Sometimes in life a night that you thought was going to be crap turns out to be fantastic. Sometimes you build yourself up to a night you think is going to be fantastic and it ends up being one big let down; this one is without question in the second category.
I had been looking forward to this game all week. We were solid enough against Barnet at home the week before and i really thought we could follow that up with an away win at Stanley. Shows what i know doesn't it.
It all started so well. I had a few beers in town before we set off and all was well in the world. The journey over to Accrington went well apart from a missed turn off that was blamed on a discussion between the driver and myself as to which political party represents Guinea Pigs best(it wasn't the only time in the evening that his memory deserted him). As it turned out missing the turn off didn't really make much difference and the pigs were forgiven.
We got parked up and headed over to the Crown pub. Its a decent pub which is fine with away fans going in there. We all got our drinks (Well apart from one of our number who got his son a drink but forgot his own Doh! I had a quick flick through the programme which wasn't great to be honest and certainly wasn't worth £3 and we made our merry way into the ground.
And thats when it went tits up.
The Accrington home end used to be full of flag, banners, and colour. Now for some reason all flags have been banned as i found out when i tried to hang up my Canadian flag. Having been a steward in Lincoln for six seasons i know there is a right and a wrong way to do the job and the Stanley stewards most definately fall into the second class. Their whole attitude and the way they went about there job stank. From the way they failed to react quickly enough to a Lincoln fan who had a nasty fall on the concrete terrace, to the reason flags aren't allowed being quoted as "they are deemed to be a safety hazard". Yet out dated crumbling concrete terracing apparently is fine. In all fairness the Stanley fans are pretty pissed off at the flag ruling as well. I am sure that the Muppet's could have done the job better. When you see poor workmanship like this it makes you realise how well Gary and the gang do their job on the Stacey west end at Lincoln.
Right from the first whistle Stanley were on top. The Imps couldn't even get the ball let along do anything with it. On the rare times we did get the ball we just booted it high and long to the front man and with no support for him it just came straight back. Stanley scored two goals on 17 and 21 which as good as killed the match off as a contest.
The side pretty much curled up and died in the second half. What summed it up for me was the third goal when Adam Watts was shoved of the ball as if he was a bunny rabbit and their player ran on to make it 3-0 at the end where the Lincoln fans were stood. The only other action of note was when Scott Kerr who had only been on the field for about 15 minutes was shown a straight red which prompted a 20 man bust up. To be fair to Scott their player did make a meal out of it but if you make that sort of challenge then you run the risk of a card. For my money it was only worth a yellow.
Stanley then took their foot off the gas and the match petered out. City wasted a couple of half chances but that's all they were. We were well beaten and i can't remember City putting in such a negative performance away from home. I am sure that given time, this one will be looked back and viewed in the same class as Chesterfield and Wycombe away in 1998 and Halifax in 2000.
On this showing we are heading for the drop. I can take losing but there is a right and wrong way to lose and this was in the latter section.
On the plus side we had an excellent Kebab on the way back and for only £5! I will post the menu when i dig it out. This has the lot. Lamb Donner with Kofte, Lamb and chicken sheesh all served in a fresh naan bread! There is always light at the end of the tunnel!!
Admission £15
Programme £3 Crap
Ground Crap
Imps "performance" 0/10 Crap
Man of the match - All the Imps fans who travelled to watch this shit
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