The Mind of an Imp. : Lincoln City 2-0 Bath City

Thursday 6 October 2011

Lincoln City 2-0 Bath City

I don't tend to blog about many home games nowadays. Mainly because they would more or less say the same thing, Something along the lines of

We went to the chip shop before the match.
City put in a dreadful performance and lost .
We came home.

But today was slightly different. As i was accompanied by a group of good folk who don't normally visit Sincil Bank and had links to today's visitors Bath City. We even had a rogue Mansfield Town fan joining us in the hope of watching some good football and to visit a nice City for a change.

Britain has had some fantastic weather over the past week or so it felt more like a weekend in August rather than the first weekend in October a perfect day for drinking and hopefully celebrating an Imps victory.

The Lincolnshire flag

Today was "Lincolnshire day" and in recognition of this the club had organised various activities and stuff for kids to do before the game. The main thing the club did was to reduce admission to the match to a mere £10. This was on production of a voucher that was obtainable through either the Lincolnshire echo or failing that you could just print on off the club website (Or you could get your mum to print some off for you if you are a tad lazy) Most, if not all, clubs offer cut price admission for games throughout the season but very few extend the offer to away supporters. I am pleased to say that the Bath fans were also able to take advantage of the discount.

So we all amassed at Retford station for the 11.23 to Lincoln which was busier than normal. Which meant one of two things; either people were determined to make the most of this "Indian Summer" we were experiencing by going to the seaside or they were all flocking to Sincil Bank for the big match.

The day before in the pub at the pre game planning session, four of us had picked two teams each, chucked £2 into the pot and put it all on an eight team accumulator. I decided to pick what looked like cast iron choices as i went for Stevenage to beat Scunthorpe at home and for Nottinghamshire's form side Notts County to continue their good form and grab an away win at the MK Dons. Easy money i hear you shout from your various computer/mobile phone screens around the world.

As Davey went to put on our bet the rest of us trooped off to the Ritz Weatherspoons in the High Street for a liquid lunch. As i was still trying to switch my sleeping pattern round from nights to days i had woken up quite late and not grabbed anything to eat before we left. Never mind, the lager was quite filling. I did actually have some solid food in the pub as on the second round i wolfed down a packet of salted peanuts.

Shortly after we got the first round in we were joined by Davey and his friend Peter who is a huge Bath City fan and his son Ben. As we chatted it became clear that both sides had pretty much the same problems, a lack of goals, an inability to fight back once they go a goal behind, and managers under a great deal of pressure. There was a good chance that whoever lost this game could well be getting the sack. Bath were bottom of the league on three points (although they did get great points against Luton and Mansfield) with Lincoln not doing much better on 9 points and sitting 4th bottom. whichever way you looked at it, it wasn't going to be a classic. I predicted a 0-0 bore draw. Despite their poor start to the season a good number of Bath fans had made the trip up for the match and most seemed to have decamped in the Weatherspoons.
After a couple of pints we headed down to the George and Dragon pub, but not before Natty nicked the couple of chips and lettuce that Ben had left from his meal. Old habits die hard as they say.

While we were in there we all got chatting about the various highs and lows of non league football, the various levels of the footballing pyramid, and the art of Groundhopping. As the beer flowed Davey decided to place a £5 bet on Bath to take the three points here today. Peter then joined him in the bet. You never see a skint bookie do you? After a swift pint in there we ambled down to the club for a pint or two in the Trust Suite.

Over the past few months i have taken a handful of people into the Trust Suite and they have all been impressed with the bar. Quite a few clubs bars don't let away fans in but that's far from the case here at Sincil Bank. Ok its not great drinking from plastic glasses but i still think we have one of the best supporters bars in the lower league divisions. There was a handful of Bath fans in the bar enjoying the hospitality and Peter seemed very impressed with the Batemans ale on offer. The beer was going down rather well. Andy "Mines a pint" Carroll had put Liverpool one up at Everton on the match on the big screen much to the delight of alot of folk in the room.
Natty's bladder needed emptying and he placed his pint on the side. Unfortunately while he was away a member of the supporters trust came out to read out the teams to everybody in the room and managed to knock over Natty's unguarded and pretty much full pint.

Doh!!

Of course he bought him another one, we are gentlemen here in Lincolnshire after all. Even with this distraction he still read the teams out only breaking off when Natty returned to give him the news about his pint. A true professional if ever there was one. We left the pub at about 2.45ish, bid our farewells and went off to our respective ends of the stadium.
Perry wasn't quite fit so City went with Sam Smith and Gavin McCallum upfront. Lincoln were quick out of the traps and had a couple of shots in the first five minutes although neither were on target. Same old Lincoln really. The Imps took the lead in the 19th minute when McCallum collected the ball from a quick throw then crossed the ball in for Sam Smith to head home. It was a decent enough header but Bath will wonder why Smith was allowed to be unmarked 6 yards out. That goal seemed to settle Lincoln (and the fans) down and we started to knock the ball around much better than we have done over the past few games.
Lincoln got the 2nd goal on 30 minutes when a pass from Power was latched on to by McCallum who out sprinted the Bath defence and blasted into the top right hand corner (as we looked at it)
McCallum has come in for a fair bit of stick this season (myself included) Mainly down to his habit of trying to take on the whole opposing side himself, trying to score wondergoals from 35 yards plus and getting caught offside far too often, but today he was right on the top of his game. He timed his run for the second goal to perfection. Natty seemed to think it was offside from his view from the side of the pitch but from where i was sat; on the back row of the stand behind the far goal, he was clearly onside. Gav said it was onside as well so there! Case closed me lord!
Bath went close just before half time with a deflection that went just wide of the post but apart from that Anyone in the Lincoln goal didnt have a great deal to do. We saw a rare moment of footballing sportsmanship when Gowling and Nutter helped Bath's Lee Philips from the pitch following a nasty looking knee injury. As he was one of Baths best strikers it was a big blow for the Romans. On in his place came former Notts County player Sean Canham.
HT 2-0

Bath City (And Rangers and a Mansfield) fans

Lincoln could have got the third goal just a couple of minutes after the restart when a corner from Power was smashed against the crossbar, Gowling did connect with the rebound but was flagged offside. And that was pretty much as exciting as the second half got really as the heat took its toll. Lincoln created the better of the chances but couldn't take them.
FT 2-0
After the game we again met up in the Trust Suite for a swift pint. We chatted to a few Bath City fans who were waiting for the coach for the long trip home. They seemed annoyed not so much at losing but more the fact that they felt that their side hadn't put much effort in and were just going through the motions. I knew exactly how they felt because that is exactly how we felt at Barrow just a few days earlier and on few other occasions this season.
Afterwards we headed back into Lincoln to grab a few more drinks to celebrate. This was Lincoln's first win at home on a Saturday since the 12th of March last season and i wanted to make the most of it.
I am not going to say we have turned the corner or anything like that. This side is still very much work in progress and it still remains to be seen if Steve Tilson will get the results the fans rightly or wrongly expect. There are plus points; like taking 7 points out of the last 9 available at home for example, but performances haven't been great and in the case of Barrow nothing short of dreadful. Goal scoring is still the main concern as we aren't shipping alot of goals at the back , but we did manage to kept a clean sheet against the league leaders. Both starting front men scored today and with Perry and Taylor back soon hopefully things will start looking up on the goalscoring front.
So all in all in was a most enjoyable day/weekend and many thanks to all. Its just a shame that some prat managed to screw up the accumulator backing sides such as Notts County and Stevenage. And who was that again?