Friday had been a fantastic day as the eyes of the world had descended on Great Britain to watch the Royal Wedding. As a country we have a terrible habit of talking our great nation down but Friday showed just how great we can be when we put our mind to it and how we can still throw the best parties in the world.
We embarked on the two and a half hour trip to Oxford at just gone ten. The normal topics of conversation were thrown about along with, which Blue Square prem grounds we are looking forward to going to should we be relegated, the harsh and totally unjust treatment of both Glasgow Rangers and Jose Mourinho by UFEA this week and of course the Royal Wedding. Retford's very own Big Bopper Mr Barry Oxby had even organised a street party to celebrate the wedding and had brought along a few cakes for us to eat and they were simply delicious.
Oxford's ground is quite a way from anywhere so we searched for a nearby village so we could sink a few pints before kick off. We found a pub within a couple of minutes drive and all piled in. The pub was called the Catherine Wheel and was still decked out in Union Flags from the Royal wedding celebrations. It was quite empty when we got there but soon filled up with Oxford United supporters. The Ruby Mild ale(£2) went down rather well and had a decent kick to it. The Pub was a real country pub with sandwiches and bar snacks available. I was eyeing up the dart board but after telling the guys at various points in the season about my darting exploits in the early 2000s when the side i played for reached not one but two bottom 4 cup semi finals none of the mere mortals felt up to the challenge of playing me. Another item of interest was the information board for the ladies tug of war team.
Even though its in the middle of nowhere Oxford's ground can be a bit of a bitch to get in and out of as there is only one entrance to the parking area and we were directed to the rear end of it.
Oxford's club shop was quite impressive and was another reminder of how far Lincoln have fell behind other clubs in this division. The range was far wider than at Lincoln and was about twice the size. An Oxford fan asked Baz if he was getting the Oxford home shirt as it was in the sale. (Baz was in his Imps shirt) He politely said no he wasn't. Yellow never was his colour.
It was a glorious summer day and the kind of day that you could really enjoy if your league status wasn't in serious danger. Fans were dotted all around the stadium drinking beer, eating, and generally chilling out. Using the age old theory of food outside football grounds being far better than what's inside we headed to a burger stall that was doing a roaring trade. I played it safe and just went for the Cheeseburger and Chips while my three traveling companions went for the double cheeseburger option. The Stacey West stand's chief steward was also indulging in the cuisine and it is to him the honour falls of rating the food. Gary scored it at a very respectable 8/10.
Feeding time at London zoo ain't got nothing on this!
Some Lincoln stewards were working on the visitors section for today's game. Others by all accounts were taking romantic walks along Skegness beach (According to the rumours anyhow) I will let you decide who got the better end of the bargain. After stuffing our faces we had a stroll around the stadium and picked up the programme. Match badges were also available at £3.00 a throw so i picked up one of those. If this was to be Lincolns last away match in league two for a while then i wanted something to remember it by. Plus having got a FREE match ticket i didn't think it would hurt to spend a few quid. The programme looks quite smart but i haven't had time to read it due to the sunny weather and the pubs all being open!
Lincoln had laid on free travel for this match and many fans had taken up the board's great offer. An Imps win coupled with Barnet failing to do so would have seen us safe and the fans definately seemed up for the match. The question as always though was were the players? Well for 60 minutes or so they definately were.
Oxford's Kassam Stadium is certainly one of the better grounds in the lower two divisions and would be a decent enough model for Lincoln to copy, if we ever get round to moving from Sincil Bank. We were given about a third of a stand down the side of the pitch which gave you a cracking view of the action. One touch i liked about the stadium was the advertising boards being used to display pictures of major trophies won by Oxford. This would be a tad difficult to copy at Lincoln unless we can count Lincolnshire cups; then our honours board would rival the likes of those at Anfield and Old Trafford. The only downside to the stadium is that it is still a three sided stadium. We were glad we parked bit away from the ground as i can imagine a few cars have been damaged with wayward shots in the past and given Lincoln's striking problems this season i could see a few more getting damaged today.
It was a dream start for Lincoln. On four minutes City had the lead when a deep cross from the right was turned in by Cian Houghton, the City support who had been very noisy even in the warm up were even happier when news filtered through that Barnet were losing at Accrington. If it stayed like that, City would be safe and we could all sleep easily. Alas it didn't. City actually looked fairly comfortable. Oxford didn't really cause us too many problems although Parish in the Imps goal looked his normal nervous self. City could have doubled their lead when a Luke Howell piledriver from about 30 yards smacked against the bar with the Keeper well beaten. When you are in Lincoln's position you need these to go in, but they never do. One area of concern was that both Lincoln's centrebacks Danny Hone and Adam Watts both picked up bookings. Parish was also booked as he charged out of his goal, tripping an Oxford player in the process. This lead to Lincoln facing a free kick in added on time at the end of the first half, thankfully it was cleared and the Imps went in at half time 1-0 up. Although Barnet had equalised at this point Lincoln were safe.
Lincoln again took the game to Oxford for the first ten minutes or so in the second half. News came through that Barnet were losing so things were looking good. Ali Fuseini then hit the post after beating a couple of defenders and it was at that point that i knew things were going to go wrong just like at Fulham in the league cup a few years ago, when we hit the post with the score 4-4 you just knew what was coming next and it wasn't good.
There is an unwritten rule in football that if you don't take your chances when you are on top then you are in big trouble. After we hit the post Oxford decided to turn up and start playing. We were forced onto the back foot and didn't create a great deal for the remainder of the match. Defending set plays has been our problem all season and it was from a corner that Oxford scored; Parish flapped at it, got nowhere near the sodding thing, and allowed Asa Hall to score from close range. Oxford upped their game even more and with both our centrehalfs on bookings it made Lincoln's life even harder. At this point Lincoln would have needed a point from the last game to be safe. Lincoln couldn't hold out and when a great finish from Craddock gave the hosts the lead with 15 to go, it looked curtains for Lincoln. Even so the fans really got behind the team and gave some of the best backing since that match at Craven Cottage. Soon after this Danny Hone received a second yellow for a clumsy challenge just to make Lincoln's task that bit harder. Even though we had nothing to lose we never threw the kitchen sink at Oxford which i must blame the manager for. Before Hone was sent off were going to bring a couple of strikers on but that all changed when Hone was shown red. The match ended with Clarke Keltie blasting a free kick into car park behind the open end. The players came over to acknowledge the support at the end then we all trudged out. I must say that compared to recent performaces the players gave us a much better showing and i can't fault the effort. Ability yes, effort no. If they had shown this amount of effort in the previous eight or so games who knows?
A couple of Oxford fans wished us well for next week as we sat in the warm car waiting to get out of the car park and as Baz munched his way through a ham sandwich the reality hit home. We have let a 12 point gap slip to a two point gap to the drop zone with one match to play. Due to our goal difference being garbage, we need to beat Aldershot next week to stop up. If Barnet dont beat Port Vale then we will be safe regardless of what we do, but it's in our own hands. If we can't beat lower midtable Aldershot then we dont deserve to be in league two simple as that.
One the way back we stopped at a service station just south of Leicester. As most people know everything is stupidly over priced at these types of places but i managed to find a bargin. While a couple of us were filling up on over priced coffee i invested in a pack of playing cards for the sum of £1.25! You can't even get a bottle of drink for that let alone something to eat.
The game we played is simply called "Donkey" there will be a special post all about this new smash hit game to follow in due course, needless to say it gave us a good few laughs and the rest of the journey flew by. The aim is not to be the player holding the Donkey card at the end of the game. The Honour of winning the first game of Donkey fell to Lee. Donkey will feature heavily in next season's blog and the cards will be with us at all games so if you too fancy a game of Donkey at half time at any Lincoln game just search us out and you are more than welcome to join in!
Next up though we have to watch a group of asses try to save our league status. If not then Mansfield and Grimsby fans reading are more than welcome to have a round or two of Donkey next season.
harsh realities...
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