Another big reason for visiting United is the fact that one of my favourite all time Lincoln players is now player-manager at Ashby Avenue. Mr Terry Flemming. Terry was Lincoln's enforcer in midfield in the John Beck years. Joining from Preston North End in 1995 and leaving for Plymouth Argyle in the 1999-2000 season. In my view we have never had a centre midfielder with the bite passion and ability Terry had since he left. A few people seem to think Scott Kerr provided that but i don't subscribe to the view. Terry wouldn't just clap his hands and gob off at people like Kerr did but had a knack of grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck when things werent going great, driving the side forward and popping up with a few goals. It was he who got the opening goal at home to Brighton in the promotion decider at the end of the 1998 season.
Other great Flemming goals of note were his diving header at Hull City in the same season, and scoring the equaliser against Manchester City in our 4-1 demolition of the then Championship side at Sincil Bank in the league cup. When we were briefly in the 3rd tier of English football in the 1998-99 season he was one of the few players to make the step up. As a final note I often pitied any fool who went in for drop ball with Terry, as whoever did not only lost it, but more often finished up in a crumpled heap on the floor clutching their shins. That was our Tezza at his best! As with most of the Beck team Terry didn't mind bending the rules from time to time. A case in point being at home to Wigan in the 1996-97 season, after already receiving one booking he was about to be cautioned and be given his marching orders. Quick thinking Terry then gave his name as team mate Tony Dennis and amazingly the ref fell for it and Terry was allowed to continue. See the refs were crap back then as well!
He was also a top man off the field and was big into his hip hop music. I only know this because a fresh faced Gavin Brown of BBC Radio Leicestershie fame often served him in a well known music shop when he was at university in the fair city of Lincoln.
Yesterday was a great day for football, sitting outside in various beer gardens and watching the world go by. Although its a bit of a walk from the train station to Lincoln United's ground, you can break it up by having a couple of drinks in the Nosey Parker and Monson arms en-route. You also pass a Pets at Home store so you can check out the latest gadgets and news in the pigger world.
I got to the clubhouse at about 1.50 grabbed a pint and sat outside watching a spot of cricket on the pitch outside of Lincoln United's ground. The Scottish cup semi final between ST Johnstone and Motherwell was on TV in the bar so its hardly surprising that there were more people outside watching the cricket than that crock eh? I ambled over to the turnstile at 2.30, paid my £6 and bagged the last programme (£2) there didn't seem to be many in which was a tad surprising as City were away and you would have hoped a few City fans with nothing better to do would pop down. Normally United have a couple of ex Imps in there line up but today it was the visitors who had more faces with Lincoln City connections. At the back they had former Lincoln defender Peter Folkes and another former Imp Dave Barnett is the first team coach and was today on the bench. Barnett along with Steve Welsh were the pair of centre backs brought in to replace Kevin Austin and Dean Walling for the 1999-2000 season and the less said about them the better, for me they were individually decent players but just didn't work well together.
Today had a real end of season feel to it with neither side having much to play for. The pitch was rock hard and had plenty of sand on it. In fact it billowed up every time the players kicked the ball. Lincoln have picked up alot since Terry took over and are unbeaten in their last six matches. Those six games include a double over the runaway league leaders Barwell (4-0 away and 3-2 at home) Lincoln had a few out for one reason or another so it was a good opportunity for the management team to experiment with an eye on next season.
Lincoln dominated for much of the first half as Romulus offered little upfront to trouble the back four of Lincoln. Lincoln took the lead on 20 minutes when a corner from the right was headed in by Ryan Porter. A simple enough goal but Romulus will be disappointed with the marking as it seemed to be a free header. Nice to see the Dave Barnett school of defending is still alive and well in North Birmingham. Terry has now reverted to playing full back and it was his cross into the box on 23 minutes that led to a goal for Jack McGovern when his shot from ten yards went in off the post. The rest of the half was pretty uneventful as United seemed happy enough to sit on their lead and Romulus not quite having enough guile to break them down.
HT 2-0
As ever halftime was the signal to head to the clubhouse for a beer and to check out the halftime scores which were, on the whole, going in City's favour. Lincoln were 0-0 at Crewe while Barnet and Stockport were both losing. Burton and more surprisingly Northampton were both winning but you can't have it all can you?
After consuming my bottle of Spitfire it was back out to take in the second half. The Imps took the lead a couple of minutes into the second half and all seemed well in the world. Back at United, the second half was one of the most uneventful i have seen all season. Lincoln missed a couple of half chances and were reduced to ten men when Stuart Reddington walked for two bookable offences. Nobody seemed to be too sure what the second one was for so i assume it was something he said to the ref but i am not 100% sure. Lincoln deserved their 2-0 win in the end and i am sure Terry will take plenty of positives from not only this match but the last couple of months as a whole as he cuts his managerial teeth.
It was a decent enough day as well for the Imps as although Crewe got back in the game the 1-1 draw halted a run of 5 consecutive defeats and coupled with defeats for the bottom two opened the gap up to 6 points with 12 points still to play for. Lincolns' goal difference is dreadful so we still need a point or three to be safe. We never do things the easy way in Lincoln. Defeats for Bradford, Macclesfield and Cheltenham all lost, while Northampton blew a two goal lead to get a draw so there are still plenty of sides in the mix. Bradford v Burton on Tuesday will be interesting to say the least. For one I hope Jacko can pick his troops up from their 4-0 spanking and beat Burton. I still think it will be Barnet and Stockport for the drop but it will be close.
Just a bit of a plug to finish off with. On the 21st of May there is a Lincoln united legends v Lincoln City legends game taking place at Ashby Avenue with a 3pm kick off. The Imps are fielding the likes of Lee Thorpe, Jason Minnett and my all time favourite Imp Barry Richardson. Also been confirmed is Felice's favourite Imp player Full back Ben Dixon!!!!! With names like that how can you not attend. In fact i wouldn't mind wagering a quid or two that the side we put out that day would beat the current day "Heros" quite comfortably!
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