A Real Proper Football Match

Immensely looking forward to the match on Saturday between Tranmere Rovers and my beloved Lincoln City. This is the type of game that I have been longing for over the past 6 or 7 seasons. Two real football teams playing one another in a proper stadium at the top end of the league table. Yes it may only be top of the Vanarama National League but that is where both these historic football clubs find themselves at the moment. Two such clubs meeting at this level is somewhat sad but still it is a game to look forward too especially in a stadium such as Prenton Park a stadium to rival Sincil Bank, probably to surpass it if the truth be stated!

Second against third separated by just a point. Early in the season I know but a really juicy fixture to look forward too.

Can The Imps get anything out of the game, take the spoils or a share of the spoils? One would like to think so but it is going to be a terrifically difficult game. For me it would be the icing on the cake to take a point or three. To be there and be a part of this game is what I am truly looking forward to. Keeping my fingers firmly crossed for a good result though! Up The Imps.

Lincoln City FC. The Only Way Is Essex!

Welcome to the Cowley brother Danny and Nicky to Sincil Bank. I was unable to attend the Fans Forum on Friday evening last but I have managed to watch all the footage of it. Cowley's seem to have their heads screwed on and their recent successes at other clubs would tend to support that view. I was a bit put off by all the management speak that was evident in their answers to supporters questions but that is probably just a bit of a phobia of mine. Having worked in the NHS for the best part of 10 years some time ago management speak does tend to make me shiver.

Danny and Nicky Cowley. Photo - Lincolnshire Echo.

Liked the positivity that the brothers showed though. I really do hope they help to lift the club away from the depths of the last few seasons. Chris Moyses started that process over the last 2 seasons and it was very good to hear Danny acknowledge that at the forum.

Lincoln City, despite the sour grapes from the Braintree Town chairman, are by far the biggest club that the Cowleys have managed and the expectations of the fans match the size of the club. I hope the weight of that expectation does not impair the new management duo. The fans of Lincoln City, probably like most fans at most other clubs, can be extremely fickle and I am not sure Danny and Nicky will have encountered that before. Give them a break guys!

Bring on next season and after, hopefully, a good summer with new signings strengthening the squad of players and those players buying into the plans and outlook of the new management team, we will see a lot of improvement on the field and a modicum of success coming the way of the long-suffering Imps fans.

Here's to you Danny and Nicky Cowley. All the best and I wish you well!

13 Hour Day!!

Set off yesterday at 9 a.m. Got back home just before 10 p.m. Drove approximately 450 miles during the day. Hold-ups on the motorway, other drivers doing their best to kill us. What was that all about? Simply football.

My team Lincoln City were playing Forest Green Rovers in the non-league Blue Square Premier yesterday. FGR are located in Nailsworth in south Gloucestershire. Several pick-ups of fellow nutcases in Lincoln and then off we go.

Am I mad? Am I barking? Is there nothing better I could do with my time? The answer to those questions is probably yes to all 3.

Did I enjoy it? Yes.
Was it worth it? Oh so definitely!

3 points and a 2 goals to nil win. What better way could there be to spend a Saturday?
Okay don't answer that!!!

Football - The Same At Every Level

Lincoln City have the same problems as Arsenal who appear to have the same problems as Blackburn Rovers. A lack of money and a manager under pressure due to poor results. Amazing really that the same issues can cause the same reaction at the top and bottom of the football pyramid. The only difference really is in the degree. Arsenal and Blackburn really need tens of millions of pounds to improve their situation and Lincoln need about the same as the other two pay their top player a week to improve theirs.

The total reliance nowadays on money is the thing that is going to bring the football world crashing down. Too many clubs spending too much money they haven't got to try and achieve results. Ridiculous amounts of money being spent to buy players who are then paid equally as ridiculous amounts of money in wages. It is unsustainable and will cause the end of football as we know it now.

This might not be a bad thing to be honest. Perhaps then we can move back to an era when football really was "the people's game". To a time when the largest part of a club's income was made up by the man-in-the-street paying to watch the game live in the grounds. To a time when the board and the chairman were not sleighted by large parts of the supporters of the clubs for not putting money into the club because that is the panacea of all ills. To a time when football told the TV what they could and could not do and not the other way round. Never going to happent though, unfortunately.

If that happened then one other thing that I have already touched upon would make more sense. The constant calling by some supporters of clubs for the manager to be sacked. If the clubs were on a more equal footing financially then the performance of the players could be put down to the abilities of the managers. There would be some equity in the standard of the players at differing clubs. Let's face it. If a manager is at a club where the money is not available to go out and buy the best players available at a particular level, then they really are on a hiding to nothing from the off. What can they actually be expected to achieve in an environment where the "haves" will always prosper and the "have-nots" will always bring up the rear? What will changing managers really bring? Probably just a different face to be berated after a few months of poor results. What will that achieve? Not a lot. After all of this time with the game kow-towing to money I would have thought that supporters would have got an understanding of that.

Mad, Sad Or Just Plain Crazy?

Well which one is it? It must be one or the other or I would not have done it would I? Is it something that a sane person would really do? Not being sure if I am sane when it comes to this, I cannot answer my own question can I? A hundred mile round trip every other week to add to the cost cannot be right can it?

Oops sorry. You obviously have no idea what I am talking about do you? That just goes to show the state that I am in about this. What am I talking about?

Simply put; I have just purchased a season ticket to watch Lincoln City next year at a cost of £300. Lincoln City!! That's right. The team that I have followed all over the country and been completely let down by. The team that I just could not believe could get themselves relegated but managed to do so. The team that has no budget, no players and, if the doom-mongers are to be believed no future.

£300 for a season of Blue Square Premier (non-league) football. So which is it. Mad, sad or just plain crazy?

The Highs And Lows Of Life

I think that I have rarely experienced so many soaring highs and diving lows in my life in such a short time as over the last 24 hours.

Firstly, I had a long-time ambition fulfilled by being elected to both East Lindsey District Council and also Skegness Town Council. The last few months of my life have been geared up to this election. I, like my party colleagues, have put so much work and effort into the campaign and the election itself that to be rewarded as we were was fantastic. Personally I was completely blown away by my election and also hugely pleased with the success that my colleagues have also enjoyed. To have been awake most of the time since early Thursday morning until now is a small price to pay, although I am paying it, believe me.

Then we get the low. Off I went to the home of Lincoln City, Sincil Bank, this afternoon, in the knowledge that my beloved Imps needed a win at home against Aldershot to ensure their survival as a Football League team. After not much huffing an puffing by a Lincoln side that only appeared to half-care about the plight they were in, a 3-0 home defeat ensued. Given that Barnet, our main relegation rivals, conjured up a 1-0 home win against Port Vale and thereby eased above us in the league, we have been condemned to a long and cold stay in Non-League football. A huge and despairing thing to happen to such a club with a history such as ours. So now I am as far down in the dumps as I was high in the clouds only 24 hours ago.

Life is nothing if not interesting and at least it is not predictable. Cest La Vie. Onwards and upwards. I will be working for the residents of Skegness whilst at the same time the hierarchy at Lincoln City Football Club are working to get my beloved team back into the football league.

I hope we both have a huge measure of success in our endeavours!!!!!!!