The Lincolnshire cup final.

Lincoln City 3-4  Grimsby Town

Well here are, a cup final before the season even kicks off. On offer tonight was Lincolnshire's oldest football trophy; The Lincolnshire senior cup. The Imps owe a lot to the Lincs cup, since the club was formed way back in 1884 with the aim of break Spilsby's stranglehold on the cup which they had won for the first three times it was played.
The cup was first played way back in the 1881-82 season. The 2011-12 final brought together the competitions two most successful sides Lincoln City (37 wins) and Grimsby Town (36 wins) The first time these two Lincolnshire footballing "giants" met in the final was in the 1886-87 season. Surprisingly enough we haven't met in the final since the 1990-91 season. Lincoln's last win in the cup came under John Schofield in 2006/07 with Grimsby's last win back in 1999/2000. The cup has had various formats over the years but in recent times has been played between Lincoln, Grimsby and the side that have won the last three editions; Scunthorpe United. The other non league Lincs sides have competed for the Lincolnshire shield.

In the build up to the match Imps boss Steve Tilson had said that he intended to play the youth side in the match. However The Lincs FA rules state that clubs should field the strongest side available. So after the Forest match Tilson said he would put on a strong side. I took this as we would mainly use players that hadn't had much time on the pitch against Nottingham Forest and other fringe players with maybe one or two young players mixed in. In any event given the amount of finals the Lincs FA plays at Sincil Bank it was unlikely in my humble view for them to complain about this selection policy. I think that there is a fine balance between respecting the competition and all its history and preparing for the upcoming season, and in my view Lincoln just about got it right.

Just as for the semi final only the Echo stand and CO-OP Lower stand was opened and like the semi final we opted for the Echo stand. On this occasion though I was unable to ferret out a teamsheet so i had to rely on the scrolling screen above the Stacey West for the teams. As technically this is a competitive fixture trialists are not allowed to play. To get round this Lincoln signed up trialists Doug Lindberg (GK) and fullback Sam Eckhardt on one week contracts to allow them to play. The rest of Lincoln's team was made up of players who didn't get much time on the pitch against Nottingham Forest on the previous Saturday. So it was a first team squad that was out there for Lincoln all be it not first a first eleven if you will. Of Lincoln's team tonight i would expect Danny Hone, Ali Fuseini, Kyle Perry, Simon Russell, and depending on Tony Sinclair's fitness Adam Watts to start at Southport in the league season opener. On the bench we had another couple of first choice players in Alan Power and Gavin McCallum. Never the less in my view it was a decent Lincoln team that has enough games at BSP and above level to be competitive. I can't say how strong Grimsby's side was but it did contain former Imps Antony Elding and Lee Ridley (who had a very good loan spell here under Jacko a few seasons back).

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It was another low turn out with only 1,446 hardy souls in attendance. Of which 427 had travelled down from Codland. In my view this is a decent turn out and really puts our turnout off 30 something at their place in the semi final last year to shame. Although it could be because they love visiting the fantastic City of Lincoln and the marvel that is Sincil Bank where as Cleethorpes doesn't appeal to us Imps, yes that's what it must be. Those who did turnout though were rewarded with a cracking game of football and at only £4 entry fee some fantastic value for money.

Grimsby settled into their pattern first and held the upper hand for much of the first 15 minutes or so. Lincoln forced a flurry of corners but as per normal were unable to do a great deal with them. Up top we had gone with two target men in Perry and Smith. Grimsby's defence seemed to be able to deal with the high stuff easy enough but weren't so good when we got the ball down on the deck. At the other end Gary Silk was getting in some decent crosses which brought out a few flying punches and flapping from the young Lincoln keeper. Grimsby then smacked the bar from about 25 yards out with Lincoln all over the place. They took the lead when Makofo scored with a looping header which caught out Lindbergh. I am not sure he meant to head it where he did but a goal is a goal as they say.
This seemed to wake Lincoln up and we equalised with a fantastic drive from Simmon Russell which gave the Grimsby keeper no chance. Lincoln then went one better and took the lead through Barraclough. Then a few minutes before halftime the game came alight.
Firstly Lincoln were awarded a penalty for what i can only assume was for holding in the box following a corner. Although very welcome nobody around me saw anything. Kyle Perry stepped up and knocked it in. Then from the restart former Mansfield Town, Retford united and district 5-a-side player (a league I graced myself many moons ago) Craig Disley banged in a 25 yarder into the top corner. Bugger.
HT 3-2
During the break various Lincs FA awards were handed out by the "good old boys" of the Lincs committee and a couple of MILFs. I went for a stroll and when i returned i found a couple of geeks swapping details of there latest apps. How very sad eh readers?

As the second half wore on it became obvious that we needed to score again. Silk and Makofo were causing all sorts of problems for the Lincoln back four. Lindbergh hasn't had very much experience and i felt the nerves started to get the better of him as the game went on. His keeping became more and more kamikaze like and he seemed unable to catch anything. Paul Brush said the next day that this was the biggest game Doug has ever played in so you get an idea of how raw he is.
Ironically given all his flapping i don't think he could really be blamed for any of the goals. Grimsby's third came on 85 mins following a pinball moment in the Lincoln box in which the defence had had a couple of chances to clear. Then on 90 minutes Grimsby struck the killer blow with a fierce low drive their fans went wild and the cup was theirs. Bugger.

Although its' a shitter losing like this i have to admit that it was a cracking final and a great advert for Lincolnshire football. I doubt that this will have any impact on the league games as we don't play each other till December. Tilson also got another chance to see how the triallists coped with a game against good opposition. After all the crap about what team we would field it was good to see a good open and even game and to see that the Lincolnshire Cup is still alive and well.
On the way back to Retford i wondered what the Guinea Pigs had been up to as we all know "Every night is a Friday night to a Guinea pig!!" Hope they didnt get drunk and end up somehwere they shouldnt have..

Hey man I must have drunk way to much last night, how did I end up here?