This was our second visit to Lincoln in 24 hours to watch football following the Imps 1-1 draw with Stockport County the previous night (more of which later). The second trip to the fair City was our first ever visit to Lincoln's third club (behind City and United) Lincoln Moorlands FC. Although to be fair to them Moorlands are only one league below United so we could have a Lincoln derby in the not to distant future. Hopefully it wont involve City though. Unless United can get up to the BSP which is highly unlikely it has to be said.
We found Moorlands Newark Road home quite easily, basically you head down Lincoln High street and keep going, and keep going some more. When we arrived at the ground Felice bagged a car parking spot right next to the turnstiles. It was a relief to get out of the car for two reasons. Firstly, to escape Baz's arse which was on fire and unleashing toxic gas all too regularly and secondly so we didn't have to listen to BBC Lincolnshire's Scott Dalton droning on and on about Boston United's trip to Harrogate. Thankfully when City are playing he (and Boston) get a lot less airtime but as City had played the previous night Boston had got "top billing". If you have never heard him then you are very lucky. Its only a 40 minute journey or so but when two of your senses are under attack like ours were then it seems a hell of a lot longer trust me.
Admission today was the standard NCEL Premier division £5 and kids were free. The programme was £1.20 and was a cracking effort. Full of news, views, and reviews as they say. The ground is very tidy with covered seating on both sides. The club have plenty of room around the pitch so they have room to expand should they need to. The weather today was nice which made the ground look even more scenic. As we were a tad peckish we headed over to the canteen to see what food was on offer. The programme asks "Why not savour the delights of our excellent tea bar?" and "Make a visit for a gastronomic delight!" High claims indeed but how would it fare when up against Nottinghamshire's top food critic Mr Barry Oxby?
The answer was not very well. The problem seemed to be that although the burger was cooked well enough the bread had come out straight out of the fridge thus making the burger seem cold. His verdict was short and not very sweet. "Cheap shitty burger" was his in depth analysis of the tucker. Although he did eat it, and finished his son's off as well; just to make sure both burgers were crap and not just his i assume.
Just like United, Moorlands have a former City legend on the coaching staff. In Moorland's case their assistant manager is former City full back Dean West who was a cracking player for Lincoln in the mid 90's. The swap deal that Steve Wicks did when he swapped West for Kevin Hulme must go down as the worst transfer City have ever done. After leaving City Deano went on to win promotion twice with Bury and play for years at Championship level with both Bury and Burnley. Kevin Hulme by comparison went on to make about 6 appearances for City and then went on sit on the bench at Macclesfield who at the time were in the conference. Deano did return to City for a short while in 2005 and even a time at Boston hasn't lowered his standing in City fan's eyes.
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| Dean West (Right) |
Deano wasn't the only former Lincoln City connection today. Moorlands had former Imp Nathan Adams in the starting line up. Visitors Arnold Town are now led by former Imp Martin Carruthers as their player manager these days. Carruthers was steady enough for Lincoln but i remember him for his performances against us rather than his performances for us. The day where he and Jimmy Quin ripped us apart for Peterbrough in their 5-1 win against us in 1998 and his two goals for Southend in 1999 really do stand out. Pre game we were sat in the stand and were well within ear shot of Carruthers and his number two as they discussed tactics and the ins and outs of front play. They were certainly talking a great game. Would their troops be able to follow their instructions in the heat of battle? Carruthers started the game leaving his number two on the bench to direct things from the sideline. We decided to take in the game from the newest stand in the ground. Arnold had brought a decent number of fans with them from central Nottinghamshire although none sat in the designated "away" seats mid you it would probably be enough for somebody like Fulham given their crappy following at Newcastle today.
Before kick off Felice was babbling on about how Celtic could be let back into the Europa league due to issues with FC Sion and how they could indeed go on to win the whole thing. To which an old boy sat near us replied "Yes and pigs can fly" Well said that man i say. Felice hadn't even had a drink when he came out with this crazy ass statement! It was definitely a head in hands moment when he said they could well win the thing.
As soon as the match started in became apparent that the Moorlands keeper was carrying an injury and wasn't as mobile as he should be. I have seen him play a couple of times for Nettleham and know him to be a very competent keeper although a tad hot headed at times. He got an outfield player to take all the goal kicks and free kicks. Given that this fact was obvious and the Martin Carruthers in depth chat about the art of striking it was strange not to see Arnold adopt a shoot on sight policy. The game was pretty even with neither keeper having much to do although when the Lincoln keeper did make a save he took his time getting up. The game was heating up quite nicely in fact with the only downside being this pleb in an Arnold scarf who despite all the signs telling folk not to stand in front off the seating area decided to plonk his ass right there. There is plenty of area not in front of seating area for punters to stand yet people still chose in front of the seating area. This does seem to be a general non league problem not just an Arnold Town thing.
Half way through the first half I took a stroll to the tea bar for a cuppa. While i was in there the lady behind the counter was telling a club official (who sold me a raffle ticket) that she only had 20 burgers left and was worried as to if that would be enough for the halftime rush. I felt i needed to rush back and tell Baz in case he wanted to try another one just to make sure his burger review was correct. He didn't but the canteen did have plenty of hotdogs left. Again Baz was unimpressed by this news. The tea cost 80p, was decent enough and served in a plastic cup. During a break in the game i did the old getting the cup stuck to my face gag which impressed nobody; "Fucking stupid boy" was Baz's verdict of it.
What did impress us however was the opening goal for Lincoln Moorlands in the 40th minute. Nathan Adams picked the ball up 25 yards out and blasted right into the top of the net. It was a tad harsh on Arnold as they had made most of the running for the previous 15 minutes or so but the game needed a goal to liven it up. Arnold then went down the other end of the pitch and forced a flurry of corners. It was during this period that we heard the Arnold keeper shouting over to the Arnold bench that
"They have a keeper with one fucking leg yet we are taking ages to line up a shot tell em to just fucking blast it"
The reply from number two bench came back swiftly enough.
"What can i do about it? You're nearer to me to them tell them"
Hearing this kind of stuff is one of the great things about non league football. Shorty after this the whistle went for half time. We took a stroll over to the clubhouse outside the ground and I picked up smart enamel badge for £3.50 and consumed a swift pint while watching the halftime scores roll in.
What ever pearls of wisdom Carruthers/his number two/the goalkeeper told the players at halftime worked because Arnold totally dominated the game in the second half. Herrick in the Lincoln goal pulled of a couple of great saves despite looking more and more in pain the longer the game when on. As we were sat at the end of the ground that Arnold were attacking some of the bigwigs of Arnold sat near us. They felt that Lincoln were trying to slow the game down and waste time. While I can agree with this up to a point i can't say i blame Lincoln. I don't think many sides with an injured keeper and protecting a 1-0 lead in a game would be in a huge rush to speed the play up. They also seemed to pipe up whenever a Lincoln player swore but kept quite when an Arnold player did the same. It made it even more ironic when they complained about the ref not showing any consistency. Glasshouses and stones and all that gentlemen.
Arnold got a deserved equaliser in the 82nd minute when James Leggett notched one up with a great direct free kick and whats more i even got a semi decent picture of it before he took it. Looking at how Lincoln are set up it seemed hard to see how he beat the keeper at his right hand post (as the keeper looks at it) but he did.
After the goal Arnold continued to make all the running but Lincoln just about held out. I had wanted Lincoln to win because of Deano and all that but i have to say Arnold were by far the better side and should have taken all three points. Both sides had neat passages of play but i can't see either of them mounting a challenge to the likes of Retford, Scarborough and, Stavley at the top of the division.
On the whole i really enjoyed my first trip to Moorlands. Even though we had great weather and saw two great goals and had a good laugh i will always remember this game for one incident about 5 minutes just before Arnold scored.
The Arnold number two was barking out orders for his troop from the bench when one of the Moorlands players who had not long been on the pitch came out with the line as he jogged past;
"Fucking big time you aren't you?"
To which the guy in the dugout just looked stunned, as if he had no come back at all!
Quality.
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