Cod Almighty | Article

by Sam Metcalf

2 August 2006

Lincoln City? Who might they be?
They are them lot down the road, aren't they? Y'know, the ones who've played non-League football. Ha! They are neither Arthur nor Martha. They exist in a tepid netherworld which invokes neither the bile associated with Scunthorpe or Hull, or the "Down, boy!" idiocy of Boston. They're Lincoln City, no-one cares. Oh, they also lost in last season's play-off semi-final. In case you forgot.

Last season
The fannied around mid-table like what they usually do, until March time, then, like what they usually do, they had an Alexander-inspired spurt (steady!) and rattled into the play-offs. Again. For the fourth year running. It must be all right being a Lincoln fan, knowing that you can basically fall asleep until it gets a bit warmer, safe in the knowledge that you'll have a bit of excitement come April. But with Alexander now gone, will the natural state of the Lincoln City fan change...?

Anticipate with relish
The fact that Lincoln have lost 3-2 to Ilkeston and Spalding in pre-season should fill Town fans full of delight. Until we remember that Lincoln beat us in pre-season, too.

There's nothing much fun about going to Sincil Bank. It's a crap view, the stands are all wonky, and I always think it's in the middle of nowhere, relatively. Plus, neither team is gonna set the division alight. Back in our hibernation boxes.

Anticipate with dread
The fact that going to watch Town away at Lincoln is one of the scariest things to do in modern-day football should not be overlooked. You try walking back to the train station in Town colours for verification of this. Also, it's always freezing at Sincil Bank. This, again, I put down to wonky stands.

My main worry is that Lincoln's decent players, free from the shackles of rugby union football, will actually turn out to be not half bad, and thrash us twice. It could happen.

The way forward
...is on the ground. New manager John Schofield cannot surely continue to play the way that the Hoof did. And anything is an improvement on that. The Imps also have the experience of John Deehan as director of football, and a few names that should stike fear into Town fans' hearts, such as Mark Stallard, Jamie Forrester and... erm... Martin Gritton.

With a decent squad assembled by Schofield, Lincoln should make the play-offs again, at the very least...