#LincolnNonLeagueHorrorStories | Page 3 | Vital Football

#LincolnNonLeagueHorrorStories

I'll throw in 10th January, 2015. Lost 4-0 to Eastleigh, Nolan sent off for a horrific tackle early on, and then I'm sure they went on to miss three penalties, which could've made it 7-0. I stuck it out almost until the end, when Tomlinson skied one over the bar which seemed easier to score, followed by the trek back through to the station before it got pitch black. Lovely day!

I was there and remember the whole debacle,especially the pens.
 
The 4-0 defeat to Tamworth in 2011 really brought home to me how far we had fallen. It turned out to be Tilson's last game in charge although things didn't really improve afterwards The 3-1 defeat to Carshalton is up there too.


Yep, I'd go with that one. Son and I went there really believing we would win and begin to turn things around, but...

Didn't ex-Imp Paul Green play against us that day?
 
Must admit I was close to leaving. Walk of shame back to the car listening to a couple of Chester fans saying how poor Lincoln were. Agree on Power, the only one on the night to show any fight.
This one seems to a few peoples' "favourite". Is that now the full imps away support from that night on here? Horrible night, tho ironically if we'd won, we'd have crept into a play off spot, despite having been spanked 3-0 by Macc a few days earlier?

Was it Todd Jordan's last match in an Imps shirt? If so, every cloud...

Previous season, I think, freezing cold January in Southport, calamitous defending in a 4-2 thumping and Chris Bush's debut as sub in kit which didn't fit, shambolic in all respects.

We've come a long, long way since then.
 
Oddly enough, my low points were two wins.

Win number one came at Hyde on the final day of the 2012-13 season. We went into that game needing a win to guarantee safety in the Conference Premier. I remember driving absent-mindedly around the M60 before the game being unable to believe the position we had got ourselves into. We won 5-1 with a terrific hat-trick by Vadaine Oliver, but it was immaterial because Stockport lost at Kidderminster anyway. The point to which we had descended was the dominant thing, and the outlook was very bleak.

Win number two came against Telford at home in October 2014. I arrived at the ground well after two o'clock and the turnstiles were not yet open. There was no one around, tumbleweed was blowing along Sincil Bank and the atmosphere was dead. The atmosphere never picked up during the game either despite two second half goals from Tomlinson and a Sean Newton penalty. I thought the club was effectively dead, and had completed the journey from former League club to non-league club. The football was terrible, the matchday experience terrible, everything was terrible. Even though we had won, I left the game convinced I would never see City in the FL again. The essence of the club had been lost forever.

Shivers down the spine just thinking about it.
 
Went to Nuneaton in March 2013 when we in real danger of going down. Awful game in an awful stadium became even worse when (a) it started hammering down and (b) Wes York scored a 93rd minute winner. And I think there might have been trouble after the game too. Things looked very bleak that day.
 
I've set an article to publish on the Front Page tomorrow morning, with a few things from this thread included.

I did start typing a bit in the article about where the Football Club was in 2015 and how it is always important it is to look back and compare. Following this bit, I was going to look back at where I was mentally in 2015, compared to where I am now, but I simply didn't know how to type it because I'm not quite ready to so do. 2015 was the lowest point of my life, by far.

I've had depression for a very long time and I still have my crap days, but nowhere near as bad as most days in 2015.
 
Went to Nuneaton in March 2013 when we in real danger of going down. Awful game in an awful stadium became even worse when (a) it started hammering down and (b) Wes York scored a 93rd minute winner. And I think there might have been trouble after the game too. Things looked very bleak that day.

Hi Snats, think this report is the trouble you are referring to. We got to Nuneaton and found all of the pubs shut!
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/nearly-90-fans-arrested-ahead-1752815
 
God yes I remember occasions, mainly night games I think, when I’d turn up and wait at the ground for it to open! 7- Nothing, 7.15- Nothing...
 
2012-13 was a shocker of a season, being so close to going out the wrong end of the National League. Getting tonked 4 1 at home by Grimsby especially hurt, felt like they were miles better than us, only Power looked like he could compete with them. Sadly thought after beating Hyde 5 1 on last day the next season was going to be a promotion push!

Although I actually found 2014-15 to be most depressing! It was just such a nothing season, must admit going started to feel a bit of a chore. Little atmosphere, no idea what the performance would be like, just very meh and not a lot to get excited about. In fact the worst bit about all those years for me is the crowds of about 2,000, all sat looking bored but there through just pure loyalty.

Results that stand out are Carshalton and North Ferriby in the cups. Wasn’t even at Carshaltan but was depressing just listening on the radio! Also remember a game where we got beat at home by Welling, 0 2 I think, and just thinking ‘what am I doing here!?’.

However, I know it goes against the thread title... but must say I also have a lot of fond memories of our non league years.

In those boring games I mention, yes at times they were depressing, but most the time me, my brother and dad often created a lot of our own amusement and had some of the best laughs we ever had! Something that sums it up for me is I look back at the promotion season and remember North Ferriby away as fondly, it not more so, than Arsenal away. Fans getting tickets from the Post Office, too many cars that they could barely fit in the village, some of which got locked in by tractor. Real character and stories that you only got in the non league!
 
2-0 home defeat to a dire Kettering, the worst team I’ve ever seen us lose to. Really brought home the fact that we were more likely to slide further down the pyramid than bounce back. Thankfully eventually the Cowleys changed that.
 
We battered Kettering in that game. How we lost that I'll never know.

Losing 1-0 at home to already relegated Hayes and Yeading wasn't a great one.

That Kettering game, couldn’t believe it, was shocking, no idea how we lost. Their game management was ridiculous as well. Should have realised then what was to come for next few years!
 
2-0 home defeat to a dire Kettering, the worst team I’ve ever seen us lose to. Really brought home the fact that we were more likely to slide further down the pyramid than bounce back. Thankfully eventually the Cowleys changed that.

The away game at Nene Park (RIP) was also terrible. Cold and a really desperately poor performance.
 
Going to Barnet on the opening day and seeing us lose four - two, followed up by a nil three at Weymouth a few days later; sitting at my mates open jawed thinking holy crap where is this going to end. Should have known The Murph was planning to time the title run to absolute perfection.


Sadly all these years later, this is still fresh in the memory. Really thought it was the complete end for us at Weymouth.
After all every club who had dropped out of league since the war had disappeared into near or actual oblivion.
 
Playing South Liverpool in the 1987/88 season, we even took a replay to beat them unbelievable!.

Now that really was a dump! Please note the natural ventilation in the stand roof. I seem to remember opposite there was just the framework of a stand all rusting away but nothing else.

For those younger ones this is not the ground abandoned this is what it was like when we played there!!!

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Half remember that it went to a 2nd replay??
Was dreadful for sure.

Also remember Sutton Utd being a dump when we first went there. Stuffed 4-1 (i think), but what i remember most was the Gents facilities - a rusty sheet of corrugated iron at back of away grass bank which you went and stood behind.
 
Seem to remember us having a real offday against Enfield under Murph in the Trophy QF. That and the old git hitting anyone with his walking stick who tried to sneak into the stands without paying extra.
 
And one phrase has made me think "former league club or non league club".
How did we perceive ourselves in the non league years and how do we perceive other clubs who have fallen through the trap door too or maybe those clubs who have come up the other way?

For me i always saw us as a League club still but sat in the Non League. At what point would that perception have changed?
After 10 years? 20? Longer??
No one now would think of Workington or Bradford Park Avenue as League clubs still but down in the non league, but both only left the League in the 1970s.
Likewise Southport.

Conversely, I'm sure Leyton Orient fans will still be seeing themselves as a league club aiming to get back asap, likewise Stockport who are hopefully on the climb back up.
I guess the actually turning point from being a "League club" to not being one is when your club stops being fulltime and effectively abandons all hope of getting back.
 
Half remember that it went to a 2nd replay??
Was dreadful for sure.

Also remember Sutton Utd being a dump when we first went there. Stuffed 4-1 (i think), but what i remember most was the Gents facilities - a rusty sheet of corrugated iron at back of away grass bank which you went and stood behind.


Well you should do as you were stood right near me when Bobby Cumming put that goal in and ran to us on the wall side. Although we were pretty young and it's a long time ago :grinning:
 
for me it was half time in one of the games under moyses.
his kids were playing on the pitch, firing balls into the nets.

a closed stacey west.
rows and rows of empty seats in front of me in the co-op.

it felt like the end of us as a professional football club.