The moment Lincoln City Football Club died

Hello all

I don't often write about football in this blog but in the middle of fighting my own personal demons, I had to take the time out from that to address the situation at Lincoln City Football Club.

Let me give you a bit of a back story first. I first started going to Lincoln City on a regular basis in 2000/1, after a difficult first few years it seemed the club would die. The club entered administration and made several members of staff redundant, including then manager Alan Buckley. Rob Bradley decided to appoint Keith Alexander (RIP), Buckley's assistant, as permanent manager following a spell as caretaker. Keith's legion of non-league players, lead by the brilliant business mind of Rob Bradley, meant that the Imps were suddenly a club on the up.



Keith Alexander - RIP

 A first ever foray into the Playoffs followed, the first of five in a row. Names such as Alan Marriott, Simon Yeo, Simon Weaver, Richard Butcher (RIP), Peter Gain, Ben Futcher, Paul Morgan, Mark Bailey and several others set the foundations on the pitch for easily the best spell the club has had for several years, and as time went on players came into the club who have gone on to play in the Championship and Premiership, namely Gareth McAuley, Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Jack Hobbs and Jamie McCombe.

In 2005 Rob Bradley announced he was going to step down as Chairman. He was replaced by Steff Wright. A mass exodus of players lead Alexander to have to replace most of the squad and the Imps were struggling in the lower reaches of midtable as the club headed into New Year's Day. On January 2nd, as the Imps were heading to Mansfield Town for a local derby, the news came through that Keith Alexander had been placed on gardening leave. In the week that followed Gary Simpson (assistant manager) left, as well as Keith Roe and Ray Trew, the latter of which has gone on to be the current chairman at Notts County.

Things on the pitch did improve and despite being awful for the majority of the time, the club again made the Playoffs but lost 3-1 on aggregate to Grimsby. Keith Alexander quit the club a few days later, stating he had taken the club as far as he could.

Time went by as John Schofield, Peter Jackson and Chris Sutton were all appointed and failed to replicate consistently what Keith Alexander had done before Steff Wright announced he was going to leave as Chairman at the end of the 2009/10 season. He was replaced by Bob Dorrian in the summer of 2010, twelve months later the club were relegated. Skip forward 10 months and the Imps are again in danger of being relegated and with the Imps in terrible form but refusing to get rid of a manager who has only recorded two League wins since the beginning of December, there is a planned protest at Saturday's game against Newport.

The fans are protesting about how the club is being run, with many unhappy with Dorrian in particular. Dorrian has gained a reputation of saying what he wants to suit whoever he is talking to, with many saying that he alledgely changed his story from one minute to the next in the same conversation.

On Tuesday afternoon, the football club released the following statement on the official site.


The Board of Directors wish to condemn publicly the protest being organised by a small section of 'supporters' to take place prior to Saturday's vital Blue Square Bet Premier game against Newport County at Sincil Bank Stadium.


It seems that some of these 'supporters' are motivated by a desire to undermine the Board of Directors and to put the Club's Blue Square Bet Premier status at risk in the process is, quite simply, a disgrace.

Sincil Bank - Soon to be a Blue Square North ground

The outcome of such actions will almost certainly have a detrimental effect on the players and now, more than ever, is the time for positivity not negativity from everyone who has the future of Lincoln City Football Club at heart.

To me that signals the end of Lincoln City Football Club as we know it. The statement effectively says that the fans aren't allowed to have an opinion if they're not going to back the club.

When running a website about the club, I often got into arguments with the other fans as our opinions differed somewhat, but I always respected their right to that opinion, something wwhich the board doesn't seem to be doing. I must have missed the moment when our football club became a dictatorship, where only those in power get to decide what's the right and wrong opinion to have.

Let me put this into some kind of perspective for you with the use of stats. If these don't show you why the fans are discontented, nothing will.

Since Keith Alexander left the club

Seasons : 6 (including the current one)
Managers (permanent only) : 5 (including the current one)
Top Half Finishes : 1
Relegations : 1

League Matches Played : 267
League Wins : 74 (27.76%)
League Defeats : 120 (44.94%)
Goals For : 309
Goals Against : 389

Seasons with more home wins than defeats : 2 (2006/7 and 2009/10)

Wins by 3 or more goals : 7
Defeats by 3 or more goals : 19




So, the board of Lincoln City Football Club, based on all the above, please point out why the fans should be happy? The statement from the board is a joke, it really is. Rob Bradley always used to say that the fans made the club, so for the current board to say that the fans are killing the club is one of the most ludicrus things I've ever seen in my life.

You say it's a minority? The only minority in regards to Lincoln fans at the moment is those that are happy with the way things are going. The ones who are protesting are those that want to put their frustrations into action.

Well done Lincoln City Football Club, with this statement you have gone a long way to killing this football club.

I'm glad I stopped giving a fuck a long time again and I have already decided that this will be the last season that I will have a season ticket. I have highlighted in this blog on many occasions that I am planning on moving to either America or Canada, and regardless of whether I have moved or not by the time next season comes around, I am no longer prepared to constantly pump my money in for a club that is well on it's way to dying on it's arse.

I'll phone the undertaker.