The mind of an Imp

Game off (again)

2012-02-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

Lincolns away trip at Hayes and Yeading had been postponed due to the crappy weather we have been having here in Great Britain at the moment. Lets hope we get some sunshine and it gets a tad warmer soon. It will be a rare weekend away without live sport for me so i will spent Saturday in various watering holes in Retford. I may well join the plastic fans brigade for the Manchester United v Merseyside Red Sox game and then just go with the flow. I need to find something to write about soon! The next game i will be doing (If its on that is) will be the Imps home match this Tuesday against Braintree Town.This is Red five,I am heading to the pub now Red leader.Over and out.

Notts going anywhere tonight

2012-02-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

The Nottinghamshire coat of arms.

Tonight we had planned to visit Cannon Park to watch Retford United start their Nottinghamshire senior cup campaign against the lowest ranked side still left in the competition Wollaton FC. However due to the snow still lingering around the game has been called off. Retford however wasn't the only game to fail to go ahead as you can see Below.

Nottinghamshire senior cup third round draw

Arnold Town P-P Carlton Town

Greenwood Meadows P-P Dunkirk

Sutton Town AFC P-P Eastwood Town

Hucknall Town P-P Gedling Miners Welfare

Basford United P-P Rainworth Miners Welfare

Retford United P-P Wollaton

Newark Town P-P Bilborough Pelican
Clifton v Thoresby P-P Colliery Welfare

I enjoy the Notts cup and it is a competition that has a long and proud history in local football. However over the past 4-5 years it has become a little bit stale due to the fact that Eastwood Town have dominated it. The Badgers have won six from the last eight editions and been runners up in the other two. This season though Eastwood are having a poor season and are rock bottom of the Blue Square North. Their poor form will give sides like Hucknall Town and last years runners up Carlton Town belief that it could well be their turn to lift the famous trophy this time around. Step 5 sides Retford United (winners in 2008/09) and Dunkirk will also fancy themselves to have a decent run given a kind draw. I will stick my neck out and predict that Carlton Town will avenge last seasons defeat where they simply froze on the night and lift the trophy. The date of the final is yet to be confirmed on the Notts FA website as is the location for the final. I for one hope that it held at Meadow Lane. Although last seasons final at Field Mill was ok, it somehow didn't quite feel right. Nottingham Forest were the first winners of the cup back in the 1883/84 season and judging by their league form this time around it looks as if they are determined to get to a level when they can enter it again. It would be great to have the final at the City ground but i can't see Forest agreeing to it. I prefer Meadow Lane anyway. Its nearer to Hooters for a start.

Well played New York

2012-02-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to congratulate the New York Giants on their Superbowl win over the New England Patriots last night. It was a great game to watch and i thoroughly enjoyed it. He was also great to see Tom Brady and co get their arse handed to them. I am looking forward to next season already.

Nottingham Panthers 6 -2 Dundee Stars

2012-02-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

Bit of a change of plan today. Originally i was going to take in the Imps home match with Braintree Town. This game was brought froward from the 14th of February as both sides had a blank weekend due to neither club having any interest in the FA Trophy. Now it looks as if the game will be moved back to Valentines day. So that gets all Imps fans out of paying for an overpriced meal that evening, see there is always a plus side Imps fans. Instead of taking your better half out for a meal, offer to take her down the Bank with a romantic pre match meal of large doner kebab with all the sauces washed down with a good couple of pints of beer, and if she doesn't appreciate that then she really doesn't know how lucky she is!

With the Imps having a day off i had a few choices; 1)Sit in and watch the rugga (Not going to happen!) 2) sit at home and drink. or 3) watch the Nottingham Panthers. Given the three choices option three was by far the most appealing , or so i thought. The weather forecast had given out snow but as hardened Retford folk we didn't let that put us off, besides we rarely get bad snow here in North Nottinghamshire do we?

We left Retford just after 3.30pm and just as the snow began to fall. It wasn't very heavy and it didn't look like it was going to settle. As we got to the outskirts of Nottingham however the snow became much heavier and i started to think that spending a day in the pub may well have been the better option after all. We hadn't bought tickets before the game, but seeing how Dundee isn't the most attractive opposition, we knew that there would be plenty of tickets available for purchase on the door. The main plus of buying on the door is that you save £3 per ticket by paying cash for them, since if you pre order online you get stung for an "administration" charge. You have to pay the charge even if you print you tickets out at home. Robbing twats is the phrase i am looking for.

After purchasing the tickets we headed to the chipshop for the normal pre match meal of donner meat and chips. The snow was starting to settle quite heavily now. Normally there are quite a few fans milling around the arena but today it was dead. May by they had done the sensible thing and stayed in the pubs.
Instead of going to the pub pre match we headed to the Arena bar; two cokes came in £4.60. On the Olympic rink outside the bar a youth match was going on between the Nottingham Cougars and the Solihull Barons. It seems youth games are played in three periods of 15 minutes so we watched the first two. The Nottingham side was coasting it 6-0 when we left. Given that this was being played it seemed strange to me that more Panthers fans had stayed in the bar to watch the Rugby on the large screen even though you could take your drinks outside to watch the hockey. Each to their own though i suppose.

I fit Panthers games around Lincoln ones and this season it has worked out that i have seen the Panthers take on the Stars three times now this season. Over the course of the season though it would seem that the Stars have gone backwards, and going into this game they were bottom of the Elite league. On their last two visits to Nottingham they have lost 6-0 and 5-4. They were soon on the back foot in this game as the Panthers dominated from the off and after missing several good chances strolled into a two goal lead. Then just as it was starting to look comfortable for the Panthers, Dundee hit back to make it 2-1. Thankfully the Panthers scored a third with about 30 seconds left to play at the end of the 1st to give the scoreline a more realistic look.

The Panthers added a fourth goal in the second period which looked like it had made the game safe. Again they missed plenty of chances and will have to sharpen up for next weeks double header against the league leaders the Belfast Giants. The weather outside was getting worse so we decided to skip the third period and head home before it got even worse. The snow outside was at least a couple of inches thick. Nottingam City transport and cancelled all buses but thankfully the trams were still running. The tram journey back to the carpark took longer than normal due to the fact we got stuck behind a couple of cars that were struggling to make it up the hills in Nottingham and generally skidding about all over the place.
The roads around Nottingham were pretty shitty so we decided to head back via the M1, M18, and A1, and although it took alot longer than normal we made it back safely thanks to some great driving from the missus and navigating from myself. Maybe next time the weatherman says it will snow we will stay at home.

In other Panthers news we now know that we will face the Belfast Giants in the Challenge Cup final after they dispatched the Cardiff Devils 5-3 on aggregate. The Panthers have won the last two Challenge Cups and defeated Belfast in the final last year. The league looks beyond the Panthers where as Belfast are in the thick of the title race so the pressure is on Nottingham to claim some silverware.

Harworth C.I 1-0 Belper United

2012-02-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

Just one midweek game this week and it was the coldest night of the season so far. By and large we have been lucky with the weather with very few local games being called off. So i suppose we shouldn't grumble about a spell of chilly weather.
On the menu tonight, a Central Midlands League cup 2nd round replay. Harworth are in midtable in the northern section of the CML with Belper, who are making their debut at this level this season are midtable in the southern section. Despite the freezing temperatures the clubhouse was quite full with music playing out full blast and the African cup of nations on the TV screens. I thought that it would be a low crowd tonight but the game seemed to have attracted quite a few neutral fans/Groundhoppers. It was £3 entrance on the gate and £1 for a programme. Top marks to Harworth for producing a programme and very good it was too.

As it was dark i didn't get any decent pictures of the ground but it has been tided up a bit since i last saw a game here. The stand behind the goal has been removed and the old turnstile block pulled down. The main stand behind the dugouts is still here and its the best place to view the game from as it is slightly elevated. There is hard standing along the touchline where the stand is placed. All in all its one of the better grounds on the Central Midlands circuit. Here is a pic of the main stand from the last time i was here in glorious sunshine.

As it was cold we left it till just before kick off before entering the stadium. The one thing that you don't want on a night like this is extra time but for a long time it looked like we may well just get that. In the first half both sides wasted decent chances with Harworth just about shading it. Although it was goalless i wasn't too worried as i expected Harworth to step it up in the second half and win by a couple of goals. However after they continued to waste chance after chance myself and many of the folk around us started to get the dreaded feeling that another half an hours "entertainment" was on the way.
Then 5 minutes or so later the homeside were awarded a penalty which they duly dispatched. It did look a tad on the soft side but to be honest we had all got to the point that we weren't really bothered who scored as long as somebody did so we could all get home.
Belper then threw everything they had at Harworth to the point that they even sent their Keeper up for a late corner. Then came the moment of controversy when it appeared that the ball hit a Harworth defender on the arm as he cleared the ball however the ref just waved away their protests. Harworth almost rubbed more salt in Belper's wounds as the wasted the breakaway and hit the post with the keeper still making his way back from the corner.

At the end of the game you could see that the Belper Unted bench felt very hard done by with the two penalty decisions that went against them. I could understand their anger but even so their constant verbal abuse of the referee as (who had stepped in to do the game at the last minute) as he left the pitch was in my view well out of line and totally uncalled for. Not only that but for me it reflected very badly on the management and the club as a whole. In short i can't see many people busting a gut to visit Belper United. Some days decisions go for you, some they don't. That's football fellas.

All in all it was a decent night out good company and an above average game given the conditions. Most folk their seemed to enjoy themselves apart from some muppet strutting round in a Burton Albion coat moaning about pretty much everything from the ref, to the weather, to whinging that he couldn't find any milk for his tea in the clubhouse. Plenty of people did have hot drinks and seemed to be enjoying them. Me thinks we have a leading contender for the "Tool of the season" section in this blogs end of season awards.

Groundhog day 2012

2012-02-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER!!!

One of the highpoints of the year for me; Groundhog day. After the early spring correctly predicted by Punxsutawney Phil last year it was always odds on that we would get six more weeks of winter and so it proved. Check out his prediction in front off 30,000 plus of his faithful followers

I hope you will all join me in raising a glass to the worlds most famous living rodent. Now off to the pub to celebrate!! I now promise i will try not to go on about Groundhog day for at least ermmm two months or so.

signed picture of Phil!!

Stamford 3-2 Sutton Coldfield Town

2012-02-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

My sporting day got off to a dreadful start today and went downhill from there. The one high point of the day was the chance to tick off a new ground and watch a decent match between two sides chasing the playoff places in the Evo Stick division one south (Step 4)
After a decent all day drinking session in Nottingham yesterday i spent the morning following the second test match between Pakistan and England. England were set a very modest 145 to win but managed to collapse and were skittled out for 72 meaning we are 2-0 down in the series with only one match still to play. Plenty for the best team in the world to think about and much improvement to be made to avoid a 3-0 whitewash there is.

Stamford is in the South of Lincolnshire and is about an hour from Retford. Their ground, the wonderfully named "Premier Kitchen Arena", is just off the motorway and right next to the train station. The ground is set in a quite scenic location and looks over the town. From the ground you get a view of 5 churches not many football clubs can make a claim like that can they? It was £8 entry fee and £1.80 for a programme which was a decent enough read. We had plenty of time to kill before kick off so we headed straight into the club bar. As i was still feeling rough from the night before i was only drinking Coke. The clubhouse is large enough with plenty of old pennants from across non league football on the walls. There is even a picture of local hero darts player Martin "Wolfie" Adams when he played an exhibition here. From the clubhouse you get a very good view of the pitch. The Liverpool v Manchester United FA Cup match was on TV but i found watching the players warm up/reading the programme/anything else really much more interesting that watching that. I believe Liverpool won, but a rats arse i do not give.

The ground is quite old fashioned and i must say that i quite like it. After you enter the ground through the turnstiles you enter the main stand where the programmes are on sale on a small table on the righthand side. The clubhouse is to the right of the stand. The entrance of which is round the back of the building. There is a hatch in the clubhouse that sells food and stuff in one end and although i didn't eat anything the food looked and smelt quite good. I nipped out to the clubshop and bought a club badge for £3.50. Stamford have a pretty smart club crest but sadly this isn't on this seasons metal badges which is a shame as it is one of the better designed club crests. Instead the badge on sale has a gold football in the middle with Stamford FC written around it. The shop is quite good with loads of club badges from various clubs and lots of boxes of old programmes from a wide range of clubs, a hoppers paradise if you will. It was too cold for me though so i resisted the temptation to rummage and headed back to the warmth of the bar and my soft drinks. The bloke on the gate had told us that this was the oldest football ground in England but i am sure that Hallam FC would have something to say about that.

It would appear that Grantham Town are the clear favourites to win the Evo stick south with only really Carlton Town in with a chance of stopping them. The battle for the playoffs though is wide open however. Before kick off Stamford sat in the last playoff place with the visitors two points and one place behind having played one game more. The "Daniels" started the season with former caretaker manager Simon Clarke in charge but he left a month or so into the season to take over the reigns at Worksop Town. The team seem to have been unaffected by this and pushed on under former Hucknall and Carlton Town gaffer Tommy Brookbanks. I didn't recognise any of the names on the teamsheet for either side apart from the Sutton Coldfield assistant manager Neil Tooth who had a spell as assistant manager at Retford United a couple of seasons ago.
Apart from the main stand the only other cover is standing area on the opposite touchline that covers half of that side of the ground. There isn't any covering behind either goal but there is plenty of room to build should the club chose to do that. Although the gateman did tell us that the club are looking to move away from their current home. Moving grounds seems to be flavour of the month with Lincolnshire clubs at the moment; with Boston, Gainsborough, and Lincoln all looking to relocate in the next few years or so. In Lincoln's case i think it would be great for the club, but i will only believe it when i see work on the ground starting and not just talking about it.

As you would expect for two clubs so close in the table there wasn't much between the two sides for much of the match as they cancelled each other out for much of the game. Chances were few and far between for both sides but it was Stamford that drew first blood in the 30th minute when Bruno Holden finished off some neat work in box to score with a cool finish low into the net.
They managed to protect the lead for all of two minutes. The hosts conceded a freekick about 20 yards out when Mark Bellingham took advantage of the keepers positioning to fire the ball home. The Stamford keeper is a rather large fellow which prompted my travel companion to shout "If that was a burger you would have caught it keeper wouldn't you? " And he probably would, the burgers from the snap hut did look rather nice. It stayed 1-1 till halftime which on the balance of play was about right. There had been plenty of effort from both sides but bar the two goals very little in the way of chances created. Hopefully the second half would be better. Elsewhere the Imps were 1-0 down away to Kettering having conceded yet another penalty. Our two match unbeaten streak was in real danger of coming to an end. It was getting a tad nippy so we headed to the foot hut for a hot drink. I went for the bovril at £1 and it was just what the doctor ordered.

The second half started in the pretty much the same vein as the first with much of the game being bogged down in midfield. Both sides were trying to get the ball down and play but the pitch didn't make passing football easy. Sutton Coldfield took the lead on 67 minutes through Joel Fuller when he took advantage of some poor defending from Stamford and from then on the game opened up as the hosts finally managed to get their wingers into the game and stretch the visitors back four.

Stamford restored parity in the on 76th minute. Luke Garton blasted a shot against the bar from 35 yards out with the keeper beaten all ends up; the ball came down to Bruno Holden who was left with a simple header into the empty net for his second goal of the game.
It got even better for the Daniels two minutes later when they took the lead. The Stamford winger on the right got past the full back and hit in a low cross that caught the keeper in two minds, the cross was flicked on and Holden arrived at the back post to complete his hatrick much to the delight of the Stamford Ultras behind the goal. Town pushed forward in search of the equaliser but as they did they left gaps at the back and allowed Stamford the chance to run at them. If any side was going to add to the score then it was Stamford but a combination of good goal keeping and poor finishing kept the score at 3-2. Both sides put in some hard but fair challenges which meant that the physios spent a fair bit of time on the pitch, which was no bad thing given that the Town Physio was a nice looking young blond haired lady. The downside to this was the fact that the ref added quite a large amount of stoppage time which when it is bloody cold isn't really what you want.

The win gives Stamford a bit of breathing space to the teams chasing the playoff positions. All in all Stamford is a cracking day out with a decent old school type if ground, good club bar and friendly people. If you haven't been yet then get down there now before they move.

One more interesting thing about the club is the story of how they acquired the nickname "The Daniels". The nickname is in honour of a man that at the time was the fattest man in Britain a Mr Daniel Lambert who lived between 1770 and 1809. At his largest he weighed 52 stone. He is buried in Stamford hence the nickname "The Daniels" Is it great how football throws up this kind of weird and wonderful fact?

Later on in the evening the Nottingham Panthers did give me something to smile about when the recorded a fine 6-1 win over the Coventry Blaze in Nottingham but it didn't really make up for that dreadful defeat for England and the disappointing 1-0 Imps defeat.

Lincoln City 2-0 Southport

2012-01-28T02:46:00.000-08:00

Now that's more like it City!
Tonight was one of those rare days following Lincoln City that i have nothing what so ever to complain about. We went a little earlier than we would do normally for a night game so we could get ourselves a nice pre match kebab. As discussed on the Grimsby away blog i was getting the drinks in at the kebab shop as my forfeit for missing the home game with the codheads on Boxing day. However Felice had wheeled out the old "I am at work" line and wasn't in attendance tonight. Whether he was or not is another matter entirely. He fed us the same line for missing the Colwyn Bay match which we have since discovered to be a porky pie.
We made good time and got into the Lincoln for about 6.40pm we parked up and took a stroll up the hightstreet to the Topkapi kebab house. Lincoln seemed pretty quiet and i had a feeling that the match wasn't going to be a sell out.

Soon enough we were tucking into large mixed donners and very nice they were too. As promised i got the three drinks in even thought there were only two of us present. It was a good job that we did have the extra can of drink because due to Baz being well in with the owner of the shop we got a free large portion of chips to go with our meal and the extra drink washed them down nicely. Its a shame Felice wasn't there to collect his drink but he did stipulate that i had to get the drinks in before the Southport home game which is what i did.

More often that not this season the pre/post match food has been better than the football but not tonight. Lincoln had fought back from 1-3 to get a 3-3 draw away at Gateshead on Saturday and were looking to take that form into tonight's match. Southport have had a decent season up to date and although they had faded from the playoff picture in the last couple of months they had a decent away record and would not be a pushover.
This was a rematch from the first game this season which seems a hell of along time ago. Back then it was a nice sunny day, and we had a different manager. Fast forward six months and we have changed manager, much of the current squad, and used 36 players in the process.
One criticism of David Holdswoth recently was the fact that we have been playing with only one upfront. However this changed last time out at Gateshead, and he did the same tonight. Sam Smith lead the line with recently signed Richard Pacquette (who bagged two at Gateshead and is a Dominican international player no less) up front with him. At the back club captain Josh Gowling returned to partner Robbie Williams who has looked solid enough since he arrived from AFC Telford.
The Imps got off to a great start when Christophe headed Lincoln into the lead on seven minutes. Lincoln looked the better side for much of the first half. Southport (as in the first game at their place) heavily rely on getting long throws around the box and using the long throw tactic. At their place back in October it caused City no end of problems but Lincoln were much more organised and prepared for it tonight.

The only downside for City in the half came just before halftime when top scorer Sam Smith got a nasty injury. After the game it was revealed that he could well be out for the season. Smith has had his critics but in my view some of this is unfair. Quite often he has been played upfront on his own and received very little service and support from others. He is still young and could well develop into a very good finding for City.
He was replaced for the second half by winger Danny Lloyd. Danny is quite young and raw but is very keen and covers as much ground as anybody else on the pitch. City continued to push forward and got the crucial second goal on 53min when Pacquette shot from 25 yards giving the Southport keeper no chance. City continued to push forward and continued to repel Southport's long throw tactic quite easily. Jo Anyon made a couple of smart saves but in the main had a very quiet night.

So all in all a first class night. The kebab was great, we got free chips, City played well and I paid my drinks debt off. I would have hated to have missed out on all of that. Its just a shame not everybody could have collected their free can of pop. It was very nice :-)

Radford 0-3 Blaby &Whestone Athletic

2012-01-28T02:40:00.000-08:00

Its been a couple of seasons since i saw Radford play. I have been past the ground plenty of times on my way to Panthers games but unfortunately they always seem to be away when the Panthers are at home. Another reason for my not watching them for a while was the fact that Nottingham has loads of non league teams and i wanted to tick off a few new grounds. With quite a few new Notts grounds ticked this season i decided to pay the Pheasants a long over due visit.
Radford play in the EMCL (Step 6) and comprises of teams from Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. Alas the Nottinghamshire representatives are hardly covering themselves in glory this time around as before kickoff the four of them all sat in the bottom 5 places in the division. Radford have struggled for a number of seasons now and went into this round of fixtures in 17th place (Out of 19 sides) with a grand total of 15 points. Below them sit Greenwood Meadows and Gedling Miners Welfare, both on 14 points but both have two games in hand on Radford. I have seen both of them this season and i was intrigued to see how Radford matched up to them. Completing the Nottinghamshire strugglers are Radcliffe Olympic in 15th place and on 18 points.

Blaby and Whestone are in their first season in the EMCL and are currently just below halfway in the division. When the sides met first time around Blaby won 2-1 with a late penalty in added on time at the end of the match. The programme for today's match Radford seem to think it was a harsh decision. Well they would wouldn't they?

Notts County were at home to the MK Dons so the trains were pretty quiet. After the fun and games of trying to fathom the ins and outs of the Nottingham bus systems it made a nice change to do a match using the tram system. I had plenty of time to kill before the match so i decided to have a look around the area and try to find a pub or a chippy. Radford is one of the most multi cultural areas of Nottingham and has plenty of curry houses and kebab shops and the like. The best thing was that even though it was 1.30 in the afternoon most of them were open and doing a roaring trade. Normally i would be into one of them like a shot but i had wolfed down a large mixed kebab from Valentinos in Retford the previous night (and very nice it was to i may add). Although eating establishments and hairdressers were plentiful, pubs were proving much more elusive, I did find a kind of cafe type thing with pool tables and pictures of various middle eastern football teams on the walls serving soft drinks but that wasn't really my thing. I headed back to the ground in search of a pub but all i found was this closed down pub. Bugger.

By now it was about 2.00pm so I thought sod it a and headed into the ground. Because i was stupidly early the gateman thought i was an official. I told him i wasn't and paid my £5 entrance and headed straight to the bar. It looks like i was the first person to order a pint as it was quite frothy. In the end i ended up getting a pint and half a half pint glass. As the barman said, there aren't many clubs that would give you a pint and a bit more for your money. The bar wasn't overly busy; a few Radford officials and a group of away players playing darts badly and that was pretty much it. I saw somebody come in with a programme so i went in search of one a got one off the guy on the gate for £1.

The last time i was here Radford had one of the best programmes that i saw that season. Since then i assume that the editor has changed as this issue wasn't quite up to the same high standard. This seasons issue was on a par with others in the division so it did the job, I was just a tad disappointed that it didn't live up to its previous seasons quality level. But as i always say, any programme is better than no programme.

I finished my pint and headed off outside, Radford had a decent little clubshop the last time i was here but it was all boarded up this time around. It looked like a low crowd was going to be in attendance today. As you walk around the ground you can't help but notice that the ground looks a little run down. Plenty of building materials and tools are just lying around. The impression that i got was that the ground looked a little unloved and overgrown. There is more than enough covering. There is a small seated stand to behind the goal at the clubhouse end and a covered standing area down one side where i watched most of the first half from.

Blaby and Whestone were attacking the goal at the clubhouse end and despite the heavy pitch tried to play the ball on the floor. They had a couple of very quick nimble forwards who looked like they could cause the Radford back four problems. They had already created a couple of decent chances before they took the lead and when they did it was a total fluke. The winger on the Blaby right hit a powerful cross from a tight angle that flew straight into the top corner. If he meant it then it was goal of the season but his reaction when it went in suggested that he didn't mean it. Either way the visitors had the lead. It was tough on Radford but when you are near the bottom of the table this is the kind of thing that happens to you.
The Pheasants nearly hit straight back when their number 9 beat a couple of defenders only to mis-hit his shot when he was clean through. Radford didn't create much today but if anybody was going to get them back into it it was the number 9 who looked a cut above anybody else on the Radford team. The visitors went two up with a decent header that looped over the keeper as he was caught out of position. The Radford manager was clearly unhappy with the effort being shown from his side and was very animated on the sidelines. The third goal was the killer goal and was courtesy of a great finish from 25 yards, although the Radford defence helped out by backing off and giving the attacker plenty of time to pick his spot and putting very little pressure on the ball. The Blaby and Whestone took a three goal lead in at the break and even they must have been surprised with the way they had been gifted the goals.

I headed to the warmth of the clubhouse for the halftime break as normal i didn't come anywhere near winning the raffle. Radio Nottingham had commentary of Forest's latest defeat this time at West Ham United courtesy of a penalty that the commentary team described as a "shocker". After taking an early lead at Gateshead, Lincoln had reverted to type and were trailing 2-1 at the break.

The second half was dull in comparison to the first. Radford did show a bit more fight than in the first half but in truth they never really looked like pulling the three goal deficit back. The only real incident of note was a red card for the Blady and Whestone forward for a sliding tackle. I had a pretty decent view of it and for me it was a yellow but i am not the ref. It was one of those challenges that some refs would have given a red for and others wouldn't have even booked the guys for. Even though they were a man down the visitors saw out the game without to much difficulty.
I had checked the Lincoln score with about 15 minutes or so to go and saw that we were 3-1 down. Game over i thought. It wasn't till i was scrolling through the scores on the tram on the way back that i realised that we had staged a late fight back and drawn 3-3. Its a funny old game.

This defeat coupled with results else where left Radford and the foot of the table. Its always a good day out at Radford FC but i left the ground feeling that the club is in need of a little bit of TLC and has lost its way a little. Maybe scraping away at the bottom of the table has taken its toll on the club and the fans. I hope they stick with it and their fortunes improve soon.

Sheffield Wednesday Ladies 0-7 Lincoln Ladies

2012-01-19T09:57:00.001-08:00

The day after the night before in the kingdom of Impdom. Last night's dreadful result away in the replay at Carshalton Athletic in the FA Trophy had brought a backlash like no other result i can remember. Although the gap between the two sides wasn't as big as when as when we bowed out of the FA Cup to Emley in 1997, nor is the FA Trophy as big a competition as the FA Cup, the result seems to hurt far more.
Thankfully i missed the match but some however weren't so lucky. Baz had made the trip down to South London solo and had i not been on nights, no doubt i would have been there as well. To all the Imps that made the trip down i have nothing but total and utter respect. You all deserve medals.
The day had started very well for City with the news that £500,000 of investment had been secured and a new business model had been set out; the details of which will be outlined at a press conference Monday afternoon. But as is so often in football good news on and off the pitch rarely go hand in hand.
I must thank Baz for bringing me home a programme from the match. Only 100 or so were produced for the match meaning that in time it could be one of the most collectible City ones in the last 20 years or so. This result will go down as one of the worst ones in City's history in the same way as Manchester City's 1-2 defeat at York City in the 1998/99 season did for them. Lets hope in a few years we can look back at this defeat as the point when we hit rock bottom.

Anyway on to more pleasant things.
Lincoln Ladies are one of the top ladies sides in the country. Rubbing shoulders with(and beating) sides like Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool in the Women's Super league which is played over the summer months. Meaning that it is now pre season time for Lincoln Ladies. The club split their homes games between Sincil Bank and Ashby Avenue. Due to salary caps the England internationals are split between the clubs. Lincoln's England ladies are centreback and England captain Casey Stoner, Sophie Bradley, and Jess Clarke who scored for England when we watched England play Serbia in November.

Jess Clarke

The England players have just returned from a training camp in sunny Spain so it must have been one hell of a come down to play a friendly at a cold Cannon Park in Retford in January.

Sheffield Wednesday play their home games at Retford and are well below Lincoln in the ladies football pyramid. Given that there is a Sheffield Wednesday supporters club in Retford it is a tad disappointing that there seemed so few Wednesday fans at the game. Admission was free and how often do you get chance to see International quality players ply their trade in Retford? Could it be that the much hyped Sheffield Wednesday fan base isn't as big as folk make out? Shock horror.
Lincoln had started their pre season campaign with a 4-2 win over Nottingham Forest (another club whose fan base isn't as big as its cracked up to be) And they were in no mood to take Wednesday lightly either.

Lincoln looked a class outfit and passed the ball around beautifully. Having watched some right crap from the men's side over the past few years/decades it was great to see a Lincoln side playing like this. Lincoln scored early on from a great passing move then shortly after added a second with a crafty free kick fired low into the right hand corner (as we looked at it behind the goal) It wasn't overly powerful but the placement was top draw and caught the Wednesday keeper out. It must be said that the Wednesday keeper was by far the best player for the home side and can take a great deal of pride from her performance. Lincoln's third goal was also a nice one. Coming from a great corner that was played under the crossbar and pretty much undefendable. It is obvious that the girls put alot of work into their set plays. I can think of a certain team that could learn alot from them in this respect...
Lincoln went in at half time four goals to the good it really was a case of girls v Women. Although Wednesday showed plenty of effort they were chasing shadows for much of the game and barely tested the Lincoln keeper. Her biggest challenge being how to keep warm on this cold North Nottinghamshire night.

We headed for the warmth of the clubhouse at halftime. Retford United FC were holding a question and answer session with the manager and a number of club officials which seemed well attended. Baz and myself just stood at the bar and listened to the debates. I only heard a brief snippet of the meeting but i hope some good comes out of it. I had a quid on the football card (Norwich City) but i have no idea who won. Felice was meant to be joining us but failed to show, which is unfortunate as i got the hot drinks in. Never mind i will have to get him a soft drink at the Southport game. If he isn't there to receive it then its a case of tough shit and i will have to drink it. You snooze you lose as they say. I suppose he could have been doing the ironing....

Again we stood behind the end of the ground that Lincoln were attacking as we thought that would be the best place to see all the action and we were proved correct. Again Lincoln knocked the ball around nicely but were less clinical in front of goal wasting several good chances. They chased down everything though and created a couple of chances by forcing the Sheffield Wednesday defenders into mistakes when trying to play the ball out from the back. The Wednesday keeper was again the star for the hosts as they started to tire towards the end. The only blip on the evening was when one of the Sheffield Wednesday defenders went down in a heap with what looked like a nasty knee injury. It took a while for the ref to spot her and to stop the play. Maybe Lincoln could have kicked the ball out earlier but i am sure they didn't realise how bad the injury was. In any case the speed that the Wednesday bench acted wasn't great form. Thankfully somebody from the crowd came to help the physio get the poor girl round to the changing area. In the end she ended up getting a piggy back to the changing room. It was disappointing to see that no stretcher was available It is beggars belief that a club the size of Sheffield Wednesday can't sort out matchday equipment for their sides. I hope the player recovers as it looked a nasty twist when she fell awkwardly. It was during this break in play that another difference between the sides emerged. While the Wednesday ladies were stood chatting the Lincoln players were keeping warm doing quick sprints or star jumps. Lincoln added the final goal in the last minute with a great passing move that ended with a neat finish into the bottom corner.
Despite the difference between the sides the match was played in a good spite and Wednesday never let their heads drop.

This was the first time i have seen the Lincoln Ladies team and i must say i was very impressed. I will definitely be going to some of their games once the season gets underway. We have waited years for a side from Lincoln to be able to take on and beat the best sides from around the country and now we have one. Check out the fixture list and get yourself down to watch them over the summer. While you are at it join the Facebook group and follow them on Twitter @ladyimps you know you want to folks.

A song for City

2012-01-18T23:31:00.000-08:00

A song for the Lincoln City squad after last nights result in the FA Trophy.
Take it away Suggs.

Huge respect goes to the fans who made the trip to South London last night. Had i not been working nights last night i would have been one of them.
Nightshifts do have there plus sides.

A jolly good Sunday.

2012-01-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

After the "disappointing" result for Lincoln City on Saturday i had a much better Sunday. First up, Inter continued their climb up the Series A standings with a fine 1-0 "away" win at City rivals AC Milan. After the terrible start Inter had to the season, the side have really woken up and now sit just outside the champions league places. Although i still feel that the title is beyond us, Champions league qualification is certainly within our grasp.
Lets have a look at the winning goal :-)

On Saturday night the Nottingham Panthers managed to lose 3-2 away to the Braehead Clan in a match that doubled up as a league game and 1st leg of the challenge cup semi final.
Thankfully just as they did last year the Panthers turned it round in the second leg in Nottingham on Sunday night to win 3-0 on the night thus going through 5-3 on aggregate. The Panthers have won the cup for the last two seasons and are now bidding to become the 1st side to win it three times in a row. Our opponents in the two legged final will be either the Cardiff Devils or the side that the Panthers defeated in last years final the Belfast Giants.

On a different note, on Thursday night Sheffield Wednesday ladies are hosting Lincoln Ladies in a friendly match at Retford United's Cannon Park with an 8 o clock kick off. Admission is FREE so it would be rude not to watch it wouldn't it? You may even see a couple of Lincoln's international players in action.

Lincoln City 0-0 Carshalton Athletic

2012-01-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

FA Trophy 2nd Round.

Well that's cup football for you chaps. Carshalton Athletic of the Ryman Premier league (two levels below the not so mighty Imps) comfortably held their own for much of this FA Trophy second round tie.
The match had quite a low key feel to it. Only the Echo stand and the lower Co-op stand were open to City supporters. Carshalton brought 147 supporters with them and they were given half of the South Park stand. Although 147 doesn't sound like a huge following they often only get 200 or so for there home matches so based on that and the fact that they are based in South London makes it an impressive following in this scribe's humble eyes. They made a decent amount of noise whilst waving their (rather new looking) claret and white bar scarfs around in the air.

We parked our arses in the co-op stand for this epic encounter just to the right hand side of the halfway line. Its very rare that we sit in this stand but the view of the ground was very good. Unlike the football that the Imps served up which for the most part was dire. I didn't feel too inconvenienced by having to move stands. I have watched football on all four sides of Sincil Bank and the football is by and large shit whichever you sit. A reduced programme was also issued costing £2 for a massive eight pages which was a tad disappointing in my view and not really value for money at all. Admission for this thrilling encounter was a mere £10 pounds. As this was a massive match i didn't want to chance it selling out and thus i bought my ticket before Christmas. In the end i needn't have worried. A mere 1,743 hardy souls were in attendance and all but the 147 away supporters must have wondered why they had bothered watching this tripe in the freezing cold when all the pubs were open.

City had two new faces in the line up with recently signed Paul Robson starting at right back. The City line up had been changed quite a bit due to three players being cup tied, centre half Robbie Williams being one of them which meant a debut for Matthew Pearson signed on loan from Blackburn Rovers.
Pre game i thought that Carshalton would come and put 11 men behind the ball and offer very little up front. To their credit they didn't do this and looked to get forward whenever they could. Although City had plenty of the ball we did very little with it in an attacking sense. It was the visitors who nearly took the lead in the early on when Athletic striker Paul Vines forced Joe Anyon to tip his effort onto the base of the post. City struggled to get any efforts on target with Conal Platts tamely hit free kick in the 9th minute being the best that City could muster. Sam Smith was playing up front with Jamie Taylor and neither looked totally match fit. Smith's first touch let him down on a number of occasions. The game was mainly being played in midfield with Tyrone Thompson having his best game for City. Half time was met with the sound of booing ringing from the stands with the visitors looking comfortable and well in the match. Carshalton's manager is also the club's owner he must have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it had been for his team.

We all agreed that something had to change at halftime and David Holdsworth obliged. Jamie Taylor was withdrawn and Alan Power brought on and it seemed to be the rocket up the arse of the City team.
Lincoln did pick up the pace in the second half and forced the visitors to defend much deeper and limited them to a few break aways. Upfront Lincoln still struggled to get many efforts on target and when we did look to get a shot away, a Carshalton body managed to get a great block in. Power was running the show for City but it still wasn't enough to put any sustained pressure on the visitors goal. Five minutes of added time was added by the ref and it was deep into this that City came closes to scoring when Alan Power's chip from 20 yards out clipped the top of the bar.
The final whistle was greeted by an even louder set of boos as the visitors celebrated. They had forced a replay and thoroughly deserved it. For all of Lincoln's possession their keeper was never really tested and i doubt that he will need to wash his kit before the replay Tuesday night.

There was/is a lot of anger amongst Lincoln City fans after this result and i can thoroughly understand why. On paper this was a very winnable tie for the Imps and we were for the most part garbage. Credit must go to the visitors who played very well today but in truth City made it easy for them.

I am a pints half full kind of chap, so i am going to look at the positives out of it.. Yes it has taken a while but there was a few decent performances out there. The back four looked solid for the most part. Thompson looked the best i have seen him and when Power came on it he looked a cut above everybody else on the park. The main plus point for me is that despite playing like a bunch of turkeys and creating very little against a side two levels below us we are still in the competition and live to fight another day. It may not be much comfort at the moment but we are still in there. Yes it would have been nice to have gone through at the first time of asking but hey this is Lincoln City football club and we NEVER do things the easy way do we folks?

Keep the faith
Up the Imps.

Well thats that for another year folks

2012-01-09T10:15:00.000-08:00

"GET IN!"

Last night the Pittsburgh Steelers crashed out of the NFL Playoffs with a 23-29 overtime defeat at the Denvor Broncos. Earlier in the evening the New York Giants booked their place in the next round of the playoffs with a fine 24-2 win at home to the Atlanta Falcons.
These two facts combined means that i have lost my annual bet to BBC Radio Lecestershire music expect and occasional columnist for the Leicester Mercury and Retford times; Mr Gavin Brown. Ten whole English pounds will be yours very shortly.
Congratulations mate. Dont spend it all at once :-)

Gedling Miners Welfare 0-6 Blackwell Miners Welfare.

2012-01-08T05:09:00.000-08:00

After the shower of shit i witnessed the previous day i was a tad unsure as to whether i could face watching another game of association football today, but seeing how i will be taking in Imps games for much of January i thought it would foolish of me not to take the opportunity to tick off another Nottinghamshire non league ground. Had i not have gone i would only have either sat on my arse at home or gone to watch Retford United. While i enjoy going to Cannon Park, a lot more than in recent seasons in fact, I like to get out and about and visit new grounds. Especially ones in this great County of ours.

Having looked at a few websites, blogs and forums i had reached the conclusion that it would be simple enough to get to. Train to Nottingham, shuttle bus from the Broadmarsh shopping centre then the number 45 sky blue bus from Victoria Centre. Then alight at Mapperley Shops and its a mere 5 minute stroll to the ground. What could wrong with that plan of attack?

Pretty much everything really my friends.
Got into Nottingham easy enough. (£12.30 return robbing t**ts) and it was then that the fun and games began. Although NCT buses we running a Saturday timetable some other lines in Nottingham were running a Sunday service. Which meant no shuttle service between the two bus stations in Nottingham. Although there was no signs up saying which lines were operating which service and all the screens were blank thus not being a whole deal of help.
This wasn't too much of a problem. Its a mere ten minutes walk between the two and i had plenty of time in hand. It was only when i got to the Victoria centre that the fun and games of trying to find out where the sodding bus left from began. After much walking around looking like a tit in a trance i eventually managed to locate the stop. By a total fluke i have to admit. It was only when i saw one of the sky blue buses travelling along then walked in the direction that the bus was travelling till i got to a stop. I had envisaged it being easier to find but by hook or by crook i had found the sodding thing.
Once on board my next challenge was to get off at the correct stop. Once again i managed to goof this up as well. I knew i had to get off at Mapperley shops, so on seeing that i was in Mapperley and there was a few shops about i decided to jump off. A quick look at the information on the bus stop told me that i had got off a couple of stops early. In the end it didn't put me back too much. After a ten minute walk the flood lights came into view and i got into the ground at about twenty to three.

As i was a little pushed for time i didn't go into the clubhouse and went straight into the ground. It was £4 entrance and £1 for a well put together programme. The programme is quite a smart effort and printed in full colour whereas a lot at this level are just printed in black and white. It has won a few awards over recent seasons and you can see why.

The ground is fairly basic. As you enter the stadium the only covering is on the far side. Half of the side is a covered area and the other covers a single row of seating. There is hard standing all around the ground and that's pretty much it. The tea hut is in the corner of the ground near to the clubhouse. The ground is clear enough and looks well kept. Although its more than adequate for the EMCL (Step 6) this and quite a few other grounds in this league don't seem to be quite up to the standard of The NCEL 1st division (Also step 6) As it is a newish league i suppose that is very surprising, as you would have thought that ground regulations would be the same across the board. Not so it would seem.

I hadn't eaten all day so i headed straight to the food hut to stuff my face. I opted for the chip butty which was very nice. Not the largest you will get but the quality was there. I also picked up a smart looking pin badge for the standard £3. Although i didn't have one the burgers they looked nice and were of the homemade variety. Alongside the badges, club pens, and keyrings, various teamsheets from home games were also for sale, although i didn't see any for today's match. After scoffing my fodder i went to view the match from the seated area near the far goal. As it turned out it was a great decision due to the fact that it was at the end that Blackwell were attacking.

Gedling arent having a great season and sat in 17th place in the division (Out of 19 teams)with a mere 14 points to their name. Blackwell by contrast have having a much better season. In the last couple of seasons the club has struggled near the foot of the table but are up to the giddy heights of 6th this time around with 36 points collected from their 19 matches to date.
When you are struggling near the bottom of the league the last thing you want to do is go one down after 30 seconds, alas this is what Gedling did. After 7 minutes it was 0-2 when a swinging cross was sent in that went just under the crossbar, the keeper and defender collided, and the ball ended up in the net. Shocking stuff really. Blackwell had bags of confidence and looked like they would score on every attack. Gedling by contrast looked like rabbits in headlights. The visitors went in 0-5 up at the break and it could have been worse as they had also missed a couple of decent chances. Surprisingly the Gedling fans didn't seem too bothered about this and seemed to be more interested in the fact that Nottingham Forest were winning 2-0 at Ipswich Town in the Championship.

In fairness to the home side they made a much better go of it in the second half and fashioned the better of the chances. Blackwell added the sixth in the last couple of minutes. It must be hard for a team when you are a long way back in a game but Gedling can take heart in their second half performance.
After the fun and games of getting to the ground it was good to have such an easy journey back. Just as i got to the bus stop the bus pulled up and i got off at Queen street just north of the market square. Had i known where Queen street was i could have got the bus to the ground from here and saved myself a hell of a lot of messing around. But you live and learn i suppose. I caught the 17.25 train out of Nottingham which had a few Notts County fans on board fresh from their 2-2 home draw with Huddersfield Town; a decent result for the Magpies. Quite a few got off at Mansfield which surprised me. I didn't realise Notts had such a strong follow in Stagland.
Now that i have ticked off Gedling i have only one more step 6 Nottinghamshire ground to visit (that being Radcliffe Olympic) and a handful of step 7 clubs. I wont do them all this season but who cares? I wouldn't want to rush it would i?

Grimsby Town 3-1 Lincoln City

2012-01-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

Well new year same old bollocks. I seem to recall writing something similar at the same time last year. And erm the one before that as well.
I missed the first derby match on Boxing day(as the above "Official" document shows though with the way the result went i am glad that i did) Although I was as sick as a pig that we managed to throw away a 1-0 halftime lead to lose 1-2, spending the afternoon with a gang of reprobates made the result far easier to take. Plus it was much easier to drown my sorrows. The one plus side to come out of it on the footballing side was that we didn't lose any ground to the teams in the drop zone but even that was scant consolation after to losing to our Lincolnshire rivals of 100 plus years. From what i have read we put up a good show but came up a bit short, in fact from what i was told and read on various sites most Imps fans were quite positive about our performance.
Personally i don't go in for all this clap trap. If you look at the league standings you can tell that both sides are in the bottom third of the 5th tier if English football i.e Shite. Its hard to take anything from a derby defeat but one against a side that hasn't pulled up any trees so far this season really is the pits. All the pre match talk about how well we would prepare for the boxing day game? Well that all went flying out of the window didn't it! "Prepared my arse" as the saying goes. The players and management owed us one. As Queen Victoria once famously said "We are not amused at any defeat by those fishy fellows from Grimsby Town" Well i am sure she must have said something like that at some point in her reign..

Breakfast for 50p

There has been a number of comings and goings on the transfer front in the last week or so. Adam Watts and Josh O'keefe have both left the club. Its fair to say that its never really worked out for O'Keefe at Lincoln City. That's not to say it wont work out for him somewhere else though. You don't come through a Premiership club's youth system unless you have some ability.
In a way i was sad to see Adam Watts go, before he had his leg broken for him at Grimsby a couple of seasons ago he was a very solid centre half and was one of our better players in 2009/10 (and yes i know that doest really say much) He never came back the same player. Throw into the mix that last season he played in one of the worst Imps sides ever, and at 23 was expected to organise the defence, the lad was always up against it. Had he steered clear of injury and had an experienced centre back to play along side of; somebody of Kevin Austin or Steve Holmes stature, then i am convinced the last 12 months would have been so very different for both him and the Imps. I for one really hopes he rebuilds his career. I always thought he was one of the few players that cared about what happened to the club last season.

With Adam gone it was obvious we needed to bring in a centre half in, and we did, when we signed Robbie Williams on loan till the end of the season. No, not the Tunstall gut bucket of Take That fame but the giant AFC Telford defender. I wont pretend to know much about the chap but he seems to know this league quite well having played 45 games in each of the previous two seasons, although injury seems to have stopped him from playing many games this time around.
We have also signed Danny Lloyd-McGoldrick on a deal till the end of the season from our FA Trophy opponents Colwyn Bay. Even though i was at the game i can't say that he stood out for good or bad reasons as the vast quality of Newcastle Brown one consumed has reduced my memory of the match to a mere haze. But he must have done something to impress David Holdsworth so that's good enough for me. I must admit i was underwhelmed with these two signings. That's not to say i think they will be crap, far from it in fact. There are plenty of diamonds to be found in non league football but for every Simon Yeo the Imps have found over the years there are about four Rory Mays out there. I have no doubt that the new boys will be busting a gut to do well at what is the biggest club that either of them have played for and will put the effort in, but its ability that wins football matches. While we were ferreting about in the bargain bin, Grimsby brought in proven quality by snapping up defender Ian Miller from Darlington. Whose transfer policy pays the most dividend remains to be seen but there is certainly more risk in ours but then again maybe that potential gains are also greater?
Anyway enough of the background onto the game itself, the main course if you will.

After a rock and roll new years evening of beer, pizza, Match of the day and great company i was quite fresh and ready for the day ahead. Lee drove to his away day and he did a fine job, aided by my first class directions, i hasten to add. We picked up Mr Delcol at his abode. After he mastered how to adjust the seat in the front of the car he thrust a piece of paper in to my mitt with a grin wider than the Watford Gap. On this paper was my summons to appear in front of the Kangaroo court. He made a fine job of the document if i do say so myself. He has been a very good boy this year and it would appear that after receiving his fisher price computer last year he has upgraded to the real thing this year. In fact a picture of him knocking up the summons appears to have been leaked onto the world wide web as can be seen below.

I can do computers me!

We made our merry way to Cleethorpes easy enough and got parked up thanks to Felice using all his years and years of experience. One thing that we always look forward to when going away to Grimsby is we normally get a great portion of pre match Fish and Chips. Last time we were here a couple of seasons ago we had a cracking pre match filling at the Mariners chippy so we headed there like moths to a lantern. Little could we have foreseen the tripe that awaited us.
When we got there the queue was outside of the shop which is normally a good sign. Plenty of Grimsby fans were queuing up so it was a perfectly acceptable conclusion to draw that the fodder was still of a high standard.

Three of us ordered the fish and chips which came in for less that four quid. So far so good. I took a bite of the fish and it was more than decent enough. However it then nosedived. The chips although quite brown weren't cooked and are to be frank some of the worst i have tasted at football. I enjoyed the fish but it couldn't carry the disappointment of the chips. We all left half of our chips which is pretty much unheard of our for our gang of gannets. Grimsby may have done the double over us this season (Treble if you count the Lincs cup final) but Lincoln has come out top in the pre match chip shop battle. See we can beat them at something!

Fish 7/10 Chips 2/10

Programmes were £3 and came in that awkward 5 inch by 5 inch shape. At one time only Burton Albion produced them in this size but now quite a few clubs are issuing in this format. As ~~a sad twat you collect this kind of shit~~ an avid programme collector this is something i am keen to see put a stop to. They are harder to carry and well its just not cricket old chap. The content inside it was decent enough mind. Just don't like this kind of style. But if it's more cost effective then we will see more of it i suppose.

We got into the ground at about 2.45pm and we seemed to have a reasonable following in well for us anyway. In the end i think it was something like 730 odd City fans made the journey. Normally this would be a decent enough following however its under half the number that Grimsby brought to our place and means that we returned about 400 tickets of our allocation. Its a bit like turning up for a double date with Miss Alex Jones on your arm only for your mate to walk in with Katy Perry in tow. We used to take 2000 plus to Boston on New Years day and Boxing day. If anybody knows where the missing fans have gone please give them a nudge and get them back on the road with the Imps. They might just enjoy it (unless its like this; this was shite).

Joe Anyon was back in goal for the Imps today and it was this that gave rise to my shite fact of the day and it was as follows.

Jo Anyon's last three appearances for Lincoln City football club have been in three separate competitions. The FA Cup v Alfreton, The FA Trophy at Colywn Bay and now the BSP here at Grimsby.
Fascinating, i am sure you will agree. The guys i was with didn't seem to agree. However i think they were just jealous (Or "well jel" as the cool kids say) Of the fact that i was warm in my Pittsburgh Steelers woolly hat and glove set that i was fortunate to receive as a Christmas gift from over the Atlantic.

On the pitch City weren't quick out of the blocks and although Grimsby didn't get many shots in they did have much more of the ball and made all the running. City had a new centre back pairing at the back with new boy Robbie Williams alongside Richard Hinds,the latter being City's man of the match by far in my book. Upfront we never really got much going with Jamie Talyor looking isolated and feeding off mere scraps. Then just as City looked like they had weathered the storm, boom the cods took the lead.
A ball was crossed in from the City right and the City defence stepped up trying to play offside only for it to go tits up. The ball went past everybody, and fell to Grimsbys Liam Hearn who controlled the ball and blasted it past Jo Anyon. A couple of the City players and quite a few fans around me thought it was offside but in my book you have to play to the whistle and we just stopped.
Lincoln had been overrun in midfield up until this point and when they did have the ball we just seemed to panic and scuff the pass. As we tried to up the pace and get back into the the game the mistakes intensified. Anyon had very little to do but so did Grimsbys number one. Then just as the game seemed to be petering out till halftime the homeside struck the killer blow in added on time at the end of the first half. A throw was taken by Grimsby, they controlled it and crossed it in and even though we had three defenders in the box to the one Grimsby player, he still managed to get there first and head his side into a two goal lead.
HT 2-0

Had we gone in at the break 1-0 down i would still have felt that we could have got something out of it but with the Imps facing a 2-0 goal deficit and up against a large home crowd with their tails up, it was always going to be a huge ask for a side that was without several key players and quite a few players who hadn't played together much before.
Things didn't get much better for us in the 2nd half as Grimsby kept us at arms length. We went further down when Grimsby were awarded a penalty when Christophe was penalised for handball after the ball hit him from close range. It looked harsh from where we were sat but we were on the second row behind the far goal so it was tough to say. I think you could definitely make a case that it was ball to hand. Anyhow i wont be watching the goals again so i will never know.
We did pull one back shortly after though when Jamie Taylor finished off a tidy move, although it did get a deflection on the way through, which led me to think it would be given as an O.G but it has now been given to Taylor. City did have a couple of long range efforts but in truth never really looked like getting back into the match. We were treated to a little bit of handbags in the last couple of minutes when a Grimsby player received his marching orders but it made no difference to the match at all.
FT 3-1
Felice said throughout the game that i needed to try and be a bit more positive about things. I thought i was very positive. I was positive that we were dreadful today. If i am to scratch around in the dirt of disappointment looking for a scrap of positivity like a chicken looking for the first grain of the morning then i will say that Hinds played well at CB. Taylor did well for the goal and it was good to see Sam Smith get some game time as he works his way back from injury. Bar that, one is struggling somewhat.

Happy New Year my Arse.

Football ground or WW2 POW camp. You decide

Darlington FC memories

2011-12-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

It would appear that Darlington FC are in a spot of bother at the moment. I don't know all the ins and outs of the situation (Nor does anybody else by the sounds of it) but from the outside the future doesn't look too great. As i am bored at the moment, stuck in this limbo between Christmas and the New Year i thought i would share with you a few of my memories of matches i have seen between the two clubs. Lets just hope that there will be more memories to add in years to come against Darlington fc, and not an AFC Darlington or another phoenix club. So without further ado lets get into the knackered old time machine in my tiny mind and take a trip down memory lane...

Tuesday 27th December 1994

Lincoln City 3-1 Darlington

This was only my 3rd Lincoln City game and one of the very few that i have viewed from the family stand. At the time Darlington were only a place below the Imps in the table with Lincoln sitting an unimpressive 14th themselves. It was a strange sort of atmosphere in the 1994/95 season as the Co-op stand was being rebuilt, meaning that the Imps played much of the season in a three sided stadium. Darlington took a shock lead early in the first half but it was soon cancelled out by David "Magic" Johnson. The second half belonged to the Imps and particularly Matt Carbon. Matt was an England youth centre half who, then manager, Sam Ellis played anywhere but centre half. Matt's goal which gave the Imps the lead, is one of the best i have ever seen at the Bank when he lobbed former Imp Mike Pollitt in the Darlington goal from 30 yards out. His second wasn't too bad either; a rasping shot from the edge of the box. For me, his first goal is the main reason this match sticks in the mind so much. This was at the same time Matt Le Tissier was making the Match of the Day goal of the month competition his own, but had we have been in the Premiership at the time our very own Matt "Le" Carbon would have given him a good run for his money.

Another reason to remember the match was the programme which featured Daily Sport stunner Sarah Hollet. Possibly one of the best Lincoln programme covers of all time eh gents? Did anybody remember see the other picture that went with this one in the paper with the Imps shirt off? I didn't as i was still at school, but it must have been up on a factory wall somewhere in Lincoln at the time?
In 95/96 Darlington came down to the Bank and got revenge with their own 3-1 victory. In the summer Lincoln had released Gary Bannister. The Imps loss was Darlingtons gain as he ran the show in midfield and ran Steve Wicks' Imps ragged. This was one of the best Darlington sides i have ever seen down at Sincil Bank and they went on to lose in the playoffs.

Saturday 25thApril 1998

Darlington 2-2 Lincoln City

My next Darlo memory comes from the away day in the promotion season in the 1997/98 season. Earlier on in the season Lincoln had strolled to a 3-1 win at Sincil Bank. Lee Thorpe had scored two but missed a chance to get his hatrick when he had a penalty kick saved. That was at a time when City were on a great unbeaten run which lasted 18 matches and was the bed rock of the promotion.
However, come the away day which was the penultimate match of the season, things weren't looking quite so rosy. Notts County and Maccelsfield had claimed the top two positions and Torquay had hit form at just the right time and looked odds on for the last automatic promotion place. City had to gain at least a point to keep the fight for third spot going till the last game of the season, and despite Darlington sitting in the lower third of the table they had only lost 4 matches at Feethams all season.

City had been given 600 terrace tickets for the match and they were all snapped up well over a week before the game which was unheard of at the time. The Imps fans were penned into a corner on the open terrace behind the goal and went mental when Steve Holmes gave the Imps the lead with a penalty in front of the City fans. However this being Lincoln City we were never going to do this the easy way. The hosts were level on 35min and then took the lead in the second half with a fantastic free kick which gave Vaughan in the City goal no chance. With time running out and City heading towards the playoffs, Shane Westley sent on Dennis Bailey who had signed a short term deal on transfer deadline day. Then deep into added on time Bailey turned and shot from the edge of the box and his scuffed shot ended up in the back of the net and the City faithful went wild. We all know what happened in that last game of the season against Brighton, but had it not been for Bailey at Darlington, none of it would have been possible. Dennis disappeared off the radar at the end of the season but to me and many others at Darlington that day he will always be one of City's great unsung heroes.
Mr Dennis Bailey we salute you.

Saturday 2nd November 2002

Darlington 0-0 Lincoln City

This game doesn't stick in the memory for the match but more for the pre match drinking session. Darlo is handy for us Retford based Lincoln fans as you can catch a train straight up to Darlington which is just what myself and my worse half did, arriving just after eleven which just happened to coincide with the pubs opening. The pub nearest the station was called Hogans was quite full when we got there. It may have been full of old men playing dominoes and stuff but the beer was ridiculously cheap with two drinks coming in at just over two quid or something like that. At those prices it seemed daft to go anywhere else so we stayed in there till gone two. We managed another one in a pub en route to the ground and staggered into the ground just before kickoff.

On the pitch City gave a typical battling display on the pitch and were well worth a point. Lincoln have never really had a decent record up at Darlington so getting a point felt like a win to the Imps fans. The train back to Retford was delayed so that gave us more time to have a quick drink before we left. Happy days. This was the last time City played at the famous old Feethams ground and i for one really miss the old place even if City rarely won there.

On our return to the basement division in 1999/2000 we beat Darlington 1-0 at Sincil Bank not long after George Reynolds had bought the club with the aim of taking them all the way to the Premiership. After that 1-0 win, City didn't record another home win over the Quakers till the 09/10 season when the Imps recorded a 3-0 win over them under caretaker manager Simon Clarke. In between those to games we were very much second best to them. A 0-4 kicking at home to them under Peter Jackson being the low point.

My last memory is realy just an example of how football can change. I spent much of the early/mid 2000's as a steward working on the Stacey West end of the ground. After a 1-1 draw against Darlington in the 2001/02 season myself and a colleague had to escort Mr Reynolds round to the away end as he liked to shake hands and meet the Darlo fans after every away match. The fans loved this and were lining up to meet and greet the guy who was hell bent on taking Darlo upwards to compete with the likes of Newcastle and Sunderland. As we walked back up to the boardroom he told the two of us how much the previous Darlo manager had been a disaster for the club and that he knew that the club were now on the right track under the current coaching set up. Given his enthusiasm for the club and his then popularity with the fans at the time he is hard to believe that he is now seen by many as the guy who shoulders much of the blame for the current mess the club finds itself in.
It just goes to show that quite alot of takeovers by folk promising the world often go tits up, Pay heed fans of Liverpool, Villa etc.

Good luck to all connected with Darlington football club form the crew at the Mind of an Imp blog.

Yorkshire Main 5-1 Bentley Colliery

2011-12-28T04:12:00.000-08:00

Thankfully due to our yearly Boxing Day drinking session, i missed Lincoln's defeat at the hands of Grimsby in the Lincolnshire derby. So my first football fix of the holiday period was the Central Midlands league northern division match between Doncaster rivals Yorkshire Main FC and Bentley Colliery FC. (Step 7)

This season has been a tough one for the Central Midlands league as a whole. The league went through a restructuring process in the summer, changing from having a supreme and premier division to a geographically based northern and southern division. It is fair to say that this change didn't please quite a number of clubs. Especially those on the border line. One of the main arguments for this change in structure was to try and reduce travelling cost for the clubs and although this is true in the southern section many clubs in the northern section have had an increase in travelling costs. On the field there has been some one sided scorelines due to the fact that teams are placed in respective divisions due to location rather than ability.
A number of sides from the southern division have folded throughout the campaign and recently Hutton Cranswick from the north also decided to call it a day. Never the less the league soldiers on. It may take a year or two for the new system to bed in so lets hope that no more clubs go to the wall and the league gets back on its feet. This is the starting point for clubs in the pyramid and an essential part of grass roots football. I enjoy watching the game at this level. I couldn't watch it ever week but its nice to take in every once in a while.
Last season was one of the most successful in Yorkshire Main's long history as they captured the Floodlit cup, the Doncaster FA challenge cup, the League cup, and the Central midlands premier division title. With having such a fine season last time out its hardly surprising that they are once again challenging for honours this season. Before kick off they sat in third place in the Northern Division three points behind leaders Dronfield Town (although the leaders do have two games in hand) The visitors Bentley Colliery were eleventh place in the standings.

Admission was £3 which included a programme which was pretty decent and had plenty of stats and stuff in it. The clubhouse entrance is just to right of where the gate money is collected. The walls in the clubhouse are covered with old team pictures and old match reports from the clubs early days in the 30's, right the way through to the clubs record breaking season last year. Club badges are available at the bar for a very reasonable £2 along with a range of hot drinks, chocolate bars, and cold sandwiches. Over the course of the day i tried a tea and an oxtail soup and both were spot on. (50p each)

After a nice cup of tea we ventured outside for the 2.00pm kick off. The ground is a tad on the basic side but does at least have two small covered stands along each sideline. There isn't any hard standing behind each goal and there isn't a great deal of room behind the goalline and the fence. However the club has come up with a novel and cheap way of stopping the ball bursting on the spikes on the fence. If you have any spare tin cans then just let the club now. I am sure they will take them off your hands.

We stood on the far touchline to where the clubhouse/changing room and got a decent enough view of the action on the pitch. Not that there was much action in the first half to report on. The pitch was quite boggy and didn't really help either side play passing football. Of the two sides Main probably shaded it but fluffed whatever chances came their way. I had a quid on the raffle but i haven't a clue if i won or not as i didn't hear the PA announce the winning numbers.
ht 0-0

Thankfully the second half was much better than the first. Main scored with the first attack of the match and this opened the game up. There is a slight slope on the pitch and Main made the most of these by running at the Bentley defence at every opportunity. The goal just after half time seemed to take the wind out of the visitors sails, and their work rate dropped from that in the first half. Main continued to make chances as they did in the first half but the difference was this time they took them, and raced into a three goal lead. Bentley did however give themselves a glimmer of hope when they scored them from close range following a corner. This goal did seem to wake them up a tad and they went on to have their best spell of the game.

Bentley nearly got another goal from a corner but a great clearance on the line by a Main defender thwarted them. Looking back on it that was the turning point of the game. Had it gone in then it was very much game on. As so often happens in football Main went down the other end and killed the game off when they added a fourth. They added a fifth late on which was by far the best goal of the game when the Main number 9 broke free down the left and scored with a great chip from the edge of the area.
FT 5-1
I really enjoyed this day out and although the ground may be a tad run down in places its quite homely and is what grass roots football is all about. The league leaders Dronfield drew so this win for Yorkshire Main closed the gap at the top of the table. Exciting times indeed in the Central Midlands Northern division.

Retford United 4-2 Liversedge

2011-12-21T12:19:00.000-08:00

Time for our monthly catch up on Retford United's progress folks. Oh joy i hear you say. In truth it was a good time to watch Retford. Funds are always tight a week or so before Christmas so it made sense to stay local. The two sides had met the previous weekend with Retford running out 4-0 winners in Yorkshire. A win that sent the Badgers two points clear at the top of the table. Liversedge themselves sat in 12 place in the division (Out of 20 teams)
Lincoln were down at Forest Green Rovers. This was off our radar due to Baz not getting the paperwork sorted for his brand new Bazmobile and Felice's recent off roading experience a week or so back. In our absence The Imps recorded a fine 2-0 win. Here's the highlights.

After going what like seems like an eternity without out a clean sheet the Imps have now only conceded a penalty in the last three games. Form and performances do seem to be picking up. As has the form of that horrible lot who we play back to back over the holiday period, our nearest and dearest rivals from North East Lincolnshire; Grimsby Town, anyhow more about this later.

I got up to Cannon park an hour or so before kick off, got settled in the bar, and had a few drinks with a couple of Frickley supporters. Over the course of the season Retford's crowds seem to have steadily risen (as has the team). Admission was the standard £5 with the programme £1.50. Also included with the admission price was a free chocolate. It doesn't get much better than that does it?

The spate of goodwill continued as Baz got the teas in; after being found guilty in the "Legogate" scandal a few weeks ago. On the pitch Retford United got in on the act by gifting Liversedge a goal in the first thirty seconds of play. A few Retford players half heartedly appealed for offside but i think they knew that had made a bit of a boo boo. Any thoughts of another easy game for the badgers went out of the window.
Retford got into their stride and equalised on 9 minutes through Adam Scott. The same player then gave the Badgers the lead in the 16th minute with a fine solo effort. This was our cue to head over to the food hut and stock up on meat and potato pie, chips and peas; all for the bargain price of £3. It was a good open game with both sides creating and missing numerous chances. It was Retford who got the next goal in the 38th minute through Warren Hatfield to give the Badgers some breathing space.

The visitors were given a chance to get back into the game on 69 minutes when they were awarded a penalty however Retford keeper Jason Fisher pulled off a fine save to keep Retford's two goal lead intact. Liversedge did get a second goal in the 78th minute when Retford's Corey Nightingale bundled the ball into his own net. Doh.
Liversedge then took the game to Retford who looked to be wobbling, however a great counter attacking move by Retford finished with Barry Payne scoring from close range to wrap up another three points for Retford in the 89th minute.

Although i will be in Grimsby for the New Years Day Lincolnshire derby i will be missing the match at Sincil Bank. This is due to our annual "Boxing day massacre" drinking session around Retford. I have no doubts that it will be as fun filled as ever and i look foward to seeing you all :-)

Colwyn Bay 1-3 Lincoln City

2011-12-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

FA Trophy first round proper

We had been looking forward to this game ever since the Seagulls won away at FC Halifax Town in their final qualifying round replay. I always enjoy away games that are quite a distance away and are at grounds we haven't visited. Throw in the "magic of knockout football" and the cheap admission price of £9 and you had all the ingredients for a great away day. Which is just what we got. And i haven't been able to write about many of those in the last year and a half! Even with all this fixture had going for it, only Baz and myself made the trip over to North Wales. Felice had ~~some cock and bull~~ very reasonable excuse for missing his second Imps away outing with the jolly boys on the trot. Tut Tut.

Unlike our last Lincoln away trip the journey down was straight forward enough. We left our north Nottinghamshire stronghold at just gone 10.20am and arrived a little after 1.15 pm. We had a quick piss stop just at a service station near Chester which sold all the normal over priced crap and a nice selection of Welsh tat such as cuddle dragons, stuff with dragons on etc. The most amusing thing in there was the sight of an old boy shuffling his way into the services just in front of us. It took the old lad quite a while to make it to the toilet so i just hope in made it in time.

Shortly after this we passed over the Welsh border. The Welsh seem very proud of there Heritage with dragons and Welsh flags being hung on quite a few bridges. We also passed a trout farm. This is where Felice missed out again as he is a dab hand at trout tickling if rumour is to be believed.
Colwyn bay's Red Lion Foods stadium is tucked away in a residential area on the outskirts of the town. You can park in the club car park for a couple of quid but we chanced it and parked the baz mobile on the street just outside the ground. We were greeted by a steward who gave us the great news that the bar inside the ground was open. Music to our ears indeed. We parted with our 9 quid at the turnstiles just as the programmes arrived. Good timing batman. The programme was £1.50 and was a great effort with plenty to read in it.

The clubhouse is a decent size and everybody in there seemed very welcoming. As we, well i, was going to have plenty of time to drink i opted for a few pints of Newcastle Brown Ale which is my session beer. I can't wolf it down like lager but it is perfect if you are just chilling out and chatting before the big match. We were joined by another Imps fan who had made the trip up from the south coast and got chatting about all things Imps and groundhopping. The match officials were tucking into their tea and biscuits while the snooker was on the big screen. As time passed more beer was consumed and more Imps fans made their way into the bar.

After a while one of those "Good old boy" types that you only find at non league football grounds came over with a football card and asked if we fancied a go on it. As the day was going well we all did without hesitation. We had some good banter with the guy taking the card round as he apologised for us having a wasted journey etc. When he had sold all the teams he gave Baz the honour of revealing the winning team. It goes without saying that none of us won the sodding thing. Some things never change. I picked first and went for Preston North End. I told Baz i had kindly left him Sheffield United. "Bollocks" came the reply. Charming.

And the winner is.....

Looking out at the ground it looked quite clean and well kept. To our right were two covered all seated stands. The far end was a covered terrace with the near end being open. An open terrace was on the other touch line and this is where most of the home fans stood to watch the match. All in all i thought it was a decent enough stadium with something for everybody. The stadium was also quite colourful with plenty of flags and some great artwork on walls.

Open side

Covered seating in the background
Groundhopper in the foreground

After we left the bar and Baz had sampled the chips (Decent enough was the verdict) we made our way on to the open terrace near the far end of the ground. Lincoln had travelled in decent numbers and the singers had gathered at the far end of the stadium and set up there flags and stuff and got a decent amount of noise going from under the covered stand. Well played chaps.

Colwyn Bay play their football a level below the Imps and are currently in midtable but they do have a decent enough home record while Lincoln have only win twice on the road this season.
Lincoln started well and were ahead after only ten minutes. Jamie Taylor who has been injured for much of the season finished from close range to settled any nerves that the Imps had. Things then swung even more in the Imps favour in the 20th minute when the homeside were reduced to ten men when Lee McEvilly was adjudged to have elbowed Francis Laurent. It looked a tad harsh to me but none of the home players seemed to appeal to much. City made their numerical advantage count when Connal Platt doubled there lead in the 32nd minute with a great finish from 20 yards out. As i headed round to the clubhouse to get in pole position for a halftime pint one of their officials joked to me that he didn't want to come to our place Tuesday night for a replay anyway. 'Nor did I' i said. I am on bloody nights again next week.

Clubhouse end.

The beer flowed in the clubhouse at halftime The Imps fans seemed in good heart as it looked like we had one foot in the second round. However if there is one thing i have learnt over my years of following Lincoln City it is that the job is never done until the final whistle goes and the Imps will always make it difficult for themselves no matter what.

The hosts were given a lifeline in the second half when Joe Anyon bundled over Rob Hopley in the box and Fraser McLachlan converted the spot kick. Game on and maybe we would need a replay.
As it turned out Lincoln stepped in up a gear and took the game to the Seagulls. Taylor got his second and Lincolns third of the game in the 71st minutes to kill the match off. Both sides created a couple of half chances but Lincoln always looked in control. Colwyn Bay battled well throughout the match but the sending off killed any chance they had off getting back into the game in my humble opinion. After the match David Holdsworth and the players came over and applauded the travelling Lincoln fans for the great backing they had given the side. The manager is getting the fans onside and more results like this will help even more.

All in all a cracking day out. Colwyn Bay have a great set up both on and off the pitch and you will receive a warm welcome. Nice food, great bar plenty of covering what more can you ask for? If you haven't been then get yourself there it is one not to be missed as they say.

No away day is complete without a post match Kebab so we made a trip to our old favourite the Hollingworth food stop on the way back. I went for the lamb donner with chicken tikka on a nan bread and very nice it was too. An away win, beer, and a great Kebab what more does a man need?

Yet more top quality sporting action.

2011-12-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Sunday 28th November

Kansas City Chiefs 9-13 Pittsburgh Steelers

Up until Sunday night it had been a great sporting weekend for myself. Lincoln had dispatched Ebbsfleet United 3-0 at Sincil Bank. Retford United had won 4-3 away from home. Inter Milan had beaten Siena 1-0 and the Nottingham Panthers had beaten the Hull Stingrays 6-1 in Nottingham on Saturday night. They followed this up with a 5-5 draw away at Coventry Blaze in the Challenge Cup Sunday evening. The game had no meaning however as Nottingham had already won group B and Blaze couldn't make the knock out stage. Even so it was nice to see the Panthers stage a great fightback coming from 5-0 down to claim a pointless point. It would appear that the Braehead Clan will be the Panthers opponents in the semi finals unless they can beat Fife by 15 goals or more in there last group game. Should they manage this unlikely feat then League leaders Belfast will be the Panthers opponents in the semi finals.

So after all this good news only one result stood between myself and a "full house"; The Steelers were on the road and on TV playing the Chiefs at Arrow Head stadium with a 1.30am UK time kick off. So i booked a the Monday off work, got a load of popcorn in, and settled down with the guinea pigs to watch some football.

The Steelers came out on top and although the scoreline looks quite close the Chiefs never looked like scoring a touchdown until the very last drive of the game. The Steelers wasted a few chances to add to their score. In the end a win is a win and it was an enjoyable night. The Steelers still need to improve before the playoffs but the team is definitely a force to be reckoned with in the AFC.

Tuesday the 29th November.

York City 2-0 Lincoln City

My good sporting form was brought back down to earth with an almighty bump on Tuesday night as Lincoln fell to a predictable defeat at playoff chasing York City. All in all it was a pretty shitty night. Bad traffic on the A1 meant that the journey took us a fraction under two and a half hours meaning we didn't have time to sample a pre match kebab and pint in York.

In truth Lincoln were pretty much second best throughout the match. York scored early and from there on in we never really got into it. Ex Imp Scott Kerr won man of the match which shows you the standard of players in this League. He also had a bit of a dig at the Imps and our former manager in the programme. Such a classy guy isn't he? I would have hoped that after employing him for five and a half years he would have been a bit more respectable to the club, but there you go folks. I was disappointed with the second goal; after their player out muscled Thompson, Gowling was caught in two minds and backed off, allowing their guy to pick his spot and kill the game. York were on of the best sides I have seen this year and could well end up winning the playoffs at the end of the season. On the plus side we could have gone all the way to London to watch the Arsenal get stuffed by Manchester City reserves......

Wedensday 30th November

Worksop Town 5-4 Mickleover Sports

Normally one midweek game a week does me just fine. However the chance of a game at a new ground for me, just over 7 miles away, came up and, better still admission was free. Its normally a tenner to enter so it would be rude not to take advantage of it really wouldn't it? Plus we had the chance to make up for our disappointment of missing out on a kebab the night before.

Former Lincoln caretaker manager Simon Clarke has recently taken the reigns at Worksop and has brought the club an upturn in fortunes. Town's recent form has earned Clarke the manager of the month. As you would expect their form has slumped since then.
The tigers roared (boom boom) into a two goal lead early on. Sports rallied and pulled one back only for the tigers to added a third. Sports kept the game alive with a cool run and finish just before halftime.
The sports then equalised just after halftime when they took advantage of some poor Worksop marking from a free kick. Back came Worksop with an equaliser about ten minutes before the end. The hosts took all three points in injury time. Quite simply the best game i have seen for a long while and all for free as well!

This blog my be a little sparse on details as i am a bit behind at the moment. Normal service to be resumed shortly. The curse of night shifts and Christmas strikes again!

Lincoln City 3-0 Ebbsfleet United

2011-11-28T11:08:00.000-08:00

I haven't taken in a Lincoln game for a few weeks. Its even longer since all three regular Retford Imps were at the same City match together. There are several reasons why this has been the case, with some reasons being far more credible that others. Work, Legoland, Ice Hockey etc have all been given as reasons for non attendance. On reviewing these reasons for absence, an independent panel had come to the conclusion that Baz 's trip to Legoland excuse was by far the least satisfactory and that he will need to answer to the three man Kangaroo court on the way to the next away game that we all attend. It would also help the court if we could get a feeling from the public as to whether or not his defence stands up. So it would be a great help to us if you could take a few seconds to vote in the poll on the right hand side of this blog. Should he be found guilty then he will have to get a round of teas in at the next match. If he is found not guilty (and the chances of that aren't looking great it has to be said) Then his good name will be cleared.

Pre match Kebab and chips whilst planning his defence

There has been quite a lot of activity on the transfer front since the last time i watched the Imps. Danny Hone and Gavin McCallum have left on loan for Barrow and Barnet respectively, while Ali Fuseini and Doug Lindberg have left the club.
To counter this David Holdsworth has recruited midfielders Jake Sheridan and Tyrone Thompson from Eastwood and Halifax FC and striker Luke Medley. I didn't know a whole lot about Sheridan and Medley but i remember Thompson for an earlier spell he had at Lincoln Under Sir Keith.
I must admit that I wasn't too thrilled at his signing. A wise old Stags fan that i know didn't seem to rate him and he does seem to have become a bit of a journey man. After today however i may have to eat humble pie as he had a decent game . However one swallow doesn't make a summer and all that. Having lost McCallum and Fuseini i was worried about the lack of firepower in the squad. So what goes and happens? Lincoln record their first 3-0 home win since we beat Darlington by the same score in September 2009. Shows what i know doesn't it? Time to have a word with myself i think.
We did our normal pre match routine with Baz opting for Kebab meat and chips whilst i went for the battered sausage and chips option and a freddo frog chocolate bar for pudding.

Lincoln could have been ahead inside of 25 seconds as we nicked the ball from the visitors kick off and sent an effort just wide of the post. Lincoln continued to make all the running in the first half while the visitors struggled to cope with the windy conditions. Upfront Perry was being used as the battering ram with Sheridan playing just behind him. Perry was taking a few knocks and his battle with Ebbsfleet centre half Paul Lorraine was turning into a decent battle with the Lincoln man having the slight edge. Lincoln had to wait till the 38th minute but the goal was well worth the wait. Connal Platt collected the ball, cut inside, then blasted the ball into the top corner. The goal gave Lincoln even more impetus and continued to push forward to try and get the 2nd goal to kill the match off.
HT 1-0
The team were given a great reception as they left the field. The normal crappy stuff went off at halftime as the scores rolled in. As fans chatted about the first half Felice amused himself with a quick game of Angry Birds, which seems to be all the rage at the moment.

Ebbsfleet did have a bit more about them in the second half. Farman in the Lincoln goal made a close range save from Pinney then tipped a long range effort onto the bar to keep the Lincoln lead intact. City killed the game off in the 74th minute when Sam Russell scored with a fierce drive from just inside the area. Game set and match as they say. It got worse for the "Fleet" when Mambo was given his marching orders when he was adjudged to have committed a professional foul when he brought down John Nutter just outside the box.

Nutter took the free kick himself and scored via a slight deflection off of the defensive wall. Its been a while since we saw a Lincoln side dominate a match like this one and it was great to see so many happy faces at the end.
This win has given Lincoln a five point gap to the dropzone, which is very welcome what with a tricky away trip at York City coming up on Tuesday night. Yes it will be a tough game but if City put as much effort into that game as they did today, its feasible we could get a point. We have already seen some strange results in the league this season so expect the unexpected. David Holdsworth has got the side fighting and certainly putting a lot more effort into the game. Again its very early into his tenure but so far so good. At the end he took the players around the ground to applaud the fans. It will take time for the club to rebuild bridges with the fans after the past few years but DH is going about it the right way.

I couldn't finish this post without a mention for a gentleman who makes Sincil Bank tick on a matchday. After what seems like an eternity head steward Gary Radford is stepping down from his postion on the Stacey West stand. I know from experience its not an easy job being a steward but whatever Gary has had to deal with; be it pissed up fans, fans moaning about stupid shit, pitch invasions, or even blossoming romances between his staff, he has always done it with a smile on his face. If all stewards had his outlook and methods of doing the job then the football world would be a much better place. Good luck mate, and don't be a stranger to Sincil Bank.

All together now "We had the best steward in the league"

On another point as this is my 300th blog post i would just like to thank everybody out there for reading my work. I feel this blog has come along way since i started writing in 2008 and hopefully there is a long way to go yet. I would like to thank all the people who i have travelled with to matches over this time and new friends i have met along the way for being such great company and for giving me something to write about. The last few years have been some of the toughest in Lincoln City's history but i like to think we have had a few laughs along the way.
I should also thank my spell checker and editor because if it wasn't for her then there would be no blog.

The lesser spotted lady groundhopper!

Thank you one and all.

From Staveley to Inter to England

2011-11-26T01:28:00.000-08:00

Staveley u19 4-3 Sheffield FC

Monday 21st November

The week started off with some Monday night football in the shape of Staveley Miners Welfare under 19s taking on their counterparts from Sheffield FC in the Baris North Midlands under 19 league first division.

Having heard some very impressive reports about the new look Inkersall Road (Staveley's home ground) I was very much looking forward to seeing progress that the club has made and seeing if the ground is as good as everybody says its is. I can now report that the stadium is every bit as impressive as i was told. Its been a good couple of years since i took in a match here and the place has totally changed.

The main thing you notice is the new clubhouse which is one of the best i have ever been in. There are three large screens that were showing the build up to the Spurs v Aston Villa match. The walls are covered with framed football memorabilia with the diamond in the crown being framed and signed shirts from most of the England 1966 world cup winning squad. All of the tables have the club crest on them The food hut was open and was doing a roaring trade. Quite a few clubs only partly open up facilities for under 19 matches but Staveley open the full lot. And they were rewarded with a very impressive crowd which was around the 100 mark. Sheffield brought a good number with them but plenty of locals had turned out as well. It was £2 to get in with an excellent 16 page programme selling at 50p. Before kickoff Staveley were unbeaten and top of the division the visitors were sat in midtable.

Although Sheffield started the better as soon as Staveley got into their stride they simply blew them away. They were 3 up at the break and it so easily could have been more had the ref spotted a cast iron penalty claim when Staveley's number 9 was pulled back in the box. He did give the hosts a penalty for another offence but it didn't look as blatant as the one he didn't give.

To their credit Sheffield did make a game of it in the second half. They pulled a goal back just after the restart then scored a penalty of their own to set up an interesting finish. Staveley's philosophy on the game is simple. You score three goals, we will score four. They were award a second penalty which they converted to put the game to bed. Sheffield scored deep into injury time when they scrambled the ball in following a corner.

Staveley are a club on the up. Yes they have spent a fair bit of money but the are spending it in the right places and building the club up at all levels and not just the first team. I wish them all the best.

Tuesday 22nd November

It hasn't been a great season so far for Inter Milan. Defeat in the Italian Super cup (Italy's answer to the community shield) was followed by a terrible start to the season and the exit of coach Gian Piero after only three months at the club. Former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri has been given the task of steadying the ship Although results have picked up, the club still sits in the bottom half of the league, although we do have a game in hand on the leading clubs.
So against this backdrop i was very pleased to see the club not only qualify for the last 16 of the Champions league this week but also be confirmed as group winners with a game to spare. This achievement is even more impressive when you take into the account the fact that they lost the first game of the group stage; a 0-1 home defeat to Turkeys Trabzonspor. Winning the group means that Inter will avoid the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich in the last 16. It does however mean there is a good chance that Inter could face English opposition in the last 16 as it looks very doubtful that Chelsea, Manchester United, and Manchester City will win their groups. However given the results of those three clubs in Europe this year Inter shouldn't have anything to fear if they do indeed lock horns. It also looks like AC Milan will not win their group and could well face one of the big guns. Ha.

Wednesday 23rd November

Women's European championship qualifier

England 2-0 Serbia

Not only was this my first professional women's match but it was also my first international match. The venue was the Keepmoat stadium, home of championship whipping boys Doncaster Rovers. Admission was just £5 a bargain in anybody's books i am sure you will agree.

The traffic between Retford and the hole that is Doncaster has been very heavy as of late so we set off in good time to make sure we got to the stadium in time and enough time to collect our pre booked match tickets.
The traffic had been quite kind to us and we got to Doncaster quite early. As we walked over to the ground the Serbian team bus was just pulling up next to the players entrance. After picking up the tickets we had a stroll around the ground and were disappointed to find out that all the bars were shut. Worse still no beer was to be served inside the ground due to the UEFA regulations. As we walked round to the turnstiles the England bus pulled in and we watched the players get off. All the girls had to unload and carry their own bags into the stadium. I can't see the likes of Gerrard and co doing this. With nothing else to do we entered the ground with just over an hour to go till kick off.

Programmes were on sale inside the ground for £3 and we were the first people to purchase one. The food and drink was the normal rip off prices so we didn't bother. £2 for a cup of tea is really taking the piss. Food prices is something i certainly don't miss about the football league.
England were out for there warm up a good ten minutes or so before their visitors and you didn't need to know much about football workout which side were the more professional. England went through very well thought out and testing series of drills and exercises while Serbia just seemed to do a bit of running and a few passing moves. The two sides had drawn 2-2 in Serbia earlier in the campaign when England threw away a two goal lead. So far in the group England had drawn two and won one match and were two points behind the group leaders Holland.

Lincoln Ladies Fc were very well represented tonight. Casey Stoner had the honour of captaining the England side while Jess Clarke started in midfield. Serbia came out playing one up front and looked as if they had come for a point. As you would expect England made all the running in the first half and took the lead when Clarke finished well from just inside the box in the 41st minute.

Clarke turned provider in the 51st minute when she crossed for Arsenal's Ellen White who finished from close range to double England's lead and kill the game as a contest. Although England were camped in the Serbian half for much of the game they couldn't add to their two goal lead.

All in all thoroughly enjoyed watching this game. The standard of the England players was high and thoroughly deserved the victory. All the girls played well but I thought that Jill Scott of Everton should have got the player of the match award as she did all the donkey work in midfield and was unlucky not to grab a goal. England don't play another qualifier till June but if its not too far to travel i would defiantly go and watch them again. Who said International football isn't value for money?

Lincoln United 2-3 Shepshed Dynamo

2011-11-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

Today's choice of games was a tad limited. City were away at league leaders Wrexham so i was on the hunt for a localish match. Gainsborough Trinity at home to Boston was appealing but being in a stadium with a load of Boston fans was much less so. There are always a few non league games on in Nottingham but i have done a couple recently and fancied something different. In the end i picked Lincoln United's clash with Shepshed Dynamo FC.

Lincoln United led by Lincoln City legend Terry Flemming finished last season in good form and have carried it over into this season and before kickoff sat in tenth place in the Evo stick division one south (Step 4) Their form in October was enough to win Terry the manager of the month award for October. However, some what predictably they have lost the last two matches in November. A 1-2 defeat at home to New Mills and a 0-3 away defeat at Hucknall Town last weekend. Today's opponents, Shepshed Dynamo sat 4th bottom before kick off just two points off the relegation zone. An ideal chance for the "Whites" to get back on track perhaps?
I rolled up at the Lincoln United club house at about 1.45pm and the place was already quite full. Shepshed took a decent number of fans with them last season when i saw them get stuffed 7-2 at Carlton Town and had a decent following here as well. Arsenal were chalking up another victory in the Premiership this time against Norwich City on the big screen. Watching the game with a nice cool pint was a great way to relax after the long walk from the train station. I headed out to the ground at just gone 2.15 ish just after Arsenal had scored their second goal. Elsewhere a shock was going on in the world of football; Celtic were actually winning away at Inverness Caledonian Thistle although they did have the help of another dubious red card for the hosts.

Today's entrance fee was a very reasonable £6. The programme came in at £2 and was slightly disappointing with most of it being adverts and standard Evo stick fact pages. Because i quite like Lincoln United i bought a raffle ticket but as normal won bugger all. I had a stroll around the ground and took a few snaps. Quite what this scale model of Boston Uniteds new stadium was doing inside Ashby Avenue is anyones guess.

The new York Street

What with City being away quite a few fans had flocked to watch United. Also in the ground was the battle hardened head steward on the Stacey West stand Mr Gary Radford who also lends his skills to Lincoln United from time to time. We had a bit of a chat about the Imps and how David Holdsworth is rebuilding the Imps squad and the off field financial problems at Sincil Bank.
As kick off approached i ambled over to the old covered stand to take in the first part of the match. Before the game a representative of the Evo Stick league presented Terry with his manager of the month award. Terry is one of my favourite City players of all time and its great to see him having success as he cuts his teeth in management. When you take into account the fact that he is a player-manager and starts most games it makes his achievement all the more impressive. Listening to folk who watch United regularly it does seem as if there has been a feel good factor around the club since Terry took over. He had got the side playing good passing football on the deck and brought everybody at the club closer together. After every home game players have to go into the clubhouse and have at least one drink with the fans before the leave (It doesn't have to be alcoholic) John Beck did this exact same thing with the Lincoln City side when he was manager in the mid nineties when he was building the whole "Team Lincoln" mindset. Terry was John Becks midfield enforcer and he looks like he is learning from the great man.

United started the game the much better side and were causing the Shepshed back four problems with their pace. It only took Lincoln 9 minutes to get on the score sheet when Tom Garrick collected a pass halfway inside the Shepshed half, ran at the defence, easily beat the full back, and blasted home from close range. It was a fine goal and no more than United deserved. This did seem to wake Shepshed up a little and they created one or two half chances of their own.
Then just as they were looking to get back into the match the visitors conceded a clumsy and blatant penalty when one of their defenders bundled over the Lincoln striker in the box right in front of the referee who pointed straight to the spot. Scott Coupland stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way to double Uniteds advantage.

PENALTY!!

That was in the 32nd minute and it was the last significant action that Mr Keith Lawson our match referee would partake in this afternoon. Shortly after this he injured himself and was unable to continue. At this level there isn't a fourth official present so the hunt was one to find somebody in the crowd willing to become a linesman and thus allowing the senior linesman to take over the refs job. In the end a volunteer was found and the game continued. I overheard somebody saying that you could continue the game with two officials. weather this is true or not i have no idea. The last time a ref was injured in a Lincoln United match the game was abandoned and the club was hit with a £1000 pound fine (even though it was the ref who called it off). So it was understandable that the club were keen to continue. All of this added a good ten minutes or so to the length of the first half which didn't finish till just before 4pm. United really upped the pace and looked to kill the game off and missed some fantastic chances to do this. Although it has to be said that this was down to some fantastic last ditch defending from Shepshed who cleared a couple off the line as well as putting in some great last ditch tackles. They certainly have a lot more fight and spirit in them than the last time i saw them. They were also given good backing from the twenty or so fans who had made the trip from Leicestershire with them.
United went in at the break with a two goal lead but it could and should have been more. The original ref sat between the two dugouts with his foot up on a chair. And was looked after by United's charming lady physio. You see there are some benefits to being injured. It was later confirmed that it was a calf injury that had forced the ref to be unable to continue.

WARNING!
Do not bang on the cage!
Do not put your fingers through the cage!
Do not feed the animals!

At half time I checked out the rather sparse looking clubshop and picked up a mug for a quid. It had started to turn a tad chilly so i made my way over to the clubhouse to check out the halftime scores. Unsurprisingly City were 1-0 down at Wrexham. The second half didn't get underway till about 4.15 ish so i was able to watch some of the live scores come through on Soccer Saturday.
HT 2-0

After watching the first half i am pretty sure that nobody in the ground would have predicted what was to happen in the second half. The game opened up and both keepers made fantastic saves. Shepshed really got their act together and looked a force from set pieces. United continued to miss some great chances and it would come back to haunt them big time.
Dynamo got a goal back in the game in the 75th minute when Stephen Chaplin fired in a low effort from inside the area. This gave the massed ranks of fans away fans belief that they could get something out of a game that had looked like running away from them. The visitors penned United back in the closing stages and got the equaliser in the 87th minute when united failed to deal with a corner and Iain Screaton pounced. It was a sickener for United but far worse was to come in the 90th minute.
A long range shot was tipped onto the post by the United keeper Shepshed hit the follow up against the bar only for the rebound to be bundled into the net by Stephen Chaplin for his second of the game. So from being second best for much of the game Shepshed had somehow gained three points. An outcome that i am sure even their most die hard fans would have said was highly unlikely at halftime. Football's a funny old game as they say. Although the goalscorers will get all the praise, it has to be remembered that had the defenders not pulled off some last ditch goal line clearances and tackles then the great fight back wouldn't have happened. As for United well they learnt a harsh lesson. If you don't take your chances when you are on top it will come back to bite you on the arse.
FT 2-3

There was plenty of it on display today!

It had really turned cold by now and i really felt it on the long walk back to the City centre. Even with all the added on time. I still had time to grab a quick pint in the Treaty of Commerce pub on the high street near the station before grabbing the 6.27pm train back to Retford.
Today's game had everything; 5 goals, a penalty, an injury to the ref, and a fantastic comeback. Why can't football always be this exciting?

Adams sporting world results

Wrexham 2-0 Lincoln City

Thackley 2-0 Retford United

Inter Milan 2-1 Cagliari

Sheffield Steelers3-2 Nottingham Panthers(OT)

Greenwood Meadows 0-2 Ibstock United

2011-11-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

Another sporting double in Nottingham today. East Midland counties league action (Step 6) in the afternoon as i took in Greenwood Meadows' clash with Ibstock United followed by the biggest match in British ice hockey. The Notingham Panthers v the Sheffield Steelers at the NIC. Mouthwatering i hear you say.

The day however did not get off to a great start. Over the last couple of days one of our Guinea pigs, Bumble had managed to get some hay stuck in his eye thus prompting an emergency trip to the vet. Thankfully the vet managed to remove the offending piece of hay and Bumble seems to be back to his old self, Eating,shitting rumbling,romancing the ladies etc etc.

Plan of attack today was to get the train to Nottingham then have a couple of quick beers before the match. Because of all the fun and games in the morning i was unable to find time to grab any breakfast. However the cafe at Worksop station came to my rescue. A large sausage cob and a cup of tea came in at £3.40 and was just what the doctor ordered. I can thoroughly recommend it to one and all. And best of all? I managed not to get any red sauce on my white Nottingham Panthers Jersey. The day was starting to look up already.

The train journey from Worksop to Nottingham was pretty uneventful. I arrived in Nottingham at just before 12.45 so i had plenty of time to kill. Today i had a range of games i could have attended. All of the riverside three were at home. (Dunkirk, Pelican and Greenwood Meadows) Elsewhere in the City, Hucknall, Carlton and Eastwood were all also at home. As its international weekend Nottingham Forest were without a game. Notts County were at home however as they hosted Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup first round and had dropped admission prices to try to get the floating fans in. Apart from London is there anywhere else in England where you have such a range of games to attend in such a small radius? Isn't Nottingham bloody brilliant?!
The best pub near the train station and the bus stop I required for my journey, in my humble view, is the "Canalside" so i headed straight over to it. At first it was fairly quiet but after about 20 minutes or so the pub was invaded by a "Real ale tour" from Birmingham. Cue lots of strange folk taking pictures of the pub and much intense discussion on the quality of ale and quirkiness of the pub. My first thoughts was what a sad group of people but then again i suppose some folk would think watching a step 6 non league football match in the middle of November is a touch on the strange side, 'each to there own i suppose' i thought as i supped my lager watching the Grand Prix qualifying.

Last time I was out this way I went to watch Dunkirk, last time I got my timing all wrong and only just arrived in time for the kick off. This time i wanted to arrive a bit earlier to chill out and sample the pre match atmosphere. Unlike the last time i didn't have to wait to long for the number 48 bus to Clifton and i alighted at the Clifton bridge north stop at about 1.50pm. There aren't any pubs anywhere near the ground so i hoped that the ground was open as the clubhouse is inside the turnstiles. As i made my way up to the ground i passed Bilborough Pelicans ground which showed few signs of life despite them being at home today.

As i approached Greenwood Meadows' ground i could see that there was already a game going on on the pitch. There didn't seem to be a great deal of life at the turnstile but soon enough a chap did appear to take my money and let me into the ground. Today it was £5 which is the same as step 5 Dunkirk just up the road. As you go into the ground the clubhouse is just infront of you and is elevated. There was a decent crowd in watching the youth game going on but i headed straight for the warmth of the clubhouse and a nice chill out.

Things got even better when i was able to get a pint and a club pin badge for less that a fiver. Horse racing was on the telly and all was well in the world. I decided to have a quick look outside at the ground and saw that the programmes had just arrived. I had read on various non league forums that due to low crowds Greenwood don't print to many programmes and it can be quite tough to get hold of one so it was a relief to bag one. If i visit a ground i have already been to i am not too bothered about getting a programme but i do like to get one from new grounds i visit.

Roll up Roll up!

A couple of things strike you in the clubhouse. Firstly the club is obviously home to a country and western club or something, pictures of various country and western nights, Jack Daniels posters and the "Stars and Bars" flag all grace one corner of the building. The second is the clubs youth programme. Various youth league tables are pinned up on the walls and with most of the Greenwood sides being at the top ends of the tables. The food hut was doing a roaring trade as the youth players and their family's grabbed a bite to eat following the completion of their match. Much as i was tempted i didn't try any of the tucker as i didn't want to spoil my Kebab meat and chips before the hockey later on. I finished my pint and headed out to get some snaps of the stadium.

There are two covered stands and they are both on the same side of the pitch. Firstly you come to a covered stand that has a single long wooden bench in for seating. It may not be much but it gives plenty of cover and is tastefully painted in the club colours of dark green and white.

After this stand you come to the two dugouts again painted in green. They are a decent enough size as dugouts go i suppose. After the dugouts you come to the second covered stand which has about 30 blue plastic tip up seats in two rows fully covered and a small disabled section at the near end. Again the stand is fully covered and gives the best view of the action in the ground. There is hard standing around three sides of the ground with only the end nearest the clubhouse being off limits to spectators. All in all the ground is basic but is adequate for the clubs needs at this moment although there is plenty of room around the pitch if they want to expand.

Dugouts

However i get the feeling that expansion isn't on the clubs mind at the moment. Looking at stats on websites and local papers it seems that Greenwood Meadows struggle to draw the crowds in. A point backed up by the fact that with just over 20 minutes to go till kick off i seemed to be the only paying person in the ground. As kick off approached a few more had come into the ground. The official attendance was given out at halftime as 12 (twelve) I am pretty sure that this is the lowest first team crowd i have ever been at. And of that number i would say that well over half had travelled with the visitors.
On the field things aren't going much better either as before kick off Greenwood sat bottom of the table with only two wins and seven points gained so far this season. The visitors from Leciestershire weren't that better off with only three wins and 13 points on the board. On paper it didn't look like being a classic and unfortunately that's the way it turned out. Before the game both teams underwent pretty tough warm ups and i got the impression that both saw this match as a chance to kick start their seasons and push up the table.

I stayed in the stand till just after the handshakes and kick off then took a stroll around the ground to take a few snaps of the ground and action on the pitch. The pitch itself was a tad cut up from the previous match which made passing football and controlling the football pretty tough. With all this its not surprising that both sides looked to play the ball long quite often. Ibstock started the game the better but failed to force the home keeper into many saves. Greenwood rallied a bit but most of the game were bogged down in midfield. It was the hosts who had the best chance of the game when they hit the post with a header at the clubhouse end. As halftime approached i trudged back round to the clubhouse for a pint and to get warm. I had a brief chat to the chap behind the bar about the match and we both agreed that it was a poor match between two poor sides and that it had 0-0 written all over it. Just as we said that i saw out the window that Ibstock did have the ball in the back of the net but it was ruled out for offside.
HT 0-0

The clubhouse end

As i supped my pint at half time i had a flick through the match programme. Again the youth side of the club takes centre stage with plenty of league tables and team pictures. The programme may not win any awards but it does the job. With gates like 12 its not surprising that the programme isn't one of the biggest issues in the league. The chairman's quiz is a nice feature however.

At halftime i made a quick call to Baz who was watching Retford United take on Scarborough (AKA the all Red Rudi funk express) At Cannon Park it was also goalless but i would imagine that it was a hell of alot better than the fare on offer here. The players were a little late taking the field for the second half which gave me more time to gulp down my last pint. I trudged over to the seated stand to take in the second half and hoped that it got better.

In all fairness the game did pick up in the second half. Both sides started to try and get the ball down and play and the game opened up. As the game went on it started to get a bit niggley with both sides giving away free kicks. With about ten minutes to go and with the home side on the front foot a 50/50 challenge from a home player brought on a scuffle for which a player from each side was booked. It would have been easy for the ref to lose the game but despite what a couple of Ibstock followers thought i think he got it just about right when he booked a player from each side. Although the ref looked like he could handle himself and had a good game his two assistants were quite young and maybe didn't have the conviction that they should have had at certain incidents.
A minute or so from the end Greenwood were reduced to ten men when their number 10 picked up a second yellow. For once i was stood quite near the incident and it looked harsh to me. Fair play to the lad and the Greenwood bench who took it on the chin. As he walked past me you could tell that he was gutted. Had he not been already booked i doubt the ref would have shown him the yellow again.

From the resulting free kick Ibstock fired it towards the back post and it was headed home. Ibstock celebrated as if they had won the league while the Greenwood players looked well and truly gutted. Football can be a cruel game at times and it was hard not to feel sorry for Greenwood. Yes they had been short of quality but they had run their socks off in the second half. Ibstock added another with the last attack of the game to give the scoreline a one sided look. Fair play to the visitors who took their chances well but the result doesn't tell the full story in my view. I am sure that if Greenwood Meadows continue to plug away results will pick up. If only they could get a few more through the turnstiles. The club seems to be thriving at youth level, lets just hope some of that rubs off on the first team, and the club gets a slice of luck because they didn't get any today.
After the final whistle it was back into the centre of Nottingham for Ice Hockey!
To be continued as they say.

It would appear the ability to read is lacking in Ibstock

Lincoln City 2-1 Barrow AFC

2011-11-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

Today we needed to see a response from the club, players and the fans. After the cup defeat at the hands of Alfreton Town on Tuesday night morale amongst Lincoln fans has really hit an all time low. The news that the club is looking at another round of redundancies amongst non playing staff due to the the poor financial situation has also cast a long shadow over Sincil Bank this week. After every defeat we keep asking ourselves have we hit rock bottom yet and just when we think we have, we manage to sink to a new low.

I spent the morning of the match in the centre of Lincoln helping to promote a newish Taekwondo school that has just opened in Lincoln. Well when i say promoting it i stood there holding up a huge placard and handing out free lesson vouchers to the good folk of Lincoln. If there are any Lincoln based people reading this and are looking to get fit, learn self defence or just try a new sport then Lincoln Taekwondo is just the thing for you. Master Simon Stockdale runs the classes at the Strike zone Dojang on at 45-48 croft street on Monday nights from 6.30-7.45 pm. There is a good number of black belts so good tuition is guaranteed all for only £5 a lesson. There is also a very good chance you will see the scribe of the humble blog training there as I look to get my martial arts career back on track after a two year break. If you want anymore information then just check out the website here. And remember you are never to old to start!

Myself when i was slightly slimmer, fitter, quicker etc etc

After a couple of hours of that lark it was off down to Sincil Bank, via McDoanlds to pick up the Imps 3rd kit. I won't be wearing it for a while though, as it is to be a Christmas present but I wanted to make sure I bagged one of the "limited edition" shirts before they sold out. It is actually one of the smartest shirts we have had for a while. For those who haven't seen it it is the same design as the home kit but in blue and black so not only do Lincoln have the same kit suppliers as the great Inter Milan but we also have the same colour combination and yes Inter are having a crap season in the league as well! I am not sure how many games we will actually wear the shirt in though as I can't think of a team that our green and white hooped shirt would clash with. Which makes you wonder why the club released it in the first place. For me the fact that I can purchase another Lincoln City strip; giving the club much needed revenue, and not look like a Celtic fan is good enough reason for me. This is the third time on the trot that the third shirts are better than the away kits in my view. I have got one of last season's red third kits that the club auctioned off on Ebay. None were available for sale and only about 40 were made. And the player whose shirt I have? None other that the Lincoln legend that is Shane Clarke. I have never wore the shirt out as I don't want to risk damaging such a rare item. Not to sure if the value will rocket up over the years but its still a nice shirt.

After I collected the shirt I took a walk back up the high street to the George and Dragon and had a couple of pints watching the Newcastle v Everton match on the TV. Then i had a couple more in the trust suite. A good number of Barrow fans had made the long journey down for the match and they seemed in good spirits. One person who hadn't made the trip however was Baz who was enjoying a trip down to Legoland. Whether this is a good enough reason to miss an Imps match will be decided by the Retford Imps judge and jury panel on our next away match. (Or the kangaroo court as Baz calls it.)

Fancy joining us at football Darth Oxby?

One ray of light at Sincil Bank over the past few days has been the transfer dealing of Imps manager David Holdsworth. Goalkeeper Paul Farman has arrived on loan from Gateshead and winger Conal Platt has joined on loan from Cambridge United. Both have signed till January the 1st. Former Sheffield Wednesday, Hull City and Scunthorpe United Centre back Richard Hinds has penned deal till the end of the season. All three were in the starting line up and all three performed very well.

I know its very early days but David Holdsworth does appear to very well organised and prepares his side very well. Two things that have been in very short supply in recent years. The manager had the squad training on the pitch at 12.30pm practicing set plays both for and against and other drills. He had also set new standards for the players codes of conduct. Players now have to wear suits on matchday instead of tracksuits and have been banned from "tweeting" and wearing headphones on matchday. David Holdsworth has come across as a disciplinarian who wont put up with any crap. All of this is most welcome and something we have badly lacked. It all brings back memories of how John Beck went about his work. And he didn't turn out to bad for us did he?

Holker Street. Home of AFC Barrow

It wasn't too long ago that we played the reverse fixture in Barrow when they defeated us 1-0 on a cold Tuesday night. On that night they looked a well organised side but didn't have much of a cutting edge.
Lincoln started this game brightly and were quick out of the blocks. Lincoln were actually playing with a confidence which belied our lowly league position.
City opened the scoring in the 20th minute when new boy Platt played a great through-ball on the ground which Sam Smith got on the end of and knocked it pass the advancing keeper. Two minutes later Lincoln doubled the lead when Hurst in the Barrow goal half cleared a John Nutter cross, it fell to Jean Francois Christophe who chipped home a great effort from 25 yards out. All of a sudden the doom around the Bank was lifted. I was texting Baz down at Lego land and his reaction to missing what was turning out to be a good Lincoln performance? Short but sweet "FFS!"
City kept up the tempo and dominated most of the first half. Barrow didn't create much and Lincoln with Hinds marshalling the back line looked alot more solid from set plays which has been our weak spot for a number of years.
HT 2-0
Although City didn't quite match their first half performance they still looked the more likely to score. Smith, Perry and Platt all had decent efforts saved. Lincoln's cause wasn't being helped much by the ref. I don't normally criticise refs but City had three decent shouts for a penalty turned down. In the last 15 minutes or so Lincoln started to tire and Barrow came into it a little more. It was a bit of a surprise when the board showed 5 minutes were to be added at the end. Barrow scored in the 4th minute of this when a free kick was pumped into the box brought down and finished well by Mike Person. This kept up Barrow's record of scoring in every match they have played this season.
FT 2-1

In my humble view 2-1 doesn't really tell the full story. I haven't been able to say this much but City played really well today. All three new faces fitted in well and we looked more likely to score that we have for much of the season. I know it doesn't really say much but i feel that this is the best we have played this season and i left the ground felling better than i have done for a long while.
The over the last few years we have had Peter Jackson who maybe sometimes over hyped things in his post match interviews, Chris Sutton whose post match reaction sent you to sleep. Then we had Steve Tilson who to be blunt, talked a load of bollocks. Therefore its both pleasant and refreshing to hear Mr Holdsworth's post match views. Again it is early days but he does appear to talk sense compared to what we have had to put up with recently. He made the point that the players need to be fitter and sharper. City don't have a game next week so in his words the players will "Learn how to be fit" Its obviously not a great thing to be out of the cup but at least we are going to be using the time off to good effect.

After a good Lincoln performance i decided to celebrate long and hard into the night. I dont know how my bladder would cope if City went on a decent run. I really need to have a word with myself because i dont want to feel as rough as i did this morning and last night. Its also not a great idea to spent £5 on a large mixed kebab only to go and spew it up half an hour later in the bathroom.
I was highly delighted to see Terry Flemming win the manager of the month this week. So much so that i decided to phone Gav to tell him the good news; at about 12.40 in the morning, sorry about that mate. I really do need to have a word with myself. :-p

Terry Flemming. Evo stick South manager of the month for October.

Adams sporting world results

Lincoln City 2-1 Barrow AFC

Genoa p-p Inter Milan

(Due to flooding in Genoa)

Hall road Rangers 1-2 Retford United

Cardiff Devils 3-1 Nottingham Panthers

Nottingham Panthers 3-2 Fife Flyers (Shoot Out win)

Pittsburgh Steelers 20- 23 Baltimore Ravens

Frickley Athletic 1-1 Buxton FC

2011-11-04T12:31:00.000-07:00

A trip to one of my favourite non league grounds was on the agenda for tonight. An Evo Stick premier division match (Step 3) between Frickley Athletic and Buxton. Having already watched Lincoln play Alfreton twice in the past few weeks i knew i wouldn't be missing much and given our crappy FA Cup record i thought it would be a wise move to pass on it. I will be back at the "Bank" on Saturday as Barrow come to town.

Frickley play in South Emsall in South Yorkshire. The ground may not be in the nicest part of the town but it does have bags of character. Its a real old fashioned non league ground. Last season the club celebrated its centenary season and had this mural painted inside the ground to recognise it.

Tonight's admission was a very reasonable £8 and a further £1.50 for the programme. As its a club i like i even shelled out for a 50/50 ticket. The bar at Frickley is situated inside the ground, just to the right of the turnstiles as you enter. We had a nice pre match pint in there and the bar had a good number of both home and away fans in supping.
On paper the game didn't look like a classic. Frickley were 17th in the table with Buxton a place behind in 18th. We watched the match from the top of the Impressive main stand which gives you a pretty decent view of the action. The seats are all of the wooden bench style but cushions are available on request from the back of the stand. Former Imp Ollie Ryan (who has just returned from two months out with an injury) was playing up front for the hosts while Buxton also had former Imps in the squad in the form of Martin Pembleton and Spencer Weir-Daley.

To be honest for the most part this was a poor game. Frickley missed a good chance in the opening minute and were made to pay for this on 8 minutes when Mark Reed rose unchallenged to head home a corner for Buxton. What was especially disappointing about the goal from Frickley's point of view was the fact that Buxton had tried a pretty much identical corner routine just moments before which they failed to deal with convincingly. This was also the 100th goal i have seen this season so to honour this fact i treated myself to a chip buttie from the snap hut for £1.50. And very nice it was too!
The goal seemed to settle Buxton down and it was they that played the better football. There wasn't a huge amount of passing football going on but what there was was being played by the visitors. Frickley's best moments came from the runs made by Ollie Ryan but they struggled to created any clear cut chances.

I checked out the clubshop at halftime which has a pretty impressive collection of programmes from league and non league clubs. There is a good range with quite a few Doncaster Rovers issues. Looking back through the programmes there are a few from the mid 80's; a time when Frickley were in the Gola League, the fore runner to the current Blue Square Premier division. I would say that Frickley's Tech5 Stadium is way better than grounds like Braintree and Alfreton. Will they ever get back to that level again?

The second half was worse than the first. It never really got going and it looked like the game was petering out until Mark Gray smashed home a quality finish from just outside the box and beat the Buxton keeper with sheer power. It was the only moment of real quality in the entire match.
After the goal both sides had chances to win it but a draw was a fair result in the end. On the way back our A1 curse raised its head again as we discovered that it was shut and thus had the pleasure of traveling back through the centre of Doncaster.

Elsewhere it was a dreadful night for Lincoln City. After going 1-0 up we somehow managed to piss it away and lost 1-2 at home in the FA Cup reply to Alfreton Town. This means that the name of Lincoln City Football Club will not be in the first round of the FA cup for the first time since the 1924/25 season.

This means the the Imps have a week off next Saturday. (Some would say we have been off for about 4 seasons now) Knowing LCFC as i do i had planned for this eventuality. Next Saturday i will again have another sporting day in Nottingham with Greenwood Meadows v Ilsbrook United in the afternoon followed by the biggest match in British Ice Hockey in the evening. The Nottingham Panthers v Sheffield Steelers. And the best thing about it? Lincoln aren't playing so they can't darken my mood by losing! Ever cloud has a silver lining and all that.

The next new ground for the Mind of an Imp blog.

Alfreton Town 1-1 Lincoln City

2011-10-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

Big day for the Imps today. Not only was it the 4th qualifying round of the FA cup but it was also the first game for new Imps manager David Holdsworth. He was appointed on Monday on a contract till the end of the season and has been tasked with guiding the Imps to a safe mid table position.

Many Imps fans were surprised and disappointed when he got the gig. He wasn't my choice for the job but was far from the worst candidate for the job in my eyes. After a time to reflect on it he ticks all the boxes on the board's check list. In my view the most important thing we needed was experience at working at Blue Square prem level. Mr Holdsworth has this from his time at Mansfield Town and has worked at the level below with Ilkeston Town. He guided the Stags to finishes of 9th and 12th in his time there, something we would gladly take now given our position in the league at the moment. A few eyebrows have been raised about the large number of signings he made at Mansfield but given that cash is a tad tight at Sincil Bank at the moment i don't think he will have that problem here anytime soon. After hearing his press conferences and seeing the way he conducted himself in his first match i am starting to believe that the chap could well be just what we need at the moment. Yes anybody can talk a good game, but our last two managers have struggled to even do that.

Good luck David you are going to need it.

Ok today's match. At stake for the winner a £12,000 prize and a place in the first round proper of the FA Cup alongside the footballing heavy weights of Macclesfield, Accrington, Barnet, and Sheffield Wednesday. For the losers, a weekend off in a couple of weeks and a chance to wheel out the old cliches of "Now we can concentrate on the League" and "I would rather have three points" blah blah blah (and a chance to get a random game in ground-hopping in the instance of nothing else better to do)

Given that this was the start of a new era and the FA cup first round proper was at stake, what Imps fan could resist the temptation of this match? Answer one that is ~~under the thumb~~ away on a family day in Blackpool. It would have been very interesting had we drawn Fleetwood away!

Alfreton isn't too bad of a draw. It's fairly local and they sit only a couple of places below the Imps in the table. It was only 18 days ago that we were here for a league match and came away with a fine 1-3 victory. There was certainly a lot of worse draws we could have been handed. Having only been here a couple of weeks ago i was able to get us straight to the ground without any trouble at all and got the motor parked up a mere guinea pigs' goal kick away from the away turnstiles. Even though it was just after 2.00pm there were a good number of Lincoln fans milling around along with a good showing from the Derbyshire constabulary. We walked up to a dodgy looking shop at the end of the road then headed into the "Impact Arena"

Welcome to the "Impact Arena"

Just as the other week it was £13 quid for the pleasure of watching the match and £2.50 for the programme. The disappointing thing for me was the fact that Alfreton had again only opened up a small area of the away terrace for the City fans despite the good away following the Imps had brought here recently. This meant that once again it was almost impossible for most City fans to get a decent view. On the plus side though it wasn't raining. I can forgive a club for underestimating the number of away fans once but twice in two weeks is a poor show in my opinion. I realise that this is there first time they have played at this level for a while but they really need to start improving certain things. It's not as if they are packing the ground out week in week out and can't afford to give away fans any more stadium room is it? The stand is divided into three pens and i can't think of another ground that still has this kind of segregation any more (i am sure there must be one somewhere). Its a real throw back to the 80's, along with Liverpool winning things, Big hair, high heels with tracksuit bottoms, and Baz and Felice's slip on shoes and white socks. I don't like be critical of clubs especially at this level but on this occasion i feel its warranted. (So there!)

We didn't go to the chip shop this time and headed like bats out of hell over to the food hut. I must say that the range of snap on offer was most impressive and it all looked pretty tasty. In the end i went for the Cheeseburger and chips option for £4.20 which i thoroughly enjoyed. The cheese was nicely melted onto the burger and not just thrown on before being served up. The chips were a tad on the greasy side but a solid effort on the food front and an 8/10 overall. The pies and pasties did look nice as well, but i didn't hear any reports of their quality.

After snapping up i had a quick flick through the rather average programme. Over the two issues i had read I've only really been impressed with the column penned by the Alfreton Town FC chairman Mr Wayne Bradley (the rest of the program is distinctly average!). He seems to be of the very rare breed of football chairman who talks a great deal of sense. At the first game i felt he was spot on about clubs spending what they can afford, and in today's column he refused to blame the ref for the recent defeat at Mansfield laying the blame firmly at the feet of the players. If we had more chairman like him at the top level of the English game instead of the cowboys at the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Blackburn etc, then maybe, just maybe, the game wouldn't be dying on its arse. I get the impression that even if Alfreton are relegated at the end of the season the club will be in a stable place financially and be able to bounce back. Sensible spending seems the order of the day here.

Also impressive was the warm up that the Imps players were undergoing. There has been a lot of speculation amongst Imps supporters as to who will be David Holdsworth's number two or even if he will have one. Today he was helped out by former Forest player Gary Charles and former Hull City and Grimsby player and ex boxer Curtis Woodhouse. DH, sharp suit and all, was also heavily involved in the warm up and took a special interest in working with the back four and watching their drills very carefully. After the laid back style of Tilson and Brush this made a refreshing change. DH also went round to each player; wishing them well. Indeed there seemed to be a fair bit of back slapping and high fives going on between the players and staff. It was certainly one of the most structured warm ups i have seen in a while. Since the John Beck days in fact.

This being the FA cup clubs are allowed to field 7 subs. Alfreton have a bit of an injury crisis at the moment and were only able to name two subs. Lincoln named a full bench with injury casualties Josh Gowling and Francis Laurent among the subs. The latter making his first appearance of the season. It was a new formation for the Imps today with DH going for a 4-1-4-1 line up with Sam Smith as the lone striker. Off the pitch it was a great turn out off Imps fans and there seemed alot more than made the first trip over here.

Lincoln got off to a great start when Nicky Nicolau crossed in for Sam Smith to head home his third goal against the reds this season from close range in the tenth minute. Lincoln looked in control for much of the first half with the home side reduced to long range efforts and set plays. However the game turned on its head in the 40th minute when in a moment of madness Imps keeper Joe Anyon collected the ball just ahead of the on rushing Alfreton player Chris Senior. What happen next was unclear to the Imps fans as we were at the other end of the ground but it appears that Anyon pushed him which lead the the Alfreton players surrounding the ref. The ref then consulted with her assistant then showed Anyon the red card, gave the home side a penalty, and handed them a way back into the match.

As City now had no keeper, an outfield player had to be sacrificed in order to allow sub goal keeper 17 year old Nick Draper to come on and make his first team debut. Simon Russell being the player to make way. Now if this was Roy of the Rovers then young Draper would have pulled off a fantastic save from the penalty and seen us through to the first round of the cup. But as this is Lincoln City however he was sent the wrong was and Alferton were level having barely troubled the Imps in the first half at all. Its a funny old game as they say.

There was also movement off the pitch as halfway through the first half the stewards decided that instead of having folks stood in the gangways they would open up a second pen for the Imps fans. As soon as it was opened up i scurried into it. The view was slightly better. In fact i got a perfect view of the home side’s equaliser.

HT 1-1

All of a sudden the game had a totally different outlook. Had we been offered a replay i am sure we would have taken it. I would also expected the home side to throw everything they had at us. Over the years i had rarely known City survive in such circumstances. Given the situation we were in it wasn't surprising that we werent throwing bodies forward at every opportunity but nor did we look under a huge amount of pressure at the back. As the game wore on the home side had more of the play but Draper was only forced into one decent save and cleared his lines well and collected what few crosses Alfreton threw into the box. The home side then happened upon a really good chance that they blasted over following a shot that hit the far post, but City deserved to have a bit of luck. With about five minutes to go we got our first look at French winger Francis Laurent who although looked a little rusty made a couple of decent runs down the right. When he gets a bit more match fitness under his belt we could have a decent player here. The main fireworks came off the pitch as sections of the home and away support tried to get at each other but were kept apart from each other by the old bill and a group of furry crocodiles. (Police dogs)

FT 1-1

At the end of the match it was great to see DH and the players all come over and applaud the City travelling support. We managed to pick up BBC Radio Lincolnshire on the way back and got the impression that the ref had made the correct call over the sending off and that Anyon had been a tad foolish. David Holdsworth seemed to agree with this but overall he like us was impressed with the work rate of the City team. I know its very early days but it does seem as if DH has good PR skills and appreciates the fans something the last two Lincoln City managers never quite got. The only downside of picking up BBC Lincs was the fact that we got to hear Scott Dalton commentate on a very lucky last minute equaliser for Boston United.

The upshot of all this is that City now face a quick turn around as the replay will take place at Sincil Bank this coming Tuesday night with a 7.45 Kick off. Admission is a bargain £10

Great turnout by the City fans

And the prize to the winner, ~~a chance to get thumped at home by league one play off chasers Carlisle United~~ A mouth watering home clash with Carlisle United in a couple of weeks time. The side that i watched Lincoln City take on in 1994 in my first ever Lincoln game. It finished 1-1 Gary Bannister with the Imps goal.

Some things you just never forget.

Nottingham Panthers 6-0 Dundee Stars

2011-10-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

I have been on a bit of a football diet over the last week or so. Last weekend i swapped my footie shirt, jeans and jacket for a suit, shirt, tie and winkle picker shoes and headed off to Doncaster races for an old friend's stag do. Naturally as a Lincoln City fan my luck ran true to form and I won sod all but it was still an enjoyable day out and something i will definitely look to do again in the future. I didn't miss a Lincoln game as we had got stuffed 2-0 at Cambridge United on the Friday night.

Nor did i take in a footy game midweek. Instead i took in the Nottingham Panthers match with the Dundee Stars at the NIC. The Nottingham Panthers have had a great start to the season and before face off sat in 2nd place in the Elite League standings behind the league leaders the Belfast Giants. As with football we have a pre match routine on hockey nights. The fact that we arrived a 3 and a half hours before face off allowed us to extend the drinking period in the Pit and Pendulum with was all decked out in crappy Halloween decorations.

After a small but respectable win on the football quiz machine we had the misfortune to encounter a freak called Timmy who was wearing a New England Patriots jacket and rambling on about the GMB (The main sponsor on the Panthers' Jersey) He seemed to take a bit of a shine to my worst half so, as Harry Hill would say, we made our excuses and left to make our merry way over to the lace market fish bar for a pre match bite to eat. As normal i went for the kebab meat and chips with chilli and garlic which was delicious. Normally the shop is full of Panthers fans but today it seemed fairly quiet.

The NIC (National Ice Centre) is the largest arena in the league which is fitting as the Panthers draw the largest crowds in the league. The NIC also a major concert venue for the East Midlands with everything from the Saturdays to the WWE stopping off here on tour. Its good to see that Nottingham still draws in the big acts. Its even better to see that Bill Bailey is soon going to return to Nottingham and not let his experience of a drunken Retfordian in the curry house on his last tour put him off. A lads night in Nottingham when he returns messrs Brown and Binks?

Dundee have improved a lot since last season. About the same time last year we watched them get blasted 11-2 in Nottingham after going 6-0 down in the first period. The sides have only met once so far this season, in Dundee with Nottingham running out 4-1 winners. Last weekend Dundee managed to lose three games in three Counties in three days when they lost in Belfast,Cardiff, and at home in Dundee. Its a seven hour plus trip from Dundee to Nottingham but still about a dozen hardy souls made the trip down. I tip my hat to each and every one of them. They made a decent amount of noise as well. We have made some long range midweek trips with Lincoln but nothing like that.
Photography is banned in NIC (boo!) so i apologise for the lack of pics inside the arena. One thing to bear in mind with Ice Hockey games is that they vary rarely face off on time due to the amount of faffing about they do pre game; introducing the teams, the mascot, playing the British national anthem etc. The puck is always dropped by a celebrity with Notts County manager Martin "Mad dog" Allen performing the duty tonight.

The game was quite tight in the first period but it did seem to flow quite well with Nottingham looking to get forward and the Stars happy to hit them on the break. Nottingham opened the scoring when they only had four outfield players on the ice (and one in the sin bin) when Matt Francis scored with a great run and hit it into the roof of the net.
It was much the same in the second period when for all their dominance the Panthers could only add one further goal from Brandon Benedict when he scored with a low backhand goal. Notts had hit the pipework a few times and had had a number of chances to add to the score but fluffed them. Dundee chances had been few and far between but it only takes a second to score a goal and change the game.

Dundee had been well organised for much of the game but conceded four goals in 4 crazy third period minutes when Scott Champagne, David-Alexandre Beauregard, Matt Francis, and Marc Levers all found the back of the net to give the scoreline a very one sided look. Although Dundee didn't have many efforts, what they did have were all stopped by "K-WALL" in the Panthers goal who once again showed his class with a third consecutive home shut out.
The only slightly disappointing thing about the game was the crowd which was the lowest i have every seen at a Panthers game. But with it being midweek and with a big home game against Belfast at the weekend i suppose it was to be expected (even so about 3500 was quoted as the attendance).
The following evening we had a night around Nottingham visiting various public houses and bars. Bargain of the night had to be the six flavoured shots of vodka for £10 in Vodka Revolution.

And of course no night out in Nottingham is complete without a curry at the Mogal-E-Azam curry house and a piping hot Chicken tikka vindaloo. This is one of my favourite curry houses in the country and the one where I had the hottest curry i have ever had back in 2005. It is also infamous for warm Guinness, Bombay mix getting spilt everywhere and international comedy stars getting served before three drunken fools from Retford. Although one of them was perhaps a tad more drunk than the others ;-)

Cups cups cups

2011-10-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

The FA Cup draw was done on Monday and has handed the Imps an away day at Alferton Town. The same place we visited only last Tuesday. Oh the joys. Lets hope it isn't pissing down with rain this time and we get a simlaer result to the one we gained last time. This should also be the new Lincoln City managers first match so we should see a decent turnout of Imps fans make the short journey over to Derbyshire.

Nottingham senior cup 2nd round draw

The battle for the Nottinghamshire senior cup has reached the 2nd round stage and there are some positively mouthwatering clashes in store. All the clubs involved are either at step 7 or play in the NSL. A win here could give them a tie against one of the seeded sides in the third round when the big guns of Nottinghamshire football enter. (All sides from step 6-2) NSL side Wollaton are also seeded due to there run in the competition last season.

2nd round draw

Thoresby Colliery Welfare v Gedling Southbank

Baseford United Attenborough

Notts police v Newark Town

Southwell City v Clifton

Sutton Town AFC V Clipstone Welfare

Bilborough Pelican v Hucknall Rolls Leisure

Ties to be played on 19-11-11. Advisable to check kick off times before you travel.

Lincoln City 1-1 Mansfield Town

2011-10-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

The weekend

I did see two games at the weekend but both were pretty poor (hence no blog posts). I wasn't too surprised that Lincoln went down to BSP big spenders Fleetwood town on Friday night. We went in 1-0 at halftime but our normal defensive gaffs cost us in the second half as Fleetwood ran in three goals that were all pretty similar. Anyon saved the first effort only for an on rushing Fleetwood attacker to be first to the ball with the Lincoln defence AWOL.

Then on Saturday we made the short trip to Cannon park to take in Retford United's match with Maltby Main. This in my view was the worse non Lincoln game i have seen this season. Neither side managed to string more than 3 passes together and the ball spent about 80% of the time in the air. Once again Retford, who can play good football when they want to, were dragged down to their opponents level. In the end the badgers did win thanks to a last minute deflected own goal. They didn't really deserve to win but i will take the three points.

As i have visited both Sincil Bank and Cannon park quite a lot this season i didn't bother with a full winded blog. Anyway you really didn't miss much. Longer blog posts will be back in the very near future.

Lincoln City 1-1 Mansfield Town

The first local derby game of the season, and a game i always look forward to. Mansfield is my most visited away game as an Imps fan and was the location for my first ever Lincoln City away game way back in October 1995 when we won 2-1 with goals from Gareth Ainsworth and Steve Holmes. There were also two sending offs in that game and both managers were also sent to the stands. Somebody should have told me there and then that away games aren't always that exciting.

Over the years i have experienced pretty much every kind of result and performance against the Stags ranging from the dreadful 1-4 home kicking they gave us in 00/01, through to Gisbert Bos scoring the best City goal i have ever seen in 95/96. Over the years things have been pretty even between the clubs when we have met but the one thing you can say about most of the games is that they are never dull with goals a plenty.

This time round Mansfield have got off to a decent enough start and arrived at Sincil Bank just outside of the playoffs and were fancied to do well following their appearance in the FA Trophy final last season and considering their player recruitment over the summer. Earlier in the season they recorded an impressive run of five wins on the spin but have stuttered a little of late. Like the Imps they came into this match on the back of a 1-3 home defeat and were looking to get back on track. On paper a game against a side in the bottom four and without a manager looked like an ideal opportunity to do just that. Much as i wanted City to win (as always) i must admit i had a feeling in my gut that we weren't going to. Mansfield have some good attacking players and haven't been short of goals this season and we all know what Lincoln's defence has been like of late aka shite.

Apart from the obvious on going situation with the vacant managerial position the other topic that has been discussed by City fans of late is the home attendances. Tonight was one our best attendances of the season but that was only due to the fact that Mansfield brought over 900 with them leaving just about 2000 City fans. Now there is two ways of looking at this. Compared to last season it is pretty crap, but if you take into account that last month we only had 1500 home fans for the Gateshead home match then you could make the case that people are slowly coming back now that Tilson has departed. I think we all accept that crowds are poor at the moment and bridges need to be rebuilt with the fan base after 4 poor seasons on the pitch. There are fans out there, look at the Aldershot crowd for the last game of last season, but it will be a tough sell to get those disillusioned fans back on board.
The Stags lined up with a couple of former Lincoln players in their ranks. I think its fair to say we never got a chance to see the best/worst of Paul Conner as he spent much of his time at Lincoln on the treatment table. But he seems to have got his career back on track in Mansfield and has scored his fair share of goals. In goal the Stags had former long time Imp Alan Marriot who spent 9 seasons with Lincoln before being released by Peter Jackson. As is fitting for a player who has spent such along time with the club he got a decent reception from the Stacey West end at the start of the second half. In my view Marriot was a decent enough lower league keeper. Yes he won us some games single handedly but he also made his fair share of gaffs. You could never fault his commitment to the cause though. I wouldn't say he was the best City keeper i have seen; that honour falls to Barry Richardson. But he will always be remembered for being a good club man, and how often to players stay at one club for nine years these days?

Signed Alan Marriot picture taken in our 5-0 win over Grimsby in
2005/06. Hey who's that good looking chap in the stewards jacket on the left?

On to the match. The first half was a close cagey affair but it quickly became apparent that both sides were better at going forward than defending. Karl Cunningham made his home debut and once again impressed the City faithful. Sam Smith was having a steady game for Lincoln leading the line while at the other end Matt Green looked very sharp with much of the stags front play going through him.
Clear cut chances were at a premium however. The nearest we came to a goal came in the 38th minute when Fuseini lost the ball to Lindon Meikle who sent an effort crashing against the inside of the far post with the ball running out to safety. City's best effort had come a few moments earlier when Cunningham headed over and was left totally unmarked in the Stags 6 yard box. Although each side had had a few shots not too many were on target. The half ended goalless, with Mansfield maybe slightly shading it.

The second half was thankfully much better than the first. Mansfield built up a head of steam and had a period when they were pretty much camped in the City half. Joe Anyon made a couple of fantastic saves on the line to keep the score goalless but you got the feeling it was when not if that Mansfield would score. But as football so often does things happen when you least expect it!

A long punt down field from Anyon was collected by Gavin McCallum who managed to get goal side of the centre back and slam a volley past Marriot into the goal! 1-0 Lincoln in the 76th minute. Although i was pretty chuffed to say the least i also knew that Mansfield would now throw pretty much everything they had at us.

City brought on former Stags fans favourite Kyle Perry and we all hoped that he would do what so many players do and score against his former club. Alas apart from a great run down the left wing following a great piece of skill and turn of pace he never looked like scoring.
A little piece of Lincoln history was also made tonight when Jordan Thomas became the youngest player ever to play for Lincoln city when he replaced Karl Cunningham. Shortly after that Mansfield got the equaliser in the 86th minute when Green fired in from close range; bugger! But it had been coming.
Both sides had half chances to win it but couldn't take them and a draw was a fair result.

Before the match i would have taken a point. We all know that we need to score two goals to win a game these days such is the rarity of clean sheets. In all fairness though the Lincoln defence had one of its better nights, with keeper Jo Anyon being the star of the show. Mitchell Nelson on loan from Bournmouth also impressed me at centre half and is filling the gap left by Josh Gowling as he recovers from injury.
All in all a decent game and a decent point. If you want to read about it from a more Mansfield based source i recommend you check out Mr Rob Waite's excellent 66pow blog

Alfreton Town 1-3 Lincoln City

2011-10-15T02:01:00.000-07:00

Its Autumn. The nights are drawing in, the leaves are falling and Lincoln City have begun there yearly search for (yet another) new manager. Steve Tilson and his assistant Paul Brush got the boot Monday evening with youth team manager Grant Brown taking over as caretaker manager whilst the board hunt high and low for somebody crazy enough to take on the challenge of managing the Imps.
But before the search for a new gaffer starts the small matter of an away match at fellow BSP strugglers and last seasons BSN champions Alfreton Town FC.

Alfreton isn't too far from Retford so it was a short but pleasant journey over to Derbyshire in the Bazmobile. En route we exchanged stories from our various trips over the previous weekend. Baz and the boys had the pleasure, if that's the right way of putting it, of watching Lincoln's 4-0 kicking at Tamworth on Saturday. By the sounds of it i got by far the better the deal by watching Dunkirk FC then the Panthers. Although i did get to miss out on "The Old Bailey boy" and his antics. Although its always an interesting time hunting for a new manager, we were both pissed of at the fact that we find ourselves in this position again. It only seems like 5 minutes since we were looking for a new manager. We seem to change our manager more often than the Sugarbabes change their member line up. This time we have to get it right. Just like the last time and the time before that and the time before that....

Alfreton's ground is quite well hidden but we found it, even if we did take a short detour around the town; checking out the scenery if you will. As we had arrived in plenty of time we managed to bag a prime spot; a mere hop skip and a jump from the away turnstiles. So far so good. The ground is in a natural bowl and from where we parked you got a decent view of the whole stadium.

As neither of us had eaten and with over an hour to go till kick off we decided to have a ferret about and see if we could find anything to stuff our faces with to keep us going till our Kebabs on the way home. After a short walk up the road we spied a chip shop and a chinese so dived in to grab a bag of chips. There was only about 4 people in front of us. Great we thought quick bit of snap then off to the footie.
What we actually found was the chippy with the slowest service in the United Kingdom. We must have been in there about 15 minutes or so. It was also pretty hot in there which isn't ideal when you have a thick padded coat on.
When the chips arrived they were above average although it had started to drizzle when we got outside and as every chip lover knows chips and rain don't mix. So it was a race against time to eat them before the rain soaked them. Yes i did look like a pig eating out of a trough, but downtown Alfreton on a Tuesday night in October isn't the place to be worried about what you look like eating a bag of chips.

On the way to the ground and indeed around the town we had noticed that the local police were out in force. This was a bit of a surprise. Either the rozzers were expecting the Lincoln fans to give Tilson some stick (if he had stayed) Or the club/town/local police were still coming to terms with Alfretons new status in the football pyramid and were unsure as to what numbers away sides would bring this season. As with much in life the answer is probably a bit of both.

Tonight it was 13 quid to get in and for that you got a spot on the uncovered terrace in the corner. Some seating was available for an extra pound along the side of the pitch. A very charming young lady sold me a programme for £2.50. I didn't get a chance to read it though as the drizzle coming down quite steadily now. It wasn't raining heavily and thankfully it wasn't to cold or windy. We hoped that it was just a shower but nope it continued all night long. I believe this is what people call character building. It wasn't too bad though i had my long coat and cap on. Lucky enough i hadn't left my cap in the car. I mean who would do such a foolish thing? Especially if they had been working outside all day cleaning gutters and stuff.. hmmm.

The Impact arena is a basic kind of ground. Opposite us was a small uncovered seating area with covered stands down each touchline. The stand we were in was the largest of the four. The open terrace we were on was split into two sections. We had a small corner with Alfreton getting the other two thirds. A section of Alfreton's side also had a roof over part of it. Which would have come in quite handy on a night like this. The crowd was 1,232 with 410 Imps fans. I am not great at maths but it works out that roughly a third of the total attendance were from Lincoln. Now given this i don't think it would have been unreasonable for us to have the larger section of the terrace. The home fans could go round to which ever stand they wanted to go in and so had plenty of space and cover. I don't like criticising clubs but i do think Alfreton got it wrong this time.
Due to the fence between the sections, the shallow rake in the terrace and the fact that the Lincoln section was quite full a large proportion of the away following couldn't see the near goal.(Myself included)

Wish you were here?

After a bright opening spell from the hosts, Lincoln hit them with a double whammy with two goals from Sam Smith on 11 and 13 minutes. I would love to tell you what they were like but I couldn't see. I did have a great view of Alfretons goal on 18 minutes though. A ball was humped in from about the halfway line and headed home by Paul Clayton.
City's two goal lead was restored 5 minutes later when McCallum latched onto Anyon's long goal kick and struck a great volley home from 20 yards out. I did see the ball leave his boot but didn't see the ball hit the back of the net. But who cares! City had just scored three goals in the first half and i can't remember the last time we had done that. Or even got three goals in a game for that matter.
Apart from the obvious fact that we were 3-1 up, the other plus point of the first half was the performance of young Karl Cunningham who was making his first team debut. I have always been impressed with him whenever i have seen him play for the reserves and he looked right at home playing for the first team. Huge credit must go to Grant Brown for having the balls to give him a first team shirt.

Lincoln kept their hosts at bay for most of the 2nd half restricting Alfreton to chances from set plays. Although as our defence has been dodgy for a couple of years now, i was never totally confident that we would get the win but if anything it was Lincoln who looked like adding to the score.
The final whistle went and you could tell how much it meant to the Lincoln players, staff, and the fans who had endured a soaking on the terrace.
Many more harder challenges await us in the days ahead but lets just enjoy the night shall we?

Dunkirk 1-0 Boldmere St Micheals

2011-10-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today was a chance to kill two birds with one stone. Tick off another Nottinghamshire non league ground in the afternoon then take in our first Nottingham Panthers game in the evening. In fact i could have made it a real sports marathon with the Japanese Grand prix qualifying and Rugby World Cup action in the morning but that would have required me to get up stupidly early so it didn't happen. In the end i didn't miss anything really. Vettel grabbed pole and England bombed out to France in the quarter finals. Same old same old you could say. I decided to watch The Morning line whilst finalising plans for today and drinking a splendid cup of Earl Grey tea.

The plan was to get the 11.03 to Worksop then change and get the 11.38 to Nottingham have a couple of drinks then grab a bus out to The Ron Steels sports ground; home of Dunkirk FC. Unfortunately for the first part of the journey i had the presence of a few Grimsby fans on the train on their way to watch their side lose at Mansfield Town, but the journey after Mansfield was pleasant enough. Which is more than can be said for the weather as it was pissing it down. Oh well it doesn't rain in pubs as they say and from the pictures i had seen Dunkirk had a couple of stands to take cover under.
I got the directions to the ground courtesy of Mr Rob Hornby who told me i needed the 48 bus to Clifton which could be caught from one of the bus stops just a couple of hundred metres for the train station. Another benefit of this bus stop is that it is a mere stones throw away from the Canalhouse bar, so i decided to chill out with a couple of bottles of Brooklyn lager.

I left the pub at just gone 1.40ish thinking i had left plenty of time to get the bus,find the ground and enjoy i pint before the kick off. It was only when i got to the bus stop that my plans started to unravel at a rate of knots.
I as i came out of the pub i saw a 48 bus pull away but i knew that they ran every 10 minutes or so so i wasn't too concerned. It had also stopped raining which was a another plus. However i hadn't factored in the unpredictability of the Nottingham City buses. The next bus just flew straight past even though it was hailed down. So it meant waiting for the next one which arrived at about 2.05. It was a doubledecker so just like an overenthuastic school kid i bombed straight up to the top deck. The bus takes you through the Meadows before heading over to Clifton. I knew i needed the stop before Clifton Bridge and thankfully there is an indicator telling you which stop is next. If it wasn't for this then i could have been well buggered. Its not a long journey on the bus maybe ten minutes or so but it always seems longer when you haven't got a clue where you are going.
After getting off the bus you head through the subway but like a muppet i managed to come out of the wrong exit. The map i had printed out in the morning was pretty useless and i ended up in the middle of an industrial estate. After about 15 minutes of walking (it always seems further when you are wearing a thick ice hockey jersey) in totally the wrong direction i turned back and had another go and instantly worked out where i had goofed. After taking the other exit out of the subway. I saw Old Lenton lane on the other side of the roundabout. If you ever try to find the ground and end up outside car show room selling Ferrari's and the like you are completely in the wrong place.

Sometimes when i am not at Lincoln games i have good choice of games to go to, sometimes i am restricted. Today i had a choice of three matches within about 300 yards of each other as there are three grounds next to each other on Old Lenton Lane. The first ground you pass is that of CML Southern division (Step 7) Bilborough Pelican who were hosting Blidworth Welfare in the Notts senior cup 1st round. Next along is Greenwood Meadows FC of the EMCL (step 6). Who were at home to Anstey Nomads. Then the lane turns to the right you go past a posh looking restaurant on your left hand side and you see The Ron Steel sports ground home of Dunkirk fc who ply their trade in the Midland Football Alliance which is step 5 of the footballing pyramid and on a par with the NCEL Prem which Retford United play in.

I had just about made it in time. Dunkirk's clubhouse and changing area is outside the ground and the players were just coming out to do battle. I paid my £5 at the turnstile and a £1 for the programme. As you enter there is a stand that looks like it is half built immediately to your right hand side.

If you follow the ground round the other covering in the ground is on the far touch line in the form of a large covered standing area and another small seated area. The rest of the ground is uncovered but there is hard standing all around the ground.

There wasn't a huge number of people watching the game which was understandable, what the weather had been like for much of the day. Most of the ground was covered in leaves given that much of the ground is tree lined and that we are now well into Autumn. One more thing to bear in mind is the only toilets in the ground are outside the ground (hope that makes sense) in the clubhouse. From what i have read the positioning of the clubhouse was a major reason as to why the club didn't join the NCEL as the NCEL wouldn't have allowed for a club to have its changing rooms outside the ground.

Looking at the table both sides were locked in lower midtable with only a point separating 13th placed Dunkirk and BSM in 15th, so a tight match looked to be in store and so it ultimately proved to be. It started to look promising when Dunkirk's Craig Meakin beat the offside trap and blasted home in the first minute of the game. The defence complained about the goal but it looked ok to me.
This was the first time that i had ever seen a match in this league so i didn't really know what to expect in terms of quality. The game was quite niggly and littered with free kicks most of which were met by verbals from whichever team conceded the free kick. Dunkirk were playing a high line up the pitch which BSM nearly capitalised on a couple of times but the Dunkirk keeper was alert to the danger. Dunkirk have a skillful front line who made some neat off the ball runs but were at times out-muscled and stopped in their tracks by some crude defending. Neither side created many clear cut chances but the visitors just about shaded the first half in terms of possession. But it's goals that count and Dunkirk had the only one of the first half. Everybody seemed quite friendly and a couple of people came up and asked me how the Panthers were doing this season. As i got to the ground late i decided to check out the clubhouse at halftime.
HT 1-0
Dunkirk's clubhouse has a real football feel to it and i really liked it. There is a hatch selling hot food and drinks and a separate bar that sells beer. At one end of the clubhouse is a large screen that was showing the re-run of the GP qualifying from earlier in the day. Taking pride of place on the walls are framed shirts of former Dunkirk former players who went on to play for Nottingham Forest and Notts County. Wes Morgan and Jake Sheridan.

Also hung on on the walls are pennants form non league football clubs. Spot any familiar ones by any chance?

Although i didn't have a pint, (shock horror!) i did purchase a smart looking pin badge for £3, I then chilled out and read the programme. And what a programme it was. It had plenty of information about Dunkirk and the club's history and aims for the future and as well as a good section on the away side. What i was impressed with the most was the news and round ups from all the other leagues that involve local non league clubs; from step 4 to the NSL, from U19'S to reserves Tables, fixtures, and results it's all in there folks. The editors deserve a huge amount of credit for putting together a great publication and all for a quid. I enjoyed the round up of the Notts intermediate cup first round results; I am both well aware and concerned that that makes me sound rather sad, maybe i need to get out more.

Not having a pint did allow me to be out of the clubhouse in good time for the second half. Lincoln were losing 1-0 at Tamworth, some things never change do they.
The second half continued in pretty much the same vein as the first with the game following very little pattern, being littered with freekicks, and both sets of players complaining about pretty much everything going. Then about halfway through the second half came the talking point of the match. A through ball was played and a Dunkirk player gave chase to it and in doing so collided with the on rushing goalkeeper who gathered the ball but got a clip from the striker in the process. In my view the striker had every right to go for the ball and the contact didn't look that heavy. The BSM keeper saw it totally differently though and when they both got up went head to head with the Dunkirk striker and appeared to butt him a couple of times. I do have to say though that i was stood behind the incident so i couldn't totally judge how much contact there was but there certainly seemed to be intent. This then sparked a mass brawl with players wading in left right and centre, with pushing and shoving aplenty.

OFF OFF OFF!!!!

In my view the ref handled the incident very well. He calmed down the situation then consulted with the linesman on the nearside and issued the keeper with a red card and the striker with a yellow. After the brawl a couple of other players can count themselves lucky not to have been carded.
It would appear that BSM didn't have a keeper on the bench as an outfielder took over in goal. Given this you would have thought Dunkirk would have adopted a shoot on sight policy but the stand in keeper didn't have a whole lot to do. The home side had some good chances from corners and free kicks but managed to head them wide. If anything it was the visitors who looked the more likely to score as they built up a head of steam and tried to force the equaliser, but luck just wasnt with them today.
FT 1-0

Stand in keeper

As i strolled back to the bus stop i got a call from Felice at the Lincoln match. We had lost 4-0 and had a man sent off again. I asked him how it was "Absolutely f##king Sh#te" was his assessment. I think that pretty much sums it up.

The bus stop back is short walk from the one you alight from but thankfully i wasn't waiting to long for the bus back and was back in the town centre for just gone 5.20 and then after meeting up with my better half ambled over to the Pit and Pendulum and prepare for the big hockey match.

What with all the excitement i hadn't had much to eat today. A sausage roll picked up from the shop next to Retford station being my total fuel for the day ahead. So after the pub we headed down to the lace market chipshop for a large portion of lamb donner and chips, which was, as normal, delicious if a little heavy on chilli and mayo but you can't have everything can you.

The hockey match didn't go quite the way we thought it would. Edinburgh have up till now been the whipping boys of the EIHL this season and last year recorded an 18-0 loss in Nottingham. However they went 1-0 and 2-1 up in the first period. I was pretty glad when the Panthers went into the first break even. The second Panthers goal being the goal of the night for me.
It wasnt really until the last 5 minutes of the 2nd period that the Panthers started to pull away from Edinburgh when we scored a couple of goals in the last few minutes.
The Panthers took their foot off the gas a tad in the third period and ended with a final score of 7-3 although i felt the scoreline was harsh on Edinburgh and doesn't tell the full story.

All in all a decent day an to good games. All i need to do is block the Lincoln result out and all is well.

Adams sporting world results

Tamworth 4-0 Lincoln City
Winterton Rangers 2-4 Retford United
Pittsburgh steelers 38-17 Tennessee Titans
Nottingham Panthers 7-3 Edinburgh capitals
Nottingham Panthers 3-0 Braehead Clan

Plans for the weekend

2011-10-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

A rare week without an Imps midweek match this week (normal service is to be resumed in the next couple of weeks however) The only midweek game i took in was the under 19 Bassetlaw derby at Shirebrook Town as Retford United beat their counterparts from Worksop 1-0. Bobby Johnson with the goal on 10 minutes.

Admission £2

Programme 10p

After the unusually warm period last weekend, proper football weather was well and truly back last night as much of the game was played in torrential rain. All credit to the referee and both sets of players for finishing the match. With the weather conditions the game was never going to be a classic but the Retford goal was of great quality. Worksop did have their chances and had one kicked off the line from a corner in the second half but it just wasn't their day.
So onto the weekend. Saturday i will be having a day in Nottingham. First up i will be watching Dunkirk FC lock horns with Boldmere St Micheals in the Midland Football Alliance (Step 5). Then after a quick bus trip back into the centre of Nottingham, via the Pit and Pendulum public house and the chip shop, I will be watching my first Nottingham Panthers match of the season as we welcome the Elite league whipping boys the Edinburgh Capitals to the National Ice Centre. Although Edinburgh are dreadful at the moment we can't take them for granted because the last team they beat was...yep the Nottingham Panthers!

Adams sporting world fixtures this weekend

Tamworth v Lincoln City

Winterton Rangers v Retford United

Pittsburgh Steelers v Tennessee Titans

Nottingham Panthers v Edinburgh Captials

Nottingham Panthers v Braehead Clan

Lincoln City 2-0 Bath City

2011-10-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

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?

Adam's sporting world results this weekend

Lincoln City 2-0 Bath City

Inter Milan 0-3 Napoli

Rangers 1-0 Hibs

Retford United 1-2 Brigghouse

Huston Texans 17-10 Pittsburgh Steelers

Nottingham Panthers 6-7 Coventry Blaze

Hull Stingrays 2-3 Nottingham Panthers

Barrow AFC 1-0 Lincoln City

2011-10-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

The hottest ticket in town!

These are the kind of away games we really look forward to. I mean nobody with an ounce of sense or reason would even contemplate taking a three hour plus trip by car to watch a struggling football team in the 5th tier of English football on a Tuesday night in late September.
Well we did. Along with 106 other Imps fans.
Long away trips on Tuesday nights are a must do for us, and we have done a fair share of them in our time at the likes of Carlisle, Gillingham, and Southend to name but three.When the fixture lists came out back in June we had a scan up and down to see which long range away Tuesday trips we had and this one caught the eye.

Before our trip North we met up in local Weatherspoons for a bite to eat and drink. The weather was nice and it was great to chill out in the beer garden and watch the world go by. Given that it was a Tuesday afternoon i was surprised to see the number of folk in the pub. I mean they can't all have booked time off work to watch a midweek footie game could they? Maybe a few were just tucking into a quick dozen pints or so then heading home to watch the afternoon showing of the Jeremy Kyle show or something.

Yes love i have got my coat in case it gets cold,
Yes i wont get into any trouble
And yes i will remember to bring some f##king bread back!

We set off on our epic journey at 1.30 pm and made surprisingly good time encountering very little congestion along the way. The journey was filled with the normal banter and shit flying around the car. The high point was taking the scenic route into Barrow along the Cumbrian coast and passing not one but two ice cream vans. Its all going off along the coast these days it would seem. Well there seemed more life here than there was at Southport on the opening day of the season. We arrived in Barrow at about 4.30pm and headed straight for the town centre to check out was was happening in down town Barrow on a Tuesday evening.

This is Barrow

The answer to that was not alot. We got a few inquisitive looks at our Lincoln shirts as we strolled around but nothing out of the norm. Most of the shops were just about to close up for the night but the guys did manage to dart in for a quick look in a couple of book shops. We were keen to see if Chris Sutton's autobiography was out yet as it could well sell out in Lincoln when it's released. It wasn't and so instead Felice picked up the latest Rupert bear book to add to his collection. Given the choice of the two i would say that the Rupert book would be a much better read. We couldn't decide what to do next so took the only course of action available to us. Headed for the nearest pub to decide our next move. The nearest watering hole to us was a Weatherspoons and although it was nice enough, it was pretty much like every other Weatherspoons pub in the country.

We managed to pass an hour or so by playing various games on the quiz machine. Firstly we had a go on the Match of the day football quiz game and won precisely nothing. Now given that football knowledge is our strong point you would have thought we would have walked away then. But we weren't going to beaten that easily though and went on to play various other quiz games and again we had the same level of success. The phrase's "could do better"and "fools and their money are easily parted "sprang to mind. We were all getting rather peckish by now and went in search of a kebab before we headed over to the ground.
There were two kebab houses not too far away from where we parked the car so after much deliberation we opted for the Marmaris Grill Kebab shop on Duke street. The food was very nice and all cooked fresh. One quirk was the fact that only lamb dishes were available. I went for a standard large lamb conner and gave it a steady 8 out of 10 (£4.70). The mixed kebabs also got the thumbs up for Baz and Felice (£7). After we were all pleasantly full it was time to set off to find Holker Street; the home of AFC Barrow. On the way we passed by the home ground of the Barrow Hornets R.L.FC. From the outside it looks to be a similar size to that of the football ground.
Parking does appear to be a tad limited on Holker street so we parked up at the nearby 24 hour Asda. Baz was a little disappointed that we didn't go in to purchase a few cakes.

As we still had plenty of time to kill we decided to chill out in Barrow's clubhouse which is situated on the far side of the ground from where we parked up. Barrow's ground has a real old school feel to it and one that i quite like. We passed the away turnstiles and there already seemed to be a good few Imps fans milling around. Barrow's clubhouse is above the club shop and ticket offices. We popped into the shop and picked up a programme for £2.50. Although they didn't have any badges with just the club crest on they did have badges from the FA trophy final in 2010 on sale for 50p. I will have some of that. The shop had some pretty decent stuff in it and plenty of old programmes for Lee to rummage through. Braintree Gary would have loved it.
Barrow's club bar is called the "Cross Bar" (clever eh?) and has a nice view that overlooks the pitch. Both sets of fans are welcomed and mix freely without a hint of trouble. Its great this non league lark isnt it? The club is quite spacious and the kind of place that you could easily have a good session in. Teamsheets were on sale for a bargain 20p; its always nice when clubs do things like that. The two things that stood out from the teamsheet was that due to all their injury problems Barrow had only named 4 substitutes and secondly Kyle Perry was missing from the Imps squad which meant that Sam Smith was leading the line.

The programme was a cracking effort and although there were quite a few adverts in it, there were more than enough interesting articles to make it worth the price. The story about the time when Stenhousemuir came down to play a pre season match was the highlight. The story was made even better as Baz read it out in his best story voice.

It was £14 to stand tonight and an extra pound to sit in the stand to the right of the terrace where we were stood. After about 15 minutes or so the segregation was removed which meant you could stand anywhere which to me is what non league football should be about. A Barrow official came up and chatted to us about various things and explained that the only time that they enforce the segregation is when Fleetwood Town are the visitors. Even though you could go anywhere most of the Lincoln fans chose to stay in the corner of the ground where we had entered. Felice and i did wander over the other side for the warm up and the view was much better. The ground is quite old but has bags of character. The stand to our left was a covered terrace and seemed to be the most popular with the home fans. The stand to our right had the only seating in the ground and was shared between home and away fans. At the end opposite the one we were at was a shallow terrace. The bar was overlooking this end of the stadium.

Main Stand

Barrow hard core!

Leading up to the game Barrow had lost their last three games where as the Imps had taken 4 points for the last 6. Lincoln started the brightest and Sam Smith sent an effort crashing against the crossbar (the one on the pitch not the club bar) in the first couple of minutes.
That's pretty much as good as it got for City all game really. The first half was pretty uneventful. Gowling was getting us out of jail time and time again at the back and upfront very little was happening. Lincoln kept the ball slightly better but again failed to work Danny Hurst in the Barrow goal. MaCallum was having one of his off days and lost the ball far too often. It was the kind of game that had 0-0 written all over it. Sam Smith worked hard upfront but was left isolated far too often and was well marshalled by Adam Quinn who never put a foot wrong all game. Then in added on time at the end of the first half the game changed.
Danny Hone was adjudged to have handled in the ball in the box (it did look very harsh to say the least) and the ref pointed to the spot. Richie Barker stepped up and fired the ball home.
HT 1-0
This was a really sickener. We didn't deserve to be losing this match nor did we deserve to be leading mind. City were really going to have to fight if they were going to get anything out of this.

In the end the second half was a total none event. I can not recall us creating a decent chance in the whole of the second half. Barrow didn't create a great deal either but they spent more time in our half of the field that we did in theirs. They just kept in simple and did the basics well no fancy stuff and no fuss.
They even took pity on us and had a man sent off and thus played the last nine minutes with 10 men. Not that it made much of a difference. We were a bit more purposeful as the final whistle approached but i could never see us scoring. The only shock of the second half was when a dodgy looking individual snuck off to purchase a tea and did not tell his travelling companions. Charming. No wonder he gets mistaken for other shady characters from time to time.
FT 1-0

After the final whistle when the players came over to the fans they got a mixture of applause and abuse. This was a dire performance from Lincoln and the tide is turning against the manager. Some here supported him some didn't. He/we really need to get some results fast.

And so after a crap performance we had the joys of a 3 hour plus journey to look forward to. To pass the time we had a variety of radio stations to listen to. Firstly we had Radio Five live for the nights football action, Although tonight it should have been renamed the Carlos Tevez and Manchester City show. Two rays of light in the football world for me were the news that Inter had recorded a fine away win in the Champions league 3-2 at CSKA Moscow, and that Rangers had also had a decent 2-0 home win over Kilmarnock.
So after about half an hour of Radio Tevez we had a spot of Bay radio and its crappy "Cuddle on the couch" hour of mushy love songs. Local radio really is stuck in a time warp. As we neared the Yorkshire border we switched to Real Radio.
Somehow the conversation switched from the dire Lincoln performance to Retford's former nightclubbing hot spot the Porterhouse (Dog house or Dogger to some) and the days when Baz and Felice would go up there in their white socks and black slip on shoes and party the night away and then finish the night off with a portion of Porterhouse chips! Those were the days apparently!!

Liverpool FC

2011-09-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

Ex codhead manager Bill Shankly

I had a week off last week but that didn't mean a week off from football, far from it my friends far from it.
Last Monday i took in a tour of England's second most successful football club; Liverpool FC. I must admit that i have very little interest in the Premier league these days. But it is always nice to see how the other half of the footballing world live.

Before today i had never been to Liverpool but had heard plenty about the place. The city centre is pleasant enough but the area around the football ground is, to be blunt, a shithole with boarded up and burnt out houses a plenty. Far too much barbed wire is situated on the walls around which tops off the atmosphere. This really isn't the kind of place you would want to be as an away fan of a team who have just scored the winner in the last minute on a night match. Not that Lincoln will be doing that anytime soon. We had time to kill before the tour so we had look around the clubshop which had a very impressive range of goods (as you would expect) My favourite item had to be the old retro shirts when "Candy" were the shirt sponsors from the late 80's and early 90's. I was very kindly bought a smart looking pin badge for £3 to add to my collection.

The tour starts outside the Shankly gates and from there takes you into the cooperate area media lounge then on to the changing rooms. The changing rooms are pretty much unchanged since the 70's. The Liverpool one has all the first teams shirts hung up but i was more interested in getting my picture taken out side the away team dressing room for in was inside this very room that the late great Bill Anderson masterminded a fantastic 3-1 win for Lincoln City here at Anfield in the second division in the 1959/60 season. Mr A Linnecor with one of the very few hatricks to be scored by an opposition player at Anfield.

The guide tells you bits and bobs about each area and gives you plenty of chances to take pictures. After the changing rooms you get to walk down the tunnel past the "This is Anfield" sign and on to the dugouts.

After the dugouts you get to sit in the Kop while they blast out a copy of fans singing YNWA. The ground looks fantastic and it must be speical to see a match here. After the tour we visited to museum which had plenty of interesting stuff to look at from various times in Liverpool's history.

After the museum we had a spot of lunch in the "Bootroom cafe" which was very nice and you get 20% off if you show them your tour ticket. Whilst you dine you get to watch LFC TV which was showing the 0-1 defeat at Stoke City. The last port of call was the Hillsbrough memorial gates that are on the far side of the ground.

All in all the tour was decent enough. I would have preferred to have walked round all four stands inside but you can't have everything in life i suppose.

Hendon 1-1 East Thurrock United

2011-09-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

A spot of groundhopping in good old London Town tonight. The big match in town tonight was Chelsea v Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League. Hendon v East Thurrok however appealed to me far more! Whenever I am in the Capital I always like to sink a pint or two in the Red Lion pub in Westminster and today was no exception.

Hendon are currently homeless and are playing their home games at Vale Farm; home of Wembley FC. I was based in the Bayswater area of London which meant in was only a half an hour or so journey on the Bakerloo line up from Paddington to North Wembley tube stop. On the overground bit of the underground journey you get a decent view of the other Wembley stadium. I would love to visit Wembley one day but as it is a special ground (and bloody expensive) i would only want to do it if one of the following happens.

Lincoln City get to play in a playoff final/ any other final
The Pittsburgh Steelers are sent over as part of the NFL's International series.

I think we would all agree that at the moment option two is by far more likely to happen first.

Hendon's website is one of the best official football websites i have come across and has plenty of information on the club, it's history, the clubs facilities, and a great set of directions for finding the ground. A lot of other clubs should take note of this. It even has links to the websites for each other club in the division. Check it out here!

From the tube station (Zone 1-4 underground ticket) it is about a 15 minutes walk with most of it being slightly uphill, but its easy enough to find. The programmes are on sale outside the turnstiles for a couple of quid, so I bagged one before heading into the bar. The bar was filling up quite nicely with both set of fans. There doesn't seem to be any pubs nearby so i imagine that the club bar does quite well most weeks.

Hendon FC have had a great start to the season and before tonight's game sat proudly on top of the Ryman Premier division after collecting 4 wins and a draw from their 5 matches played. Tonight's visitors East Thurrock United (Or the Rocks as they are known) were promoted to the premier division last season after winning the Ryman Northern division title last time out. Life hasn't been as straight forward for them as they had collected just one win and a draw from their opening 5 matches and sat in 18th place in the table. So on paper it looked like a home banker but as we all know football has a wonderful way of kicking you in the arse when you least expect it.

Not surprisingly i didn't recognise any of the players in either squad bar one. Lining up for Hendon up front was former Arsenal and Bradford striker Isaiah Rankin. Back in 1998 Lincoln, then in League one, had drawn 1-1 at Bradford (then in the Championship) in the first leg of the League Cup 1st round thus setting up a great second leg. A couple of days later Bradford paid Arsenal 1.3 million pounds for Rankin's services. Rankin then went on to grab the only goal in the second leg at Sincil Bank as the Bantams went through 1-2 on aggregate. Later on that season Bradford were promoted to the Premiership. Lincoln were relegated back down to League Two. After Bradford, Rankins career when downhill. The poor sod even had a spell at Grimsby Town.

It was £9 entry tonight which is pretty much the norm for this level. Vale farm is a smashing little ground which has real character. As you enter through the turnstiles the snap hut, club offices, and clubshop are on your left hand side. The clubshop had all the normal stuff in and loads of boxes of old programmes to rummage through. Lee and Braintree Gary would have loved it. Also on sale were those Jester hats in green and white with bells on the end. Tempting as they were i decided just to buy a club badge for £3. The hats would look good at Lincoln away matches but not so good on the underground at 10pm.

We decided to sit in the seated stand that runs along the far touchline as you enter the ground. One slightly concerning fact was that even though it about 7.30pm the club hadn't switched the floodlights on yet. While there was still someday light left I took a stroll around the ground and took a few snaps. I quite like this style of stadium. The ground has been slowly built up over time and has plenty of covering. One strange thing i noticed was the amount of children's toys that were laying about behind the far goal. Maybe Wembley's youth development programme starts at a very early age or something.

The bar is one the far touchline opposite the one we were sat on. It looked like you could access it at halftime which is always a good thing. Non league football isn't non league football without a halftime pint.
As the teams entered the pitch the first thing i noticed was that neither side had a shirt sponsor. East Thurrock were in all red with Hendon sporting an all green Panathinaikos style strip.
On my lap of the stadium i had overheard a couple of Hendon fans chatting about the amount of injuries they had but it didn't seem to hurt them to much as they pretty much had the visitors penned back in their own half for much of the opening spell. Rankin my not be as mobile as he once was but you can see he still has a footballing brain by the way he organises those around him and makes space for others. Hendon launched quite few balls into the box but they were dealt with by a well organised East Thurrock defence. The visitors were happy to sit back and hit their hosts on the break.
Then on 32 minutes the Rocks took the lead with a goal that was worth the admission fee alone. A mix up in the Hendon midfield allowed The Rocks Kye Ruel to collect the ball on the halfway line and skip past the Hendon central midfielders. He kept on going and beat the Hendon centre half (who seemed reluctant to tackle in case he conceded a penalty) then dinked the ball past the Hendon keeper. Minutes later Hendon's night got worse as the injury list got longer when Rankin hobbled off on 38 minutes.
This all led to the visitors holding the lead at halftime 1-0. It was a lead they barely deserved but nobody could argue with the quality of the goal.

Hendon didn't have to wait long to be on level terms. On 51minutes Hendon gained a free kick and whipped it into the box, this led to a mix up between goalkeeper and defender in which both thought the other would clear it. In the event neither did and this allowed Greg Ngoyi to head home the equaliser. After the goal Hendon really took the game by the scruff of the neck and laid siege to the Rocks goal. But a combination of good defending, Lady Luck, and the crossbar kept the score at 1-1. East Thurrock did have a go at it in the last ten minutes or so but in the end i think they will be happier than their hosts with the point
FT 1-1
If you ever get chance i can recommend a visit to Hendon/Wembley FC. Its easy enough to reach by public transport and the grounds a bit of a gem. There is a kebab shop right next to the underground station but i cant tell you if its any good as i had my fill of kebab when i got back to Paddington following a few pints in the Pride of Paddington just round the corner from the station.

Sorry for the lack of decent pictures on this log entry, My camera didnt get on with the lighting levels from the floodlights

A short break.

2011-09-12T13:52:00.001-07:00

This blog will be taking a break for about ten days or so whilst i take a short break form it all. This does mean though that i will have plenty of stuff to share with you when i get back, including Lincoln City v Kettering Town, Hendon FC V East Thurrock United, and a trip to Anfield!
Keep ferreting folks and may the force be with you. See you soon.

Non League day Part Three

2011-09-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

Braintree Town 1-0 Lincoln City

The journey between Chelmsford and Braintree was the easiest leg of the day's journey. Even though our second match had been delayed by ten minutes we still made Braintree in good time. In fact it was slightly shorter than Baz had planned for so he redeemed some credibility after his earlier boo boos. Braintree's ground is quite well hidden behind a housing estate but we just about managed to find it. There is a Co-op not to far from it so Felice stocked up on bifters and even shared his sweets with us. We parked up just a short walk from the ground and i changed out of my Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley cup champions T-shirt and donned the famous red and white strips of Lincoln City.

We decided against going to the pub at the top of the road and went straight down to the ground to soak up the atmosphere. This was the only match on the hop that was segregated. As we stood outside the ground chatting to various Imps fans we were once again collared by Gary. The two hopper's buses had arrived. Gary made a bee line to see Lee and he quickly introduced him to Baz. While these three merry fellows chatted i took a few pics.

Left to right. Gary,Lee,Barry (Baz)

The three Musketeers!

As all good groundhoppers, do Gary wanted to get into the ground early so he didn't have to much time to chat. We bid our farewells but i got the feeling that if we are ever down "hopping" in Essex again, its sods law that our paths will cross again. I can neither deny nor confirm if any or our number swapped email address just in case our paths cross again.

Throughout the day we had heard from various fans of the different clubs telling us how much of a dump Braintree was so we were quite unsure as to what to expect. The area around the ground may not have been the nicest but a hell of alot better than the likes of Hull, Bradford, and Doncaster etc.
As with most places you visit first impressions count. Due to the segregation we could not get to the clubshop from inside the ground to purchase the club badge but a club official kindly let us in to visit the shop. It was stocked with all the normal items and also had plenty of DVD copies of Braintrees 5-0 demolition of Grimsby for sale. The programme was £2 and although it looked quite smart didn't have all that much to read in it. We got chatting to a club steward who recommend the "King Kebab" Kebab shop for post match refreshments. He told us about the plans the club have to move to a new stadium but i got the impression that it is still a couple of years away.
As we came out of the clubshop we again saw the Blue Square girls and this time they were handing out free "I did the Blue Square treble" Commemorative T-shirts to the hoppers who had traveled on the coach. We asked nicely if we could have one as we had indeed seen all three games and they seemed only to keen to get rid of them.

While i will admit that Braintree's ground is basic i do think people may have been a tad harsh about it. Imps fans had a section of seats in the main stand and some terracing behind the goal and some next to the seats. The terrace was only about three steps deep so we chose to stand at the side. The view wasn't as good as at the first two games but it was on a par to the view we get when we watch Retford United so it was all good.

Imps fans behind the goal.

Main Stand

Most of the home fans were stood on the open terrace to our left and were in good voice as the kick off approached. By contrast to all the other sets of fans on the hop the Lincoln fans were quite twitchy and were very quiet. Granted the ground doesn't really lend itself to creating a good atmosphere but as a group of fans you could just tell that people were waiting for the team to perform and expected the worst.
Throughout the day i had managed to resist the temptation to buy any food at any of the grounds. But as we were stood right next to the snap hut i eventually succumbed and purchased a hotdog for £3. It wasn't great but it did the trick. The other guys just had a tea which went down quite well.

One triple burger please with bacon, double cheese and no salad Oh and a diet coke

The match report for this last game will be rather brief as from a Lincoln perspective there was very little to report. Braintree were simply better than Lincoln in all departments and just seemed more hungry. Lincoln struggled to get anything going and rarely troubled the home side's keeper. Braintree weren't creating many chances but they created more than Lincoln did. As the game went on the fans became more and more disgruntled with the side and they received plenty of strong words as they trudged off at halftime.

The second half wasn't much better. Braintree created more chances while City toiled. Manager Steve Tilsion made a double substitution when he swapped the front two. For my money it was harsh on the strikers as they hadn't had any service all game. The only time we looked like scoring was when Sam smiths effort smashed against the bar came down and bounced out.
As the game wore on the fans became more and more annoyed with both the players and the manager. At the final whistle the players came over to applaud the fans only to be meet by a barrage of insults as the fans told them in no uncertain terms what they thought of their "efforts". A couple of players led by captain Josh Gowling to their credit came over to try and talk to the fans and claim the situation down. In my 17 years supporting City i have never seen the fans as angry and wound up as this. Had we been playing at somewhere like Darlington for example it wouldnt have been as bad, as the fans are quite a way back from the pitch but at Braintree, fans are a mere foot or two from the players so every word can be heard.

As we trudged back to the car we felt quite punch drunk really. City were poor tonight and after we had a great time at the first two games this was a real body blow. Had we lost 4-3 and had a go it wouldn't have been as bad. Braintree weren't brilliant but they had easily beaten us. Even if Bratintee had had us four hoppers at playing at the back today, i am sure they would have kept a clean sheet. We left the ground and headed for the King Kebab shop. As we grazed away on our food we wondered what was next? Quite a few fans had been very vocal in their wishes for Steve Tilson to leave. I for one am not in that boat. No club gets anywhere chopping and changing managers every season. Others want the chairman out. That's fine but who wants to takeover? I am the first to admit that he has made mistakes but as he admits he only took the job because nobody else stood for it. We dont have a devine right to beat anybody. Each and every side in this division have one thing in common. We all deserve to be in this division.
We have a new side and it going to take time to gel as a unit. Its only a couple of games since we played Stockport County off the park and everybody was singing our praises.
Have we hit rock bottom? I don't know and we wont know for a good few years yet when we can look back. Manchester City fans look back at the 2-1 defeat at York City in 1998 as the club's lowest point. Could Braintree be Lincolns lowest point? Or is there worse to come? Whatever happens we will be there. On a final point i don't see why everybody said Braintree was a dump. Yes it could do with a lick of paint but for me its no worse than most grounds at this level. Its good to see a club like Braintree doing well and i wish them all the best for the rest of the season (apart from when they play at Lincoln of course).

Kebabs got a decent enough 8/10

So what of Non league day? I think i speak for all the guys when i say that we had a throughly enjoyable day until the last game kicked off. Well done to the three host clubs, the League, and the Blue Square for putting all this together. Roll on next year!

Although the video below perfectly sums up our mood after the Lincoln game I will leave you with the immortal words of Mr Del colle.
" Lincoln were shite but at least we ate well" Amen to that sir!

Non league day part Two

2011-09-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Chelmsford City 2-3 Dover Athletic

Baz with the aid of the AA Route planner had told us that it was a mere 19 miles from Stortford to Chelmsford and that on paper at least, it was a simple enough journey. However as ever with this type of thing it wasn't quite as straight forward. Our journey started well enough as we went through Stortford town centre then ended up in the country side of Essex with very few road signs to aid us. As we munched our way through various sandwiches and pasta salads we started to think we may have gone wrong. You would have thought that there would have been a fair few cars full of hoppers making the trip but it seemed as if we were the only car on the road. Then just as the beads of sweet started to appear on Baz's brow due to the thought of getting us lost and a second kangaroo court in a day we saw a sign for Chelmsford. We were going the right way! Although it had taken us 5 miles longer than Baz had planned for. This time a vote of 2:1 found Baz guilty." Bollocks" came the defence from the dock in the back seat.

On every hop i have been on there is always one club that doesn't quite plan their leg of the day quite as diligently as they perhaps should have done. Step forward Chelmsford City. Firstly the parking arrangements weren't too great, although a great piece of parking from Mr Del Colle allowed us to get a prime spot right next to the exit. Shortly after this we discovered that the club had only opened one turnstile and there must have been a good 30-40 folk in the queue when we arrived and this was before the two buses full of hoppers had turned up (the buses left Stortford 15 minutes after the end of the first game) All this led to the game being delayed by 10 minutes to get everybody in. For this i don't blame Chelmsford City, i think the hop organisers underestimated the amount of punters doing the hop and that although it isn't very far between the first two games the roads aren't too great.

Chelmsford's ground is also an athletics stadium. I have been to quite a few of these type of stadiums which try to accommodate both sports and i would say that Chelmsford's is by far the best i have visited and gets the balance between the two as good as you can do in my opinion. The fact that there are two stands very close behind each goal means that fans can get a bit of an atmosphere going.

As soon as we got into the ground my impressions of the club changed. They have clearly spend a fair bit of money on there facilities and the whole set up is quite smart. The programme was £2.50 and is one of the best i have very seen at non league level. It is certainly a hell of a lot better than most League Two ones i got last season and it certainly wouldn't look out of place in the Championship. It did carry quite a few adverts but that was more than offset by the sheer amount to read in it. The club shop was situated just to the right of the turnstiles as you walk in and did a great range of stuff. I snapped us a badge for £3.50. It is here that also got our first view of the club mascot!

The Chelmsford Parrot

As we were milling around just outside the very smart looking club bar we heard that the kick off had been delayed by 10 minutes, but that wasn't all we heard.
"Lee, Lee" came a cry from behind us. It was our new friend Gary and he had found us to tell Lee that there was a programme stall inside the club house and that it was really worth checking out. We went in to check it out and it really was a decent enough stall with quite a few programmes dating back to pre war and pretty much everything you could think of. The clubhouse itself was spacious, with club memorabilia all over the walls. The large screen was showing the Scotland v Czech Rep European Championship qualifier, but enough of that crap. We had some decent football to watch.

Felice has a bit of an affinity with Dover Athletic (ie he has been through it on his way to France on holiday) So we went over to the far side to stand with the travelling black and white army. The stand we were in was a covered temporary terrace but it did allow you to get a decent atmopshere going. The Dover fans welcomed us and seemed quite chatty and seemed quite surprised that a group of Lincoln fans had made the trip down to see all three matches.
The Dover fans were in fine voice and were really up for this game.And they raised the volume up a notch when Harry Barker stabbed in from close range to give them a 2nd minute lead. The joy was short lived though however when Chelmsford were award a penalty on 7 minutes which was converted by David Rainford. After the cat and mouse of the opening game it was good to have such an open match on our hands.

Dover fans celebrate the opening goal

Both sides seemed to throw caution to the wind and create chances. Dover retook the lead on 12 minutes when George Purcell outpaced the last defender and dinked the ball past Searle whose positioning for the goal could have been better and i am not totally sure if he need to rush of his line like he did. The rest of the half went by quite quickly as both sides continued to make chances. The home side came close to a second equaliser when they hit the side netting but Dover held out
HT 1-2

The main stand

We took a stroll round to the area outside the bar so the guys could have a fag, or a as the cool cats at Rampton call it "A biffter". Felice was giving up smoking after our trip to Celle in 2009 and even as recently as our trip to Cray Wanderers last year, but he announced that he is stopping after his trip to Paris next week or so. I was going to ask the Blue Square bet promotional bet girls strolling round as to what odds i could get on him quiting the "biffters" but i am pretty sure that they would have given me whatever odds i asked for. While here i also saw a Barnet fan getting way to close to what i assume was a WAG. I hope she didnt get to close. She was waaayyyyy too nice to be near anything from Barnet.

"So who the f**k are Barnet you freak?

We were stood at the opposite end of the ground for the second half which was a terrace roughly the same size as the first but without a roof on it.This was quite pleasant as it was quite a hot day and the stand gave you a decent enough view of the action. The pace of the game slowed down a little and it seemed as if the homeside were running out of ideas. Dover were happy to sit back and try to hit City on the break. Dover looked the more likely to score from set plays and they were getting plenty of them as the home sides frustrations grew and gave away plenty of free kicks. About half way through the half i took a walk around to get some pictures of the ground and due to the lay out of the ground its quite a walk.

Dover fans second half.

Chelmsford fans 2nd half

As i was walking back down the side of the pitch to the left of the away fans Dover got the third goal. It was as untidy as they come following a goal mouth scramble but they all count. Billy Bricknall with the final touch in the 71st minute for the record. At 1-3 up you would have thought that it would have been game set and match to Dover but for some reason they seemed to try and hit the self destruct button. Fair play to Chelmsford who suddenly woke up but it really did look as if Dover were almost letting them come on to them.

There was to be plenty of drama in the final few minutes. Chelmsford were awarded their second penalty of the match when Joe Benjamin was tripped in the box. The resulting spot kick was well saved by Jaimez-Ruiz (Venezuela's number one according the Dover fans) After this there seemed to be confusion as to whether the ref had signaled for the kick to be retaken. He hadn't and was pointing for a corner to be taken. Whether the Dover players were thinking about what they were going to have for tea that night i don't know, but they weren't concentrating on the corner as Kenny Clarke was allowed to go unchallenged as he headed the ball back across goal and into the corner to give the home side a glimmer of hope.

The home side launched everything they had at the Dover goal but the defence held out. This was a decent game and played in front of a good sized crowd. We bid our farewells to the Dover fans and wished them well for the season. They in turn wished us all the best for our game at Braintree and warned us about the stadium. Would the Imps make it three away wins on the hop? Would the game be as good as this one had been? And is Braintree as bad as the other fans have said on the hop? We were about to find out. One thing was for sure, as well left we heard a "see you at Braintree Lee" yep it was Gary, we stopped for a very brief chat as he met Barry and Felice but before he could get into full flow on South East groundhopping we had made a dash for the car.

The Non league day 2011 Part One

2011-09-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

Something a tad different for us this weekend. Today was "National Non League day" A chance for clubs up and down this great country of ours to show off all that is good about the non-league game. Many clubs had dropped admission for games this weekend and run various promotions. The flagship event was the "Blue Square hop". This involved three matches (all in Essex) from the three Blue Square divisions being played back to back with different kick off times to allow fans to attend all three games. The itinerary was...

Bishop Stortford v Boston United (12.30 KO)

Chelmsford City v Dover Athletic (3.30KO)

Braintree Town v Lincoln City (7.00 KO)

So we had a great day of football ahead of us and many questions to be answered. How would we cope with having to watching Boston United? Would we be able to find all three grounds? Would Baz's long lost friend be at Bishop Stortford to greet us? Can Lincoln get a point? And would Felice stand his round at the tea bar? I will let the great Buddy Holly answer that one...

Bishop Stortford 0-1 Boston United Blue Square North

We set off on our merry way down to Essex at just gone 9.00am. My new man bag was given its 2nd outing of the season. As we were going to be on the road all day it made sense to stock up with sandwiches and other refreshments rather that pay through the nose for them en route. Also packed was the infamous Donkey card game that went down a treat at the Oxford united trip last season.
As with most jolly boys days out the banter and stick started flying around pretty much as soon as we left Retford. I had already had breakfast (a slice of last nights takeaway pizza following the England game) but Felice and Lee hadn't eaten so we so we popped into McDonald's so they could fill up as it were. Just prior to this we filled the car with petrol. At the next pump was a car full of fine young ladies who managed to catch a couple of our party casting an admiring glance in their direction (Not me, i was in the back with the pump blocking my view) When they cottoned on of them flung open the car door and shouted "busted!!" at us. Then asked if we were going to the Burghley horse trials. Hmm not quite love.

After this little exchange we headed down the A1 armed with Baz's directions to guide us on our Blue Square quest. We did actually pass the queues for the horse trials turn off on the way down. We came to the conclusion we wouldn't last 5 minutes there due to the fact that 1. We weren't driving a 4x4 vehicle and 2. None of us was wearing a checked button up shirt. Besides who wants to watch that when a historic groundhop is taking place?
Shortly after this we found that a section of the A1 was shut due an accident yesterday and we would have to take a detour. Baz then commented that he had seen this on the news before we set off but didn't know how far the diversion would take us out of our way or how long it would take. As Baz had said before we left "Don't worry boys I have all directions sorted" this was viewed as something of an own goal by Mr O. Baz objected to this, however a vote of 3:1 found him guilty of planning without due care and attention and doing half a job. "Fucking Kangaroo court"was Baz's reply. Even with this little detour we managed to pull up at our first destination a good 25 minutes before kickoff.

Bishop Stortford received somewhat of a shafting in the summer. Due to Rushden and Diamonds going tits up and a large number of Southern based relegation's from the BSP, Stortford who are based a stones throw from London's Stanstead airport, have been shunted into the Blue Square North. This means they are now facing 5 trips up to places like Wokington and Blyth in the north of England which will send their travel costs through the roof. A number of players have who had agreed to join the club left due to work commitments. I can't say i blame them. If you are up for work at 5am the last thing you want is a midweek trip up to Wokington and getting in at say 3am. As a sweetener the League did give the club a one off payment of £10,000 to help with travel costs etc. While this is ok for this season its the possibility of an extended stay in the Northern section that is of a huge concern to the club. Hopefully those at the helm can shuffle the league around a bit better next season and Stortford can go back to the Southern division. Which is where they belong, but it all depends on who gets relegated and promoted. In the League's defence there isn't a boundary line between the Northern and Southern divisions. It is simply the 22 most Northerly clubs in one half and the 22 most Southerly clubs in the other.

With all this in mind its not surprising that Bishop have struggled so far this season collecting only 3 points from their opening games and sitting 2nd bottom in the table. Boston were fancied to have another good season after losing in the playoffs last season but have had a mixed start to this season having gained 7 points so far and sitting in 11th place. Baz, Scott, and myself visited Bishop a couple of pre-seasons back with Lincoln and found them to be a very welcoming club with a nice set up so I was well and truly in their corner for this game, even though i have picked Boston as one of my clubs in the Non League paper's fantasy football competition. Boston had brought a good number of supporters down with them for this match and for much of the game they made a fair amount of noise.
Admission for this first match was 12 quid with an average programme selling for £2.

Boston have plenty of ex Lincoln links with Jason Lee as joint manager and winger Ryan Semple. On the bench was one of the best Lincoln centre halves i have ever seen in Kevin Austin. Boy what Lincoln would do to have a player like him in his prime now.

Jason Lee

The first half was decent enough, Boston were on top early but didn't force the home keeper into many saves. After about half an hour of listening to Boston fans chant songs they nicked off other sides; Sheffield United's "you fill up our senses" and Man United's "we will do what we want". I went for a wander around the ground to take a few snaps and take in the atmosphere. Stortford are managed by former Spurs and England keeper Ian Walker and he seemed quite annoyed that his side weren't taking more shots at goal. Its always good to see a player who played the game at the top level learning his trade at lower levels of football. Just before half time Stortford missed a couple of decent chances to take the lead. Overall Boston had slightly more of the play in the first half but Stortford had the better chances and were well on top towards the end.

Boston(and Lincoln) fans

Bishop Storford (and a Barnet) fan.

HT 0-0
I did try to get a pint at halftime but the bar service was slow. Not the staff's fault mind, I think the club underestimated the amount of away fans/sad hoppers that would be in attendance today. I did get a good few texts while i was on my walkabout asking to get the teas in, but seeing how I set my text messaging tone to silent, I didnt see them till after I had finished my walkabout. Unlucky boys as the saying goes.

As normal at this level of football quite alot of the fans swapped ends for the 2nd half. So we were stood with the Bishop Storford fans for the second half. The only downside was that one of there fans seems to have the one surviving Vuvuzela left from the 2010 world cup. Thankfully it didn't go off too often. One or two home fans came up and asked us if we were doing all three games today and informed us that Braintree Town's ground wasn't up to much (I have to say that they were wrong and it wasn't half as bad as the made it out to be). On the pitch the game was getting scrappy with neither side looking like scoring. Stortford kept launching high balls into the box but their lack of height in the area enabled the two Boston centre halves to head everything away with ease. The home fans were also not very impressed with their number nine and a cheer when up when he was subbed. Quite how they think that will help the lad i am not quite sure. Both sides were reduced to shooting from range and even the Boston keeper said that the game wasn't very good during a break in play. He also added that "This is what an overnight stop does for you, nothing to do but eat and sleep".

The pivotal point in the game came in the 72nd minute when the homeside were reduced to 10 men when Phil Anderson was given a straight red for a scuffle with Semple. No complaints with the card for me but i do feel Semple should also have walked but he only received a yellow. The game had became quite niggly up to this point and this only made things worse with the home fans really getting on the refs back. Despite the man advantage Boston never really made it count. As the game petered out we made our way to the gate so we could make a quick exit and get on our way to our next destination. Then in the sixth minute of added time Boston grabbed the winner when Marc Newsham scored from close range. Some folk around us asked where the added time came from but i felt the ref just about got it right with all the subs, time for the sending off etc. The scoreline was tough on Stortford as they didn't deserve to lose the match but if you dont score you dont win. I said to the guys at halftime that Boston do get a fair few late goals and for once it was nice to be proved right. I am not sure but i think that thats three last minute winners for them this season. Its never over till its over as they say.
FT 0-1

As always on this kind of hop and at non league football in general you do get some real characters in attendance, with today being no exception. Step forward Gary. Lee had became acquainted with Gary in the programme shop before the match and had got it into his head that he was a specialist West Ham programme collector and then proceeded to go on and on about programmes, and hopping in general. As Lee and myself hovered near the exit at the end Gary dashed up to ask Lee if he was on the coach for the next game and babbled on some more about ground hopping and other shit. After getting the shake of the hand it was time to dash onward to out next ground. Little did we know we would be seeing plenty more of Gary....

Retford United 2-2 Tadcaster Albion

2011-08-30T11:41:00.000-07:00

We decided against a trip to Darlington on bank holiday Monday and chose to watch unbeaten Retford United take on Tadcaster Albion. This was a repeat of the League cup tie i saw a couple of weeks ago. Both sides played some decent stuff that day so i hoped they would serve up similar fare today. I was to be wrong.
Prior to today Retford had won all three league matches without conceding a goal. Tadcaster on the other hand had only a solitary point to show for their efforts so far this season. I decided to have a couple of swift jars in the clubhouse before the match and all of the usual suspects were in there although i was a tad disappointed with the crowd. After the great start to the season the Badgers have had and the fact that there were no Football League games on i would have expected a few more to flock to Cannon Park, but never mind. I am sure that if Retford can keep their early season form up then a few more will come out of the woodwork.

Baz and i stood behind the goal that Retford were attacking in the first half and after about ten minutes of play we were joined by Felice and his good lady. The rumors that he was late due to the fact that he hadn't got the washing up done on time were neither confirmed or denied. One thing we can confirm however is that he wasn't wearing his Arsenal tracksuit top, which is strange as it would have been perfect in this slightly chilly weather. Must have had something to do with Sunday's result. We are "darn saff" next weekend so maybe it will come out then.

The game didn't get off to a very exciting start so after 5 minutes i had a glance at my phone to check up on how the Imps were doing. To my dismay, if not total surprise, we had gone a goal down after a whole 13 seconds! All the optimism after the good performances versus Telford and Stockport shot down in flames in seconds. Baz and Felice tried to tune into the commentary on BBC radio Lincolnshire but struggled to get any reception. Thankfully it didn't sound as if they missed a hell of alot.

The news from Darlo was bleak!

The first half was as poor a half as i have seen all season. Neither side could string more than two passes together and the ball spent far too much time in the air. Neither keeper was really tested with gathering crosses and taking goal kicks was all they had to do. Retford were attacking the car park end and the fact that the gatemen didn't have to go out to fetch any stray balls showed how little shooting Retford did.

The "Carpark end" (not taken at today's game but its pretty much the same

HT 0-0
The half time whistle was a relief as we made or way round to the tea hut for a cuppa. It was Baz's turn to get the teas in and very nice they were too. By this time Lincoln had managed to go two down and have a player injured. The decision not to waste £18 was looking better and better.
Thankfully the second half was better. Much better in fact. Retford looked like they had got a bollocking at half time and were all over Tadcaster. It was the visitors though that took the lead on 52min when Carl Steward took full advantage of a mix up in the Retford defence to finish from the edge of the box. Retford weren't behind for long though and were level on 56min when Steve Owens hit a low drive through a crowded penalty box.
Retford were now pretty much camped in the Tadcaster half but Albion managed to somehow keep them out. At times the game got quite heated as Tadcaster's defending got ever more desperate.
Retford can be a decent footballing side but they need to learn not to get sucked into playing a physical game by the opposition. They are a young side but have no real enforcers in the side. So when they try to stand up for themselves and give it back it just doesn't work. Tadcaster were very streetwise and gave away fouls in the right places and wound down the clock.

They eventually cracked on 86 minutes when Brad Wells brought down a cross and hit it into the bottom right hand corner on the turn. Something must have then kicked off on the far side following the goal as one of the Tadcaster entourage was led away from the dug out by the steward.
There was however to be a sting in the tail. Tadcaster got the equaliser in added on time when a great first time cross was whipped in from the left and a great header from Graeme Whitehead levelled the scores up. From the other end of the ground it looked as if the keeper was slow to react but i heard from those closer to it that he had no chance with it.
FT 2-2

All in all its been a decent start with Retford collecting three wins and a draw from their first four games. However, they need to learn to stick to their game and not get dragged down into a kick fest because its not their strength.
Lincoln lost 3-1; Tossers

Lincoln Moorland Railway 1-1 Arnold Town

2011-08-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

Shirebrook Town 2-1 Blackstones

2011-08-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

In this crazy age of football in which a player can earn 300,000 grand a week whle playing in Russia,it costs 70 quid a ticket at QPR, and there are more Irish than Scottish teams in the group stage of the Europa league,its good to know some football traditions are still going strong. Ladies and Gentlemen, Guinea pigs and Ferrets i give you the start of the FA Cup (Sponsored by Budweiser.

Today's location was Langworth Road home of NCEL division one side Shirebrook Town. The visitors Blackstones FC hail from the Sleaford area and ply their trade in the UCL. I must admit to having a soft spot for Shirebrook. It is one of the first non league grounds i went to and it's a cracking set up. I normally like to go at least once a season but some how missed out on going last season, it must have been all those exciting Lincoln games i took in. Last year was quite eventful for Town as they had three separate management teams during the season on their way to a lower mid table finish. Lets hope the club gets a bit more consistency this time around.

My plan was to get a lift to Worksop, catch an hour or so to watch the number one cricket side in the world thrash India then hop on the train to Shirebrook.
I don't venture over to the other side of Bassettlaw very often and it must over a year since i took a stroll round Worksop. I must admit to being very disappointed to find out that the Newcastle arms was shut (our lunch time hangout in the college day release days during the "Jenkins years") and the Carlton Tavern is now a shop selling bathroom suites. What was the Kings arms is still shut and so are two cracking little chippy's. Sad times i am afraid. I did find a chippy but it was shit and served up the worst fish i have had for a while.
Then the real icing on the cake came when i tried to watch some Cricket. I decided to venture into one of the two Litten tree pubs in the town and was pleased to find out that they had the Cricket on. However after watching it for well over an hour and with Ian Bell closing in on a double century it was switched off in favour of Arsenal v Liverpool.
Happy bunny i was not.
Lets look at this. Here we have the best side in the world playing out of their skin smashing the side that were number one all over the place and they don't get prime billing? I remember that day back in 1999 when after a home defeat by New Zealand, England slumped to the very bottom of the world rankings, and after all the thrashings the Aussies gave us over the years I intend on enjoying each and every moment of this team being the number one in the world. To switch it off in favour of a football match between two sides that have as much chance of winning the Premier league as the four Retford Imps do of representing Great Britain in the 100m x4 sprint relay in London 2012 is mind boggling to me. Sure there were a few "fans" coming in as kick off approached but the money they took from them was less than than what they will have lost from the folk who left when the cricket was turned off. And with Cricket lasting till 6.00pm i am sure the bar would have taken more cash. If folk wanted to take in some football then Worksop Town were playing their first Saturday league game at Sandy lane for three seasons just a short walk away. Rant over!

After a couple of pints in the Vine I boarded the train to Shirebrook for some live football.

Some of the top clubs now look down on the FA cup, but at this level it still means a hell of a lot to the players, committee men and fans. The social club was doing a roaring trade and they even had the Cricket on in the lounge room. It was a nice day so i decided to get into the ground early and bag a programme in case they sold out(Yes i am getting sadder i know) Admission was a bargain £4 and the programme was £1.50 and was a great effort with plenty of stuff to read in it. It was a great source of information about the visitors of whom i know very little about and even less about the standard of the league they compete in.

As i strolled round to sit on the grass banking on the far side of the ground to read the programme the Shirebrook players were out early going through a pretty tough warm up routine. By contrast Blackstones emerged a good 10-15 minutes later than their opponents and seemed to be taking a much more laid back approach to it all. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail as the saying goes. I felt a comfortable home win coming on.
Shortly before the kick off I ambled round to get a cup of tea which was a very reasonable 60p. Shirebrook Town's snap hut must be the only one i have seen that sells Pot noodles. However having spent two of the last three weeks on nights (hence the late write up) and eating them more or less every night i am sick of the sight and taste of the buggers. Kudos for offering something different though. I can think of no better tonic for a horribly cold December evening match than a piping hot Bombay Bad boy! Maybe not that great for a sunny afternoon game in August though.

To my surprise Blackstones came out and played much the better football in the first half. Shirebrook got a foothold in the match after about 15 minutes or so and from then on it was end to end stuff with a combination of bad finishing and good goalkeeping combining to keep the score goalless. Blackstones missed the best chance of the game when a great ball was floated in from the right in that awkward area between the keeper and the back four but was just missed by the on rushing forwards. On the balance of play the visitors were slightly the better side having created the better chances and the lion's share of the ball.
HT 0-0 time to retreat to the clubhouse to check out the scores and such.

The second half was much better than the first. Blacksones took the lead through Nelson following a corner when Shirebrook failed to clear their lines. This seemed to finally wake up the home side as they went on to dominate the rest of the match. They drew level when a deflected shot from Haslam found its way into the net, and took the lead shortly after when the same player scored a great goal after beating a couple of players and blasting into the top corner. Cue huge celebrations from the Shirebrook players which led to the scorer being booked for taking his shirt off. The home side continued to play the better stuff and in the end could have won the game far more convincely than the 2-1 scoreline suggests.

The week that was.

2011-08-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

Another actioned packed sporting week for me; viewing and reacting to various football matches while looking after an army of various rodents.

Tuesday 16th July

I didn't have the pleasure of viewing the Imp's first home match of the season and it sounds as if i didn't miss a great deal as we went down 0-1 to Kidderminster Harriers. Ho hum.

Wednesday 17th July

NCEL league cup 2nd round

Tadcaster Albion 1-3 Retford United

This is more like it. So far this season Retford have won both of their opening league matches and they carried on their good form over into the League Cup.The journey up to Tadcaster was simple enough and spent in excellent company. The only downside came in actually finding the sodding ground; it is well hidden behind the John Smiths brewery, in fact the road you go down runs pretty much through the brewery. We did get to see a fair bit of Tadcaster and it seems a nice enough place it has to be said. Inspire Park is quite a scenic ground which looks great in the summer although I wouldn't fancy a midweek trip here in December, when all the surrounding trees have shed their leaves and the brewery behind the goal resembles an 80's Soviet power plant. The stand out feature in the ground for me is the unique stand behind the goal at the brewery end of the stadium. Behold and let me know if you have ever seen a stand like this one. Its things like this which makes non league great. In an age of identikit grounds in the Premiership/Football League its refreshing to see something different.

Entrance was the standard £5 with a smart programme selling at £1. Badges were also for sale at the new turnstiles for £3 so i bagged one of those. It always handy when clubs place the badges on the turnstiles where you can easily buy them without having to go hunting for them. A good number of fans/reprobates/desperado's from Retford had made the trip. Many of which were in the clubhouse which, unsurprisingly enough, given what's next to the club served a decent enough pint.

Tadcaster's home kit is yellow shirts with dark blue sleeves and dark blue shorts. Which gave Retford a bit of a problem as the badgers are sporting an all yellow number away from home this season, and as the home kit has black shorts this would also clash with Tadcasters strip. The answer? The yellow away shorts and socks teamed with the black and white home shirt. I can't quite see the outfit making the fashion pages on the independent but it did the job. It did look dreadful though.

The strip was the only dreadful thing though as this was quite a decent match. The first half was a little cagey with neither side able to create many clear cut chances. Retford began to gain the upper hand as the half wore on and drew a good save from the Tadcaster substitute goalkeeper just before the break.

As the second half wore on I got that horrible feeling you get when you are at a cup tie and realise that unless something happens soon it could well be extra time followed by kicks from the penalty spot. So we were delighted when Retford knocked it in from long range following a throw in. However Tadcaster roared back with an equally spectacular goal when a free kick from the left was volleyed in first time into the top right hand corner of the net. It was the first goal that Retford had conceded in the 2011/12 year and i doubt they will concede a better one.
Then a couple of minutes that changed the game.
Tadcaster had a great chance to take the lead but their centre forward fluffed a great one on one chance. Then from the following attack Retford grabbed their second and took charge of the tie. They added a third late on which made the 1-3 scoreline look a little harsh on Tadcaster if i am honest. The home side did build up a head of steam late on but the Badgers held firm to make it three wins from three games. Good show chaps. We also had the amusing incident of a home fan telling the linesman that he was " A bloody Biro" it must be a Yorkshire thing.

Thursday 17th July

Sat at home and watched Hearts v Spurs. After Celtic and Rangers also got poor results in Europe on the same night could we have witnessed Scottish football's darkest hour?

Friday 18th July

Lincoln City 1-2 Wrexham

My first Lincoln home game of the season and our first live showing on Premier sports TV. Would the Imps put on a show for the hundreds of people watching on their TV sets at home? Well not quite.

With Baz still on his holidays it was just my good self and Joey Tribiani in the car for this one. It was good to see Captain Gaz and his motley crew of stewards and they were on great early season form as they dealt with a group of youths in the Stacey West who seemed more interested in acting up instead of watching the game.Well done chaps.
On the pitch it was a bright start from City. They did however go behind to yet another stunning free kick right into the top corner. The defensive wall wasn't the greatest but i doubt we would have stopped it if we had all ten outfield players in the wall. It was harsh on Lincoln as we had played well enough and in my view didn't deserve to be trailing. Just on the stroke of half time Lincoln deservedly drew level when Sam Smith notched his second goal of the season as he bumbled the ball home from close range. This was City's first home goal since the 12th of March!

GGGGOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

City really took the game to the Dragons in the second half and created several good chances and forced a couple of good saves from the Wrexham keeper. But after all this Wrexham hit us with a classic sucker punch with a great counter attacking goal. That really took the wind out of City after playing so well. We tried to get back into the match but Wrexham were just that bit too good in defence for us.
The result took Wrexham to the top of the League and handed Lincoln a club record 6th consecutive home defeat.