will not matter a jot how the results pan out.

We can watch the scramble for the minor placings with detached interest, just as I said we would. We can hear how the other managers explain their failings in hilarious terms, citing superior football, more enlightened tactics and yet boys whatever you say, you’re losers. Isn’t life grand?

Long Good Friday.

As away days go you have to say it didn’t get off to the easiest of starts. Although it’s a long way, it’s quite a simple journey to Carlisle and we’d set off in plenty of time, or so we thought.

Newark wasn’t as difficult as it can be, then on to the A1 and it was plain sailing, for a while. You’ve probably done that journey, the A1 north, quite a few times, I have certainly. In most countries, Germany, France, Spain even, that road would have been a motorway years ago. Not us though, oh no. With the sort of skewed logic that produced the car park, at busy times, that is the Lincoln by pass, the A1 has been “improved” in sections so you go from bits that are decent, to parts that are definitely not. On Friday even the motorway sections, at junctions, ground to a halt. Again and again and again. That's all without mentioning the A66 but I'm trying to forget that.

We found ourselves overtaking and then being overtaken by a couple of our coaches and at first it was good fun, waving and being waved to. Then the sat nav started to get a bit pessimistic. From an ETA of one o’ clock it became two, then ten past. We left the coaches behind and I started to wonder, will they make it?

Our sat nav sent us an alternative route, and I followed that route, to not universal approval in the car but, when we finally arrived and heard some coaches had not made it for the kick off we wondered if it was them and I was glad I took the diversion.

Even when we got to Carlisle we claimed the very last car park space. I should have guessed it was not going to be our day.

I may as well at this point introduce you to Mr Lee Mason, you’ll have heard of him I’d imagine. For me, the game was going the same way as the MK Dons one except to say Carlisle were sitting off and City were sitting off which was what I had expected to happen when said referee floored Jason Shackell with a really soft yellow. Yes, you’ve seen them given but this was a no one messes with me, I’m the star of the show yellow and when Shackell really did commit a yellow card offence off he had to go and with it City’s chance of getting something from the game.

It was a brave performance but, unlike previous battles City could not quite make it over the line when down to ten men. Unlike MK Dons, where we had a referee who gave some protection against the home sides rough house tactics there was none from Mr Mason who was prepared to dish out a yellow to Cian Bolger for coming on without permission but not when Harry Anderson was assaulted, there were other instances too. Not interested. What I ask is the responsibility of the fourth official by the way?

So there we are, no party. We wait for Monday and the arrival of Tranmere Rovers. You don’t need me to tell you it won’t be easy however I have a plan. At MK Dons I discovered I had put last seasons shirt on. I mused whether to stick with it for Cheltenham and again at Carlisle. Look what happened. So if you see someone in a black, out of date away shirt it’s probably me.

The things I do for that football club.