Lincoln City Straight Back Down

[PaulHaddock]

Good to see you back.

If I may ask, what's your opinion on the sudden influx on fans flocking to see Grimsby since Ian Holloway's arrival? Nearly a sellout in the home ends on Saturday wasn't it? I don't want to mention the 'b' word, but...

Well within your rights. People used the ‘kids go free’ as a reasoning to go down. More casuals means me having to stand up so they can go for a pint at 30 minutes!

 

[Davidimp]

Kids go free, borderline child abuse watching the cods lol!

 

[Son of Cod]

Good to see you back.

If I may ask, what's your opinion on the sudden influx on fans flocking to see Grimsby since Ian Holloway's arrival? Nearly a sellout in the home ends on Saturday wasn't it? I don't want to mention the 'b' word, but...

Cheers. As PH said it was kids go free, but nice try my friend.

 

[Limerick Mariner]

Good to see you back.

If I may ask, what's your opinion on the sudden influx on fans flocking to see Grimsby since Ian Holloway's arrival? Nearly a sellout in the home ends on Saturday wasn't it? I don't want to mention the 'b' word, but...

We occasionally had "fans flocking" in the Conference - a few christmas games were home area sell-outs. Unfortunately, we never got a full house because the away end was never full, even though they were local derby games...

 

[Plumbob]

We occasionally had "fans flocking" in the Conference - a few christmas games were home area sell-outs. Unfortunately, we never got a full house because the away end was never full, even though they were local derby games...

Some of us turned up
Those that didn't were probably those now bleating about us having lost 3 on the spin, some of whom will most likely disappear again in the not too distant future.

 

[FGR Stroud]

This thread suddenly popped up on my browser which prompted me to check on Lincoln's progress this season but also the other three who were promoted with them last year.

Bury - dead and almost certainly buried

MK Dons - Just above the relegation spot in 18th with 33 points. Current form mid-table and unlikely to be relegated.

Tranmere - nosediving towards relegation. 21st with 23 points and 7 or 8 points adrift of moving out of relegation zone. Current form is 23rd with just one point.
Almost certain they will be playing League 2 football next season.

Lincoln - look fairly safe at 15th in table with 38 points. But their recent form is as bad as Tranmere, also with just one point. A remote outside chance they could be drawn into a relegation scrap.

So checking those promoted in Season 2018-19, two will not be playing League 1 football next season [Bury & Tranmere] and the other two [Lincoln & MK] face a small struggle to retain their place in 3rd tier.

One or two posters at start of thread claimed promoted teams always do well in first season. But not this year.
One must now ask if the gap between the two divisions is widening and a possible foretaste of future years?

 

[Luke Imp]

It's a big gap but I think there have been difficult circumstances for arguably all four of the clubs, which have hampered them a little more than your normal promoted ones.

Bury are self-explanatory, Tranmere, if we're honest, got promoted too quickly and lost Norwood as well. We weren't helped by the Cowley leaving, more so given that they basically ran the Club and we also changing our recruitment strategy in January, which saw key players sold in January and has left us weaker. MK Dons were probably the least affected side, or seem that way, with just a manager change, and one who wasn't there for a decent length of time.

 

[WhiteRussian]

We were utterly abysmal after the first few games. Way way worse than our squad should have been and I personally have no idea why. Even though we had some injuries to our better players it was no more than any other club suffers from. Tisdale didn't seem to have a clue and for once Winkleman got the gun out early and shot him.

Our squad is good enough to be boring mid tale so our form now is pretty much what was expected.

 

[PuB]

When we came up as champions a few years back we really struggled, sacked Martin Allen after about 10 games and then had to quickly rebuild the squad (which still struggled).
Teams passing through this league like Luton are more on an anomaly these days.

 

[Plumbob]

From a thread on our forum. Thread is titled "Perspective required", and is in response to unrest by some at our current form. Seems to indicate that gaps are growing between each division.

"There were 12 teams who gained promotion last season to the top 4 leagues in English football. Of those only 2 currently occupy a League position better than us, 8 a worse position and Bury who have gone bust. Just shows the gap between the leagues is a big one and adjusting to a higher level isn't easy.

Prem - Sheff Utd 5th, Villa 17th, Norwich 20th
Champ - Charlton 19th, Luton 23rd, Barnsley 24th
L1 - Lincoln 15th, MK Don's 18th, Tranmere 21st, Bury BUST
L2 - Salford 11th, Leyton Orient 17th

Perspective"

 

[Davidimp]

The gaps between the divisions is clearly growing, plumbob's post shows that.
Wycombe struggled last season but have kicked on this.
Our current odds for relegation 200/1.

 

[RLC]

Yes, the gap between Leagues One and Two has widened massively since we were last at this level six years ago, which would be expected given the distribution of the EPL 'solidarity' payments.

It would have been difficult for us to survive this season even with a narrower gap: a number of our squad have played non-league football for almost their entire careers, and a number of the others either don't have the quality or experience for this level, or are simply too old.

For what it is worth, and despite the comments above, I don't actually accept that we are doomed, at least not just yet. We averaged one point per game prior to Christmas, which would have been good enough for survival this season, and our squad is stronger on paper now than it was before the January window. However, there is a chronic lack of confidence in the squad at the moment and we need a couple of victories very quickly to have any chance of survival.

 

[WhiteRussian]

I thought Lincoln would be pushing towards the playoffs this season simply because they were so much better than anyone else that got promoted. Obviously the Cowleys have had a huge effect on them but are still 15 points well clear of trouble.

It could have been us or Mansfield who got promoted. We both stuttered towards the autos and were far from impressive. Just the one game seperated us and we wouldn't have won the playoffs, thats for sure. So while I thought we recruited well in the close season as much as I expected mid table that was probably more wishful thinking.

If Bury had survived and kept their team it would have been better than us and Tranmere so TBH I don't think there is anything unsurprising about the relative positions of the promoted sides.

So I'm not convinced of a huge gulf between leages 1 & 2 yet, but it's getting so you need more and more money to be competitive.

 

[GodsGift]

We've already had 4,000 fans renew their season tickets for next season, which is 600 ahead of this time last year.

Very encouraging signs given many were expecting ST numbers to drop a little given our mixed results and no longer having the Cowleys.

 

[Imp in Branston]

Maybe SOC will resurrect this thread again for next season (if we have one that is).

 

[Son of Cod]

Oh you're definitely going down next season. In fact I find it laughable that the media lapped up this Wuhan fish market angle when everyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that Lincoln City started Coronavirus so that they could avoid imminent relegation.

 

[Imp in Branston]

Oh you're definitely going down next season. In fact I find it laughable that the media lapped up this Wuhan fish market angle when everyone with an ounce of intelligence knows that Lincoln City started Coronavirus so that they could avoid imminent relegation.

Well we had to stay in League One so you go about doing whatever it takes to achieve that.

 

[Son of Cod]

Can confirm that the Cowleys have left Huddersfield. Must be getting the England job? Impish

 

[Indian Dan]

Managers are like players. Brilliant at one club, dreadful at others.

It was forever thus.

 

[Luke Imp]

Baffling decision considering where they were when he took over. They were solid mid-table from when they were appointed, I think.

Seems pretty clear where the problem lied, though. They wanted transfer control and the Chairman has obviously decided to go down the Director of Football route (despite telling DC he would have full control, which is why he took the job). That was always going to be a problem as they went higher because few Clubs allow managers total control.

Reflected far worse on Huddersfield than Cowley.

 

[PuB]

That final sentence looks like it’s a financial decision rather than anything else, ‘not looking for applications for the vacant positions’.

 

[Indian Dan]

Somebody rumoured that 4 Championship clubs are right in the shit and staring down the admin barrel.

 

[Son of Cod]

Baffling decision considering where they were when he took over. They were solid mid-table from when they were appointed, I think.

Seems pretty clear where the problem lied, though. They wanted transfer control and the Chairman has obviously decided to go down the Director of Football route (despite telling DC he would have full control, which is why he took the job). That was always going to be a problem as they went higher because few Clubs allow managers total control.

Reflected far worse on Huddersfield than Cowley.

They must have known this going into the job though? For a pair that were so methodical in their transfers at Lincoln, it seems weird that they'd gloss over this when choosing their next role.

 

[Son of Cod]

Somebody rumoured that 4 Championship clubs are right in the shit and staring down the admin barrel.

In addition to Wigan? Hull surely one?

 

[Luke Imp]

That final sentence looks like it’s a financial decision rather than anything else, ‘not looking for applications for the vacant positions’.

I don't know, I'd say "We have a different vision for the way we operate the Club, and how our ambitions can be achieved” is quite telling.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

In addition to Wigan? Hull surely one?

Barnsley too from what I’m hearing

 

[Luke Imp]

They must have known this going into the job though? For a pair that were so methodical in their transfers at Lincoln, it seems weird that they'd gloss over this when choosing their next role.

The sticking point initially was that they weren't going to have control, which is why the move rumbled on for longer than it should have done. The Chairman then agreed they could have total control, but has now seemingly broken his promise and gone back on his word.

Looking back, they wanted to keep Danny Simpson for another month to finish the season but the Chairman withdrew the offer a few hours before the re-start so maybe the writing was on the wall from that point.

Definitely a waste of £1m for Huddersfield!

 

[Indian Dan]

Barnsley too from what I’m hearing

Really? Not that I know anything about them, but I’d have thought they were run responsibly.

I’m wondering now if clubs are seizing an opportunity to clear debts and blame Covid and avoid any punishment under some kind of class force majeure action.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Really? Not that I know anything about them, but I’d have thought they were run responsibly.

I’m wondering now if clubs are seizing an opportunity to clear debts and blame Covid and avoid any punishment under some kind of class force majeure action.

Their owners have the cash but have never intended to put any into the club so if they go down which is highly likely it doesn’t look good for them.

I would imagine Birmingham, Wednesday and QPR have issues too

 

[Conker]

How many times can one manager get to pretend the goalkeeper is injured to get a team talk in?


Be interesting where they end up next, upper L1 I imagine?