Southport 2-2 Lincoln City

Well the big day had arrived. The opening day of the Blue Square Premier division 2011/12. I always prefer a away day on the opening weekend of the season and thankfully the fixture computer had obliged and handed us a trip to Southport. So at just gone 10am we were on our way to the Liverpool area all set for another season of blood thundering action thrills and spills.

The journey up to Southport was uneventful enough and took just over three hours in the trusty Bazmobile. It was good to see quite a few cars with Imps colours showing. Every other car however seemed to be full of Norwich City fans on their way to Wigan Athletic (The other Premiership in English football also started today). None of us had ever been to Southport before but the sight of the BBC Radio Lincolnshire car in front of us was a sign that we were heading in the right direction (Although we did take a slight "detour" in the Stockport area.

Southport is a kind of quiet and quaint little seaside town where well-to-do Scousers go to retire. It is the smartest part of the Liverpool area but that isn't really saying much to be honest. As we had arrived with bags of time to spare we decided to check out the seafront to see what was what. My verdict? The pier and beach could well be the dullest in England. For all i know we may have just ended up on the wrong part of the beach but on the part that we checked out there really was sod all to do. We did walk down the pier in the hope that there was something mildly interesting in the building at the end of it. There wasn't. All we found was an overpriced bar and a toilet. So after a quick stop to shake the snake as it were we trudged back down the pier to the car. We could have wasted £1.50 each and got a ride on the crappy tram up the pier but our cash stayed firmly in our pockets. Here are a couple of views from the famous Southport Pier. Enjoy folks.

View of the beach. Alas no topless sunbathing.

Its all going off on Southport Pier!!

So after a quick stop for some doughnuts we headed out to Southport's Haig Avenue stadium, getting lost on route. The ground is in a very smart area and as such most of the area around is residential parking only. We drove past the ground and got parked up a little over 5 minutes walk away. The weather was good and there were plenty of City fans milling about. The football feeling was definitely building. As we approached the ground the first thing we came across was the clubshop so i picked up the programme for £2.50 and a badge for £4, which was slightly overpriced but that's life. Apart from that the clubshop was decent enough with a decent range of old programmes for sale and the normal football stuff.

Just past the away fan's turnstiles we spied a chip shop and newsagents. On closer inspection we found the chippy was shut so we were relying on the football club for food. With the weather being decent we headed into the ground for some food and to soak up the atmosphere. We got in at about 2.15 and already there were plenty of Imps inside the ground.

The ground has a good old fashioned feel to it and i rather liked it. The away fans have an open terrace behind the goal and half of the impressive grandstand to the right of the away end. Opposite the away end you get a smart covered terrace for the home fans with the remaining stand to the left of us being uncovered. All in all its quite a decent ground. The clubhouse at the ground lets away fans in and i heard decent reports of it and the atmosphere in there pre game. The programme was a cracking effort with plenty of stuff to read and had some very interesting articles. The page stating the entry fee to each club in the division was very good, and a big help for planning upcoming away trips.

After quaffing a cheeseburger for a very reasonable £2.50 (which was decent enough) i was all ready for the big kick off.
Southport are only playing in the BSP this season due to Rushden and Diamonds going belly up. Having been given a second chance as it were the home fans seemed well up for the match with the more vocal ones going behind the far goal. Lincoln in our awful new green and white hooped away kit were to attack the end we were stood behind. The first 20 minutes or so were quite frantic with neither side being able to keep hold of the ball for very long and said ball spending more time in the air than on the floor. The 600 or so City fans (out of the total 1687 people at the game) did try to get an atmosphere going but its always tough on an open terrace. Lincoln did create a couple of half chances through Smith and McCallum with Joe Anyon in the Lincoln goal having little to do.

City took the lead on on 29 minutes when Sam Smith headed home a Ali Fuseini corner, It is quite a while since City were affective from dead ball situations which made the goal even better. With Perry and Smith upfront Lincoln had big front line and they were in a good contest with the Southport centrebacks. At the other end Hone and Gowling were doing a great job dealing with the Southport long balls and long throws which were the mainstay of the Southport attack.
Gowling was pulled up for a foul on Southport's best player John-Paul Kissok who promptly smashed the resulting freekick home from 25 yards right into the top corner of Anyons goal giving him no chance at all. I doubt we will see a better free kick all season to be honest. The goal coming just a couple of minutes before the break was a real kick in the teeth because up until then City had looked quite comfortable, but that's football isn't it?
HT 1-1
City retook the lead shortly after halftime when on 49min Perry headed in a great cross from Simon Russell. Again though Southport hit back quickly due to a good through ball and some poor defending from the Lincoln backline. Adam Watts was filling in at right back and he failed to read the through ball which Whalley latched onto and finished from close range in the 53rd minute.
The game opened up alot more in the second half with both sides creating half chances. City's defence had to deal with both Southport and the wind and on the whole coped well with most of it. Both sides tried to win it but neither had the quality to actually do it, and both seemed to be happy with the point at the end.
FT 2-2.

So how do you analyse Lincolns opening game in the BSP? One line of thought is that because Southport finished 4th bottom last year and we were in league two means that we should have won comfortably. I disagree with this. Last season is long gone and all that matters is the here and now. In my view a point away from home on the first day of the season is always a good point. Add in the fact that this is a new side and they will take time to gel and you appreciate the point even more. A certain side only a few miles away from Southport have spent 100 million plus on players and they got a fantastic 1-1 home draw with Sunderland on the opening day so what chance does our team of free signings have of hitting it off straight away? The big plus for me was the fact that we dealt with the aerial threat much better than last season. Ok, there is still plenty of work to do, and I don't expect us to be challenging for the title this season but there are at least glimpses of progress. Incidentally the Liverpool result seemed to be a source of much amusement to the Southport faithful on leaving the ground. It seems that whichever Merseyside side is away a few of their fans nip up to Southport to get their footy fix, hence a number of Everton fans in the crowd.

On the whole i totally enjoyed the day. The admission price was a very reasonable £12.50, the atmosphere was good and City did ok and its been a while since i was able to say that. The only real complaint from me has nothing to do with the game at all.

On the way back we had Radio 5 live on which is normally enjoyable. However they do need to get their priorities right. The feature game was QPR's 0-4 home spanking at the hand of Bolton Wanderers. At the same time the English Cricket team had just steamrolled India by an innings to become the number one team in the world. Now its not very often that an English team achieves anything near as impressive as this and so surely this deserves to be the main story and get the lion's share of the coverage. Did it? Did it hell. An interesting interview with Micheal Vaughan on how good this team was and how it became so good was broken off...To chat with the Bolton manager about his sides win which in the grand scheme of things doesn't even register on the sporting world's radar.
On the plus side though we did stop of for another fantastic Kebab at the Hollingworth Kebab house. A chicken tikka and lamb donner combination kebab for a mere £5? I will have some of that please good sir!