The morning after the afternoon before….
What to say after we’ve just put in a super limp effort against a side that shipped 7 at home only a few weeks ago?
Of course we are in a relegation dogfight and there are so many similar poor performances especially at home. Cambridge, Doncaster and Gillingham all very similar.
It’s only a short while since excellent wins at Sunderland, Plymouth and at home to Oxford.
So which is the real Lincoln City? Totally Jeckyl and Hide performances and impossible to rationalise.
Our mood is naturally low and I am no different.
At the moment it feels a bit like the season when we got relegated to the Conference first time when we simply couldn’t find a result when we needed one in the last 1/3 of the season.
A lot of criticism and some considerable loss of confidence that MA has the answers to pull us out of this tail spin. I think that’s justified on a forum when fans are naturally airing their worries
We have an excellent Chairman and I feel very confident we will reach our potential as a club (whatever that may be) under his leadership.
These points though puzzle me.
We spent an awful lot of money on a new pitch to be laid to suit our passing game. That’s a huge investment and trust placed in the coaching staff that this investment would enhance our performances. Clearly, the return on that investment has been poor. As of this morning we have the WORST points per match return in our league in home matches. In any other business the management board would ask serious questions about the return on investment.
We were touted as chasing a young Scottish full back who had just scored against Rangers in the SPL. Surely out of our price range? But we did fight off stiff competition for his signature from clubs with bigger budgets and paid a substantial fee which was almost certainly a club record. Then…..he hardly gets a game. Was this another bad investment?
We constantly hear about the super budgets of other teams in our league, so we must spend our money wisely.
Whittaker looked incredible when he pulled on the shirt for us. He now looks lost. Why? What has happened in only a few weeks? But he’s not the only one looking disinterested or lacking the minerals for a scrap right now. Why? Is it that the group is not as cohesive and together as we would like and expect? I don’t now and I can’t explain. Logically it may suggest parts of the dressing room are not ‘on message’ and only the manager can sort that out, difficult though if he’s ‘lost’ one or two.
How many times have we conceded goals from a simple cross delivered to the area in the central penalty area around the edge of the 6 yard box? A number of very similar goals.
I don’t have the answers and I’m simply sharing my frustrations.
The most amazing current mystery though is how the support has held up, especially at home where we have been poor (the stats don’t lie) and on a few occasions dire. Add in Bowers and Pitsea and Hartlepool in the cup to the league form and we’ve had a number of wretched efforts at home.
The support has been fantastic in numbers but it’s hard to shout with a huge lump in your throat isn’t it?
Over the years I’ve seen the support plummet when we hit a lean spell but right now it’s consistently excellent and not deserving of the home performances especially.
So, where do we go from here? Well let’s start with a full stadium next Saturday. If we can’t get up for this match against SW then we are in big trouble. We need to see fight and resolve and we may just get a result that kick fires our move away from the relegation trap door. Another poor defeat and we really will be in for an anxious end of season.
Let’s see some fight and togetherness now and scrap for our L1 status, which is entirely within our own hands to achieve.
UTI!
