congratulations Barcelona!

I would just like to say congratulations to FC Barcelona for there champions league win on Wednesday night. they have played the best football in Europe this season by far and rightfully won europe,s top prize by beating an off colour Manchester united 2-0. i must say i was impressed by the way Man utd players, fans and management took the defeat on the chin, no moaning or anything.

I have mixed feelings about the champions league. while it does find the best team in Europe it lacks some of the magic of the old European cup. the group stages are getting predictable, often being sorted out before the last round of games due to the seeding. i don't thing we will see a steua burcerst or red star Belgrade winning the cup again anytime soon. it also offers little chance of the mid ranking teams such as Sparta Prague, dynamo Kiev, psv edinhoven etc etc getting further than the quarter finals. and even sides like Ajax and Benfica who have won the cup many times between them struggle to compete.

Personally i think four sides for the top countries in to many and the pre qualifying rounds shoudnt be seeded so we get a better mixture of teams into the group stages. and lets do away with the country protection while we are at it!



Oh and an inter win for the first time in 40 years plus!!

68 all out.

Now that the 2009-10 season is over here is the full list of games i have been to this season.Rangeing from the Scottish Premier league to the Central midlands league ( i supose there isnt that much differance in the quality of the two leagues to be honest ;-) )

Retford united v East stirlingshire

Lincoln City v Aston Villa

Retford united v Lincoln city

Gainsbrough trinity v Lincoln city

Rotherham united v Lincoln city

Derby county v Lincoln City

Lincoln city v daganham and redbridge

Retford united v Grantham town

Retford united v Gresley rovers

Lincoln city v Grimsby town

Lincoln city v Barnet

Rangers v Killmarnock

Leciester city v Lincoln city

Lincoln city v Morcombe

Retford v Glapwell

Gainsbrough trinity v Fleetwood town

Lincoln city v Rochdale

Retford v Newcastle bedinfield

Retford v Stockbridge park steels

Lincoln city v Chesterfield

Maccelsfield town v Lincoln city

Shirebrook town v Winterton rangers

Retford united v Alferton town

Lincoln city v Port vale

Kettering town v Lincoln city

Gainsbrough trinity v Blyth spartans

Retford united v Newcastle blue star

Lincoln city v Shrewbury town

Clipstone v Ollerton town *

Shirebrook town v Parkgate

Lincoln city v Accrington stanley

Notts county v Lincoln city

Lincoln city v Bradford city

Retford united v Shepshed dynamo

Lincoln city v Brentford

Retford v Rushall olympic

Lincoln city v Chester city

Gillingham v Lincoln city

Lincoln v Bournmouth

Port vale v Lincoln city

Lincoln united v Loughbrough dynamo

Arnold town v pickering sports

Clipston v Ollerton town **

Grimsby town v Lincoln city

Retford united v Sheffield fc

Rolls royce leisure v Ollerton town

Bullwell town v Thorsby

Kirkby town v Newark flowserve

Forest town v Harrowby united

Clipstone v Kimbley town

Lincoln city v Darlington

Barnet vLincoln city

Lincoln city v Notts county

Lincoln city v Maccelsfield town

Gainsbrough trinity v Afc Telford

Chesterfield v Lincoln city

Hallam v Long eaton united

Retford unted v Goole

Ilkston town v Eastwood town

Henor town v Oldbrook

Worksop town v North ferraby united

Lincoln city v Exeter city

Retford united v Arnold town

Lincoln city v Aldershot town

Retford united v Eastwood town

Kiverton town v Kirkby town

Carlton town res v Yorkshire main res

* = match abanded for floodlight failure (79 mins)

** = match abanded due to water logged pitch (45mins)

as i had paid to get into the 2 above games i am counting them as games done, so there!!!

not long till the 2009-10 pre season friendles start first up tulsa cella fc v Lincoln city!! In Germany!!

The I Desk!

Seeing how there is not football on at the moment i have cut down my sky sports news viewing. in its place i have even been playing Mario cart or watching other crap on TV mostly American junk TV.Judge Judy, Ricki lake etc etc.

I quite like CNN. it is surprising how many British Reporters they have.our accents must go down well in the states. it is quite funny to watch the British country gent style reporter they always have outside downing street always talking posh.

The I-Desk is my favourite news show at the moment. it is alot brighter than the more somber and serious BBC rolling news channel.

here's the problem Hala Gorina is quite hot but as you can see form the right hand side of this blog so is our very own Emily Maitlis so who's the best? theres only one way to find out.........

FIGHT!!!

But it should be a bra and panties wwe wrestling style match! for my money i would go with Emily, But it would be very close, i hope anyway !!!!

IF Anybody who reads this is on Facebook then please become a friend of the I-Desk.we are trying to get 1000 fans before the end of may. the BS show on CNN did it in 5 months and Hala and the gang are trying to beat that by doing it in four months!!

Over in europe

Well in the end Inter won the championship without even kicking a ball all thanks to the city of milans 2nd team AC Milan losing at Udinese. never mind eh Mr Beckham!!!!!
Not so good news in Prague where zizkovs 3-1 home defeat to slavia prague leaves them in grave danger of relegation.

here's a little quiz question for you chaps reading this crap.what have the following teams got in common?

Real Madrid

Liverpool

AC Milan

Lincoln city

Arsenal

yep they have all won fuck all in the 2008-09 season. however one club has spent a hell of a lot less than the others. so does that make them more successful than the others as they have achieved the same results on a much smaller budget?

first person to tell me wins a can of coke and a yorkie bar.

Inter on the brink

Should Internazionale of milano (inter milan) beat siena at the san sior stadium this weekend they will claim there fourth league title on the trot and 17th overall thus equaling that of hated city rivals AC Milan.

I have always liked Inter, since i got hooked on football in about 93-94. Supporting a side like Lincoln, you need to have a second side and for me it was Inter. there were a couple of reasons. firstly i liked the kit and secondly AC Milan were at the time the best team in the world and as i have never been one to follow the crowd i picked inter. also the won the UFEA cup that year so i thaught i would follow them.

Back then there was a Italian football show on a Saturday morning then on the Sunday a live game. this was normally juventus, parma lazio (because of gazza) or one of the two milan clubs.

At the time however Inter were pretty crap. the title was fought out between Juventus and Milan with Parma there abouts. Inter were normally fighting it out just to get into the UFEA cup and were to be honest the laughing stock of the league (in much the same way liverpool were in the 90,s)

millions were spent in the 90,s but inter never seemed to get anywhere, they had great players, palugia was one of the best keepers i have ever seen, plus the likes of roberto baggio, roberto carlos ronaldo plus many many other came and went along with plenty of managers but still not even a shout of the championship the most exciting it got was a last minute goal in a 2-1 win over Torino that got us a UFEA cup spot one year

So although some people this season has been a failure because of the champions league defeat, i just look back at the years between 1989 and 2005 when we never won the title. back in the 90,s i would never have thaugh that one title was possible, let alone four in a row! so i will enjoy the moment and just think and remember how bad it was!!

FORZA INTER!!!!

Things to do over the summer.

Now that the football season is winding down (well lincoln started winding down in about december) i have been thinking of somethings to do over the summer months.

1) Pluck up the courage to sign up for a maths course
2) Go and watch notts county cricket club at somepoint.Having fridays off should make this fairly easy.
3) sort out all of my football programmes. i have started this by dumping them all out of the attic and onto the spare room floor. i appear to have collected a fair amount of crap over the years. a single page issue form a scunthorpe united v rotherham utd autoglass trophy game in 1989 for example.( any offers for the aforementioned item will be considered)
4)learn to cook a few more dishes.
5)Watch the imps in Germany in pre-season!!!! and no i wont mention the war!
6)hopefully plan a hopping trip to blackpool to see either Afc Blackpool or Blackpool wren rovers midweek.
7) start going back to the gym, been a bit slack this past 6 months so i am very keen to get back in the groove!
8) weed the back yard!

i am sure some more things will come up, but this will do for now!!

Non league awards 2008-09

I have been to a few non league grounds this season so here are my awards for various things that are important to us followers of football.

Best club house

Hucknall rolls royce leisure. very nice large club a few big screens around, nice darts oche and the beer was nice and not to expensive. it is sad that Rolls are leaving the central midlands league next season as it is a hell of a lot better than some of the teams that are in the league this season.the club officials were very good and helpful as well.

Best food

This is hard. i do like Retford uniteds pie chips and pies.but thats because they are puka pies.shirebrooks burgers were a bargin at only £1.40. Lincoln uniteds food is always nice But just pipping them would have to be the burgers at Worksop towns temporary home at Hucknall town. wherever they end up next season i hope they take the burger van with them.

Rip off of the season.

three things share this award

1) The robbing twats on the groundhop who charged a quid to park the car at bullwell and kirkby town. the clubs already made a packet out of the day, why go and penny pinch that little bit more.and they gave us a crap parking place at bullwell.

2) Hucknall town social club. £2.71 for a pint of fosters! enough said really.in the center of Nottingham mayby, the dump that is Hucknall then no!

3) clipstone fc. paid twice to see them play ollerton, the match wasn't finished twice, and still we had to pay the second time. and we would have had to pay a third time if we went to the 3rd attempt to play the game.

worse side seen.

over the four games i have seen them i would have to say Gainsbrough trinity take this award.

Best side seen.

Winterton played shirebrook town of the park it a one sided game so i will go for them . other shouts go to Retford united in the notts cup final and fleetwood town at gainsbrough.

Best game

Gainsbrough 3-4 fleetwood town.

The what the fuck am i doing here award.

watch clipstone v ollerton the second time round getting piss wet through thankfully it was called off at halftime.

Worse game.

Arnold v pickering was pretty crap.

Worse ground.

Again a joint award here. Bullwells ground was very poor,thankfully it didnt rain as there is no cover. also the ground was done up for the groundhop which makes you think what it was like before. Also for all the money they spent on it and for all the fanfare and build up they gave it Arnold towns ground was a big let down and the pitch was dreadful at best. nice programme though. And i got a team sheet.

Best ground.

i quite liked shirebrook towns. dont know why just did.

Twat of the season.

either the bloke who was moaning about the fact that ollerton v clipstone was being played 1st time round because of the cold or the 15/16 year old kid at Arnold town who ran up and down the pitch swearing at the ref all game and genrally made a dick of himself for 90 mins. made retfords 4-0 notts cup semi final win all the more better!!!

wags of the season

hmmm i will have to think about this for a while.....

My lincoln city awards 2008-09

In the first of my own football awards i will concentrate on Lincoln city. i will post my non-league/ semi pro awards later.

Best home performance of the season.

Not many contenders for this award (the imps got more points on the road than at home this season) it was quite an easy choice i am afraid. so the winner is ........

Lincoln city 3 -Chesterfield 1

Best away performance.

Gillingham 1-Lincoln city 2.

Best away day.

this is always a tough award,i take into account the game,the result, the ground visited, the pubs the food ,the antics that we get up to and then work it out using a secret formula! for this award i will give 3rd,2nd and 1st places.

3rd place- gillingham

2nd place-grimsby town (more for the night before as oppose to the game!)

1st place- Notts county!!!

Notts won it because of the amount of beer drunk by my cousin and myself, got into Hooters pre game,we got a free hot dog and the imps won!!

worst home performance.

Darlington

worst away performance

Rotherham united

player of the season

Frank sinclair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the free transfer to whoeverthe fuckwantsme fc

Lee Beavers(please don't sign your contract so we can get a left back who gives a toss!)

over hyped player of the season

Rob birch- let in two many from long range.

Goal of the season.

Geoff horsfield v gillingham away.

fish and chip shop of the season.

the one in gillingham £4.20 for fish and chips, and very very nice they were too, thank you!

away pub of the season.

hooters in nottingham!!!!

worst food of the season.

for the 14th time in a row it has to be the shit that is served up inside our very own sincil bank stadium. 3 quid for a crappy burger is a disgrace; it looks and tastes like shit. the pies are ok but they aren't make on site, plus for only a quid extra you can get a pie with chips and gravy from the chipshop outside the ground, its a no brainer really isn't it boys and girls?

best opposing team i have seen.

nobody has really stood out but i will go for Rochdale.

worse opposing team

Chester city were crap and negative, but still got a point at Lincoln!

How the hell did this happen?

The end of season player awards were dished out before the game with aldershot yesterday.

The young player of the year was awarded first. This award is chosen by the manager and in my view should have been the closest award of the lot due to the number of youngsters we have had come through in the past season. the winner was Moses swaibu. Good a choice as any i suppose.

Rob burch,the goalkeeper got away player of the year, personly i dont think he is much better than alan marriot who we released last year. both would/will win us as many points as they will lose through fuck ups/brilliant saves. for me burch has been beaten from long range far to often ad far to easily for my liking although i will concede that it was his debut season in first team football. improvement is needed next year if he is to turn into a championship/premiership keeper like he was tipped to be at both spurs and sheffield wednesday.

Now to the big one, the player of the season as voted for by the fans.

alas my choice frank sinclair didn't make the top three, even by filling in about 7 voting form on behalf of my friends and fellow retford/Latrobe imps.

third place was janos kovas (my second choice lol)

second was top scorer patulea (again no complaints from me there)

but in first place- captain average... SCOTT KERR!!!

WTF!!!!!!!!!

i am not saying he is crap or anything, he does a job in middfield but player of the season my arse! two goals from middfield is poor by anybodys standard. hes set peice taking is on a par with kicking abiltys of a samon. ok i will admit he is strong in the tackle runs around like a deranged ferret and gives you 100% but player of the season? nope. should he be our captian again next season. not for me i would rather see big janos wear the armband (man of the match AGAIN!!! ) yesterday.

kerr may be good at opening local supermarkets and presenting awards in local schools but does in deserve to be in the list of lincoln city players of the season i feel not my friends not in the company of player like garath answorth and steve holmes.

or have i missed something?

its curtain time!!!!

Well tomorrow is the imps last game of the 2008-09 season. a meanless midd table home match against Aldershot town fc.
to be honest i feel that we have got a lot stronger than last season, but i will save the season reaction till a week after the season. It still feels a little empty though. After the playoff years it still feels strange to know the we will not be involved.

with this in mind i have decided to get aload of beer in order a pizza and have a boys night in with my guniea pigs watching the 1997/98 promotion dvd just to remind me that football (soccer lol) isnt always this boring and hopefully this time next year i am runing around sorting out a promotion party after see the imps get out of this god forsaken division!!! (at the right end of course!!)

later!