Cod Almighty | Diary

Ne Lindum Carborundum

21 January 2019

Trentside Diary writes: I hate derby matches. I don’t get any pleasure from the increased tension, the extra nervousness of players and the inevitability of something going wrong. It always does.

That said, for me Lincoln will never really be a derby match. They are, and always will be, a little club and have bumbled along in the lower leagues for their whole existence. In more recent times a season in 'Division Two' looks good till you realise that this was the third tier at the time.

Against my better judgement I went along on Saturday and my dislike of these days was confirmed.

Let's start at the beginning. I’ve never been impressed with stewarding at Sincil Bank and Saturday lived down to expectations. Am I alone in despairing at the away match in 2005-06? We were 4-0 down by half-time and Russell Slade demonstrated his man management skills in not letting the players off the pitch because they didn’t deserve a cup of tea. Dozens of Town fans decided they were leaving at half time and a steward opened the gates to let them out. About a minute later my understanding is that the police ordered them closed again. Whoever’s bright idea it was, fans moving towards the exit were then pinned in by more people moving toward the gate. At least one person was injured.

Obviously, the lessons of Hillsborough didn’t reach Lincoln. On Saturday it was amateur time again. I appreciate that it’s hard for stewards but they made no attempt to get the crowd behind the goal to sit down before the match and so there was a large group standing. Fortunately, Town fans were on best behaviour, but you either do the basics or sell fewer tickets if you can’t handle a large away following. If it had kicked off then in the media it would have been the fault of fans, not poor stewarding.

I had forgotten how much I disliked the 'counting down' clock. Why on Earth would you have that? And that announcer? I assume he is either an out-of-work 1970s gameshow voice or someone told him to excite the fans. I’m not knocking the impetus that they have used to sell more season tickets (our club couldn’t manage it), but perhaps with so many fans being such recent converts to live lower-league football they need 'warming up' and confirmation of how long is left in each half.

I can only think that the targeting of Ludvig Öhman was deliberate and that is down to the manager. There should have been at least one red for elbowing him in the face. I’d like to hear why Mike Dean or the other officials didn’t pick this up.

So much for so-called top-flight referees. It bemuses me that their manager could run on to the pitch, harangue the fourth official and nothing was done. He reminded me of the nasty, aggressive PE teacher in Kes, except with hair. However honest or naïve we may be at times, I’d rather be like that and progress through skill than the general lack of fair play exhibited on Saturday.

Whatever happens with our neighbours down the A46, those tactics won’t get them far and sooner or later they’ll be battling for survival again. For the Mariners we’re a longer-term project and I don’t think it will be long till we’re reaping the rewards of what Mr Jolley and his team are doing. On the pitch it will come together. We just need to sort the organisation of the club, with Fenty out and new ideas in the boardroom. UTM!