First week of the season

Well the great Gods of fixture lists and cup draws have certainly given the Imps a mixed start to the season. Both our two opening matches are away but the venues are at the opposite ends of the footballing spectrum.
First the good news. In the Carling cup City have drawn one of the plum ties away at Championship side Leeds united.

Elland Road

I am really looking forward to my trip to Leeds. Its the nearest football league ground to me I have not been to and I know quite a few Leeds fans, so the banter leading up to the tie will be fun. The odds are that we will get beat but with the recent upturn in Leeds' fortunes a decent crowd can be expected; with maybe up to 2,000 Imps in attendance. City should get a decent payday as each club gets 40% of the gate money.


From Yorkshire's best football league stadium to the worst. The Imps will start their league campaign away at Rotherham United.
Well that should read the Imps will start there campaign away at a soulless athletics stadium on the outskirts of Sheffield as Rotherham not longer play in their home city. Its not far from Sheffield to Rotherham but the home fans are drifting away. Rotherham got to the playoff final last year but averaged less at home than sides that struggled like Lincoln and Grimsby. No side has been docked as many points in the league over the past 4 years than Rotherham and it remains to be seen if they can afford their current side or if they are yet again bending the rules. You would have thought that they would have learned their lesson but with this lot you can never be too sure. When they got booted out of the home ground the league granted them 5 seasons to move back to Rotherham in a new stadium. We are on season 3 now and not a brick has been laid. I was hoping they would win the playoff final so we wouldn't have to go there but alas they blew it so here we are.


My main gripe with them is the way away fans are treated. I am sure that for Athletics the Don Valley is fantastic but for football its dreadful. As you can see from these pics i took in the 2007/08 season, the view is one of the worst you will ever get. I could just about stomach this if they didn't charge you £18 quid for the privilege of sitting in it. £10 would be a much fairer price and if they did charge that i am sure their home gate would rise. The plus points are that we get to go in August and not a cold wet night in December and you have the Meadowhall shopping centre nearby so you can get some decent beer and snap without too much trouble