Walsall away : Victory, "it's a goal Michael" and bitter fans

Hello all

I've waited until two days after the game finished to write this as I wanted to calm down a bit before writing this. I still can't believe we beat Walsall. Now, I know many of you might look at that and think "Walsall? It's not like it's a Premiership side," ..... but let's put it into context, in terms of positions, it would be like a middle of the table League One side going to a midtable Premiership side and winning, even though the Premiership side field a near full strength team. The level of the victory might not seem the same, but try finding a Lincoln fan who  cares that it was "only Walsall".

The away day started pretty late for me  as I didn't finish work until 4pm. I love night games because it helps you take your mind off of bad days, and this was definitely the case for me, and made even sweeter by the fact that I wasn't driving, I hate driving. Driving stresses me out to a level where I become very unpleasant to be around.

Matt was driving, a person who I have known since I was 11 and have been to school together, stayed in hotels together and now even work together, and he bought along his daughter, Chloe. It took a bit longer than expected to get to the Bescot (fuck sponsorship, it's the Bescot), as there had been an accident on the M6 (how come there's always an accident anytime we're playing away from home, or someone jumping in front of a train delaying everything, don't they realise that there's a football match to get to?) The 80 minute journey from Newark turns into 3 hours, but we still made it in plenty of time.

Once we were there we made our way into the Saddlers club, a bit like a bigger version of Sincil Bank's Centre Spot pub, although with food that was a lot less edible (and yes,  I have tasted the food at Sincil Bank) and served in a very, very slow manner. It took them nearly 15 minutes to serve four people. Eventually we make our way into the ground, although I am stopped on the way as a female steward is amazed at the stuff I pull out of my handbag.....toothbrush anyone? How about a torch?

We eventually made our way in and all the youngsters that are going these days keep changing their standing position, which makes finding a space a bit awkward as I want to sit down and watch the match. After about four or fie times of moving, I give up as they again make their way over to sit next to where I am sitting. I just can't be bothered to move anymore and it's just a bit of a chore. The game eventually kicks off and the first half is a bit of a dull affair, although the home side do slightly edge it.

The second half is a much different prospect as Alan Power quickly latches onto a through ball and slots home to give the Imps the lead on the night. Walsall's appeals for offside fall on deaf ears and Power was about 3/4 yards onside when the ball is played. City sit back and although they rarely launch another attack, Farman isn't really having much to do in the city goal as Walsall can't get any shots in.........that is until about nine minutes from time when they score with their first shot on target during the entire game. The fans behind the goal are deflated and you can tell the players just want that whistle as we were hanging on for those final few minutes. Thankfully we do hold out for extra time.

Taken from the BBC Football Website
Vadaine Oliver makes it 3-1

Extra time is much the same as most of the rest of the match, the hosts having a lot of the ball but not really doing anything with it. Just before the end of the first period the Imps get a corner. It's played in and substitute Vadaine Oliver, who had given the ball away for Walsall's goal, heads in to restore City's lead. Vadaine is at it again a few minutes later as he latches onto a weak back header to beat Grof to the ball and to send the Imps fans behind that goal into raptures. You can't put into words what that goal meant and the away end went absolutely wild when it went beyond the hapless (and rather shit) David Grof and into the net.

Walsall do make it 3-2, but much like commentator Michael Hortin, most Imps fans don't realise Walsall have scored again. Hortin is going on about a brilliant City clearance and how City have got a decision anyway.......to which Steve Thompson replies "It's a goal Michael"....infact, the clip is right at the bottom fo this entry.

Funnily enough, I then see the woman who was doing my nut in in the game at Barrow.....and surprise, surprise, she's moaning again.....however, thinking about it, whenever I've seen her at an away game, we have never lost. I think I've sat near/next to her at three away games now and we've won them all. 2-1 at Cheltenham and the two recent games. If she wasn't such an irritating fuck head then I would gladly sit next to her every game to try and do anything I can to get a win.

The final whistle goes and the Imps fans and players go mental. It's the same outside the ground but then one Walsall fan just has to be that twat doesn't he. Cowering as he walks around a dark corner, he shouts abuse at all Lincoln fans two or three times.....he really didn't like it when I replied back.....pity the coward was still walking away. I really hate sore losers, I really do. However, let's not get one sour-graped twat ruin our evening and celebrate a great win for the Imps.

It makes it nine unbeaten now, something that we would have only dreamed of six weeks ago and hopefully it now means that the Imps have turned that corner and that we can now move on and push for getting back in the Football League, maybe not this season, but soon.

Below is my video of the night.............

listen to ‘Here's that classic commentary from last night on BBC Radio Lincs’ on Audioboo

Video : 2012/13 : Barrow vs Lincoln City

Hello All

On Saturday we made the trip to Barrow and it was quite a memorable trip for both good and bad reasons.

Barrow away : Victory, frustrating fans and Father Ted

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When you've had a difficult week, the last thing you'd have needed in recent years is to go and watch Lincoln City away from home, but not any more. I'd had a bit of a bad week due to issues I can't really go into but the form of the Imps meant that going to watch Lincoln doesn't feel like the task it has done in recent years. City went into the game at Barrow in excellent form and fans sort of expecting to win games.

Despite the recent run of form, manager David Holdsworth has struggled to get praise from the fans who have pointed out that the improved form has only come since Grant Brown and Chris Moyses became more involved in the first team. It has seemingly gotten to the point where some fans have an attitude of "If we win it's because of Grant and Chris, if we lose it's because of David," a bit of a ridiculous statement as Holdsworth has assembled a side that is finally started producing. That's not to say that Chris and Grant aren't doing a good job, but it will certainly be interesting to see how certain fans react and when this unbeaten run ends.

So onto the matchday and my first experience of the new Red Imps Cafe at Sincil Bank. Food at Sincil Bank has always been a bit suspect, and that's putting it nicely. Buying a cheeseburger in the CO-OP stand basically means you get a cold bit of meat located between two cold bits of bread, infact, putting it bluntly, the food at Sincil Bank is shit, so you can imagine my surprise when the food in the RIC was actually quite nice. The coach eventually arrives and off we go.

It could be Craggy Island.........it could be Barrow. Who knows???

The roads to Barrow are pretty bland until you get to Cumbria, at which point you are actually treated to some views of some wonderful countryside for miles on end.....until you get to Ulverston. It's amazing that you can go from looking out of your window and thinking "oh, that's quite nice" to "what the fuck is this shithole?"

Ulverston makes Grimsby/Cleethorpes look like a metropolitan paradise. Barrow, just a few miles further down the road, isn't much better and the view from out of the main stand at Holker Street is one of the most depressing in the country. I've been to some right shitholes, but Barrow is right up there amongst the others.......hello Alfreton! You know it reminds me of in many ways? Craggy Island from Father Ted, for which myself and a few other of the coach-goers were talking about gleefully on the way.

One of these days I'm expecting to go to Barrow and see that they've got a local fair on, looking inside and there's a bench being lifted up by a crane as one of the rides, or a sideshow called the "SpiderBaby".....two more Father Ted references....seriously, watch it, it's very funny.

When we finally arrived at Holker Street the gates were already open, and fortunately we timed it so that the rain was only just starting to fall when we entered the turnstiles. I see a lot of City fans head into the seats and I follow a few seconds later, they ask why I want to go in the seated stand, to which my reply is....."Well I like to sit down when watching football and side views are always better,".......to which they let me through with the words "It's ok, this one's not a troublemaker."

That kind of bugged me in a way. For those who aren't aware, I'm going through a sex change, so I'm not sure what part of me, a six foot tall guy with red hair (and I mean red, not ginger), make up, fake breasts and a handbag, lead the steward to initially believe that I was going to cause trouble, but let's face it, there aren't many transgendered individuals going around causing trouble at football matches these days.....or indeed just transgendered people at football matches. The wind is so bracing that despite initially staying in just a very fitting t-shirt, I have to put on my nice, warm, hooded jumper, the rain then starts pelting it down, but fortunately we under cover so it doesn't affect us......unlike the below set of so fans who stayed in the terrace despite of the adverse weather.

As the away end fills up, the weather calms down quite a bit and it's all good with the exception of the wind, and I get some fans sat in front of my who are amongst the most annoying type of football fan, those that have a choice between seating and terracing, go in the seating but then insist on standing the entire time, and then do it right in front of someone who has no interest in standing. Eventually the steward pretty much forces them to sit down, but these were not fans, these were the type of people that Lincoln has attracted in recent seasons, those that moan for the sake of moaning. They were shouting at one point for Dan Gray to clear the ball, he clears it, and then they moan at him for not clearing it directly to the feet of Jamie Taylor, who is stood 60 yards away. There's just no pleasing these types of fans and they will always find a fault, or cause those around them headaches because they won't shut the fuck up!!!!!! All I can hear through the entire game is high pitched moaning and it gave me a bit of a headache.

Infact, they type of fans do my head in so much that I've decided to give them their own anthem. A song that sums them up perfectly, their attitude, etc, I present to you "Predictable" by Good Charlotte.

The pre-match rain made it hard for either side to really get a foot hold on the game and the first chance comes just before half time, and it resulted in the opening goal of the game as Dan Gray cleared the ball (moan, whinge, bitch) upfield, Jamie Taylor gets the ball, plays in Alan Power with a clever trick and the former Hartlepool man slots it home from just inside the area.

The second half isn't much better with both sides again struggling on the poor pitch, but City do make it 2-0 just after the hour mark as Vadaine Oliver scores a rare goal to extend City's lead from a corner. Ex-Imp Louis Almond is tripped late on to give Barrow a penalty (but of course according to the fans in front of me it was never a penalty, and it's a conspiracy worse than the Kennedy assassination that they've been given a penalty) and they put it away to make it a nervy finish for the Imps, but City do hold on to take a well earnt three points. The Imps suddenly find they've reached the nose-bleed second that is 13th in the table......dizzying heights indeed.

The trip home seems to last forever as those of us at the back of the coach are trying to watch the Aston Villa vs Manchester United match, with a Chelsea fan taking particular please when Villa take a 2-0 lead.......I am soon rubbing it in though as United turn it around to make it 3-2. It's not easy watching a football match on a phone though, especially in an area which seemingly has no mobile coverage whatsoever, but we do our best. Granted, it's better than sat there looking blankly into the pitch black countryside, or watching other traffic on the motorway, but the image freezing just as you're about to see a goal is frustrating.

Other than that it was a pretty uneventful, but long, trip home.

With the FA Trophy draw coming up

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It's that time of year that every non-league fan looks forward to. No, it's not the FA Cup 1st Round draw, it's not a game against your local rivals that you haven't played since one of you kicked a ball over the neighbour's fence, oh no, it's the FA Trophy draw.

With a lot of our local teams getting through the qualifying stages so far, there is a heavy chance of getting a local derby when the first round draw is made on Monday, with Alfreton, Mansfield and Grimsby all definitely in the first round with us, and the plethora of local sides in the last qualifying rounds includes Boston, Gainsborough, Worksop and Stamford.

To sort of celebrate the upcoming draw, I'm going to share with you the video from last year's trip to Colwyn Bay. This would be the last Lincoln game I covered of the 2011/12 season.

Are we on the verge of a cup run?

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After defeating the self-proclaimed "massive club" Halifax, the Imps came within minutes of getting past League One side Walsall. The Imps had controlled most of the match and more than outmatched their loftier opponents, that was until the Saddlers launched a rare attack and scored with what was pretty much their first effort on target just before the end of the 90 minutes. It had ended what had been a brilliant Imps performance in disappointing fashion.

The game now goes to a replay and will face the winners of another replay, Slough vs Mansfield. Although we won't do what Halifax did and start looking forward to the next round before we have actually beaten the  opponents we have in the replay, but if the replay goes anything like the first game, then the Imps have a great chance of making the third round.

We are familiar with Mansfield Town after our visit there last month (video below), and we were hardly overawed by one of the pre-season favourites for promotion, and Slough Town are one of the lowest ranked teams left in the competition, currently playing in the Evostik South League Division One Central, the equivalent level to Lincoln United. Slough sit midtable in their division but due to their FA Cup run have played at least two games less than anyone else in their division.

If the Imps can get past Walsall then we have a great chance to get through to the third round and draw a big side. However, we shouldn't just assume that we are going to beat Walsall simply because they were crap yesterday (and I would go as far as saying one of the worst sides we've played this season). They are still two divisions above us and despite their recent form, are still more than capable of beating us....afterall, they can't be any worse than they were on Saturday.

But anyway, hopefully we can have a decent cup run again.