The SAVIOUR(s) of Lincoln City | Vital Football

The SAVIOUR(s) of Lincoln City

PWould

PWould

Vital 1st Team Regular
Pinch me and one day i will wake up and its all been a dream that has been too good to be true. Back to the reality though and my passion for the imps certainly does not wane. Long trips to the Ricoh from Somerset, though begin to take their toll at my age, particularly the trip up the M5, M42 and M6. More on that later though. I have been supporting the club throughout my life, through thick and thin but i have observed a marked change around me.
To whom do we attribute the most accolade for said change. There are a few worthy candidates but i will not plump for the obvious dynamic duo despite their rightly, god like status in my and others eyes. For me everything changed the day that a certain Clive Nates walked into the club. This tin pot underachieving mess of a club ( i still loved them though) started to transform before my eyes.
I have to say i had my reservations at the time or at least mixed feelings. We had our fingers badly burnt by Swann, and a South African hedge fund manager who did not even support the club did not completely " float my boat". The corollary of this was though in many ways of course i was just relieved that someone wanted to put investment, not stupid money ( yes i am talking about you Scunthorpe and Mansfield, to name just two) in my beloved club. It was when i had the privilege to meet Clive in the early days that i was quickly taken with his unassuming character, genuineness, lack of ego and real desire to change things for the better. He probably would not like this said as he appears to be a very modest fellow, but praise is long overdue in my book.
We all spotted little things, but quickly the club seemed to be running better and more professionally. Not over night as we had been pared to the bone staff wise and even Clive did not have a magic wand.
We will never know the exact machinations but clearly the Cowley brothers were in some ways headhunted and Clive had his fingerprints all over it ( in a good way if you are an imp). The 60% win ration was clearly pretty attractive, and remarkably still exists on their record after two years of managing us. This then has been the true catalyst for the imps onward and upwards trajectory. Who could have predicted it? Back to the Coventry game, yes it was worth it even though the journey up took almost twice as long as google maps indicated. The performance on and off the field from the players and fans etc was a joy to behold. I just got in, in time to see the Kick off and of course a monster of a goal from a certain Mr Rhead.
So THANK YOU , Clive Nates for the journey we have all been on. I remember saying to him that we were a small, loyal but passionate bunch of supporters. Well i got that right only in part, as the amount of fans continues to grow. What a connection we now have with our fan base and community. I particularly like to see the number of women and children who are jumping aboard the "Lincoln Loco" It sounds as if there are a few more positive twists and turns yet. I think Clive along with the brothers have fallen in love with our club and their association will be lenghened. I will be going to my grave a happy man.
 
Agree one hundred percent. I believe Bob D met Clive N on holiday and the rest eventually followed. Perhaps the most fortuitous meeting since Holmes and Watson. Bob has saved his considerable investment in keeping us going, but unpalatable as it may sound, there is nothing in Bob's form book that suggests he would have had the nous to seek out and engage the Cowleys.
 
Totally agree. The word that stands out for me is "professional" in the way the club is run these days. Despite that it is still a friendly, family & community club. Takes a lot of doing to achieve all that together. Thanks Clive for kick-starting the whole thing. ??
 
For me there will only EVER be three saviours of Lincoln City off the pitch in recent times.

John Reames. The Community Trust in 2002, chaired by Rob Bradley and Bob Dorrian.

Clive gets his plaudits, but no offence intended, without Bob, there wouldn't have been a bandwagon, if you pardon the phrase.
 
Completely agree Danny Nicky deserve every credit they’re getting for achieving what they have but it wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for bob doing the nitty gritty poo work when we wasn’t great and let’s be honest if anyones deserves to enjoy this the most it’s him because not only did he have to watch this club during some dire spells but he’s had to be involved with it and get the abuse from us.
Thank you bob
And now thank you to everyone on the board and let’s hope for many many more years of this
 
UnbelievableJeff said:
For me there will only EVER be three saviours of Lincoln City off the pitch in recent times.

John Reames. The Community Trust in 2002, chaired by Rob Bradley and Bob Dorrian.

Clive gets his plaudits, but no offence intended, without Bob, there wouldn't have been a bandwagon, if you pardon the phrase.
Click to expand...

Depends what you define by saviour, really. Keeping the club afloat, sure, but I have no doubt in my mind that we'd be perennial underachievers in the Conference without Clive, and subsequently Nicky and Danny.

I think they all deserve equal praise, because without just one of them, we'd not be in this position.
 
I agree. But, I never ever abused Bob. The guy deserves all the success. Make no mistake,even if I had the kind of money he has, there is no way I would have thrown big chunks of it at a football club. Good on him!
 
I think and hope that MOST of us never abused Bob! It only took a little bit of thinking about things to have kept realising that he was keeping our club alive day by day by day all through that long dark period and at considerable personal cost.
He has never shied away from terrace criticism and accepted readily managerial mistakes (honest mistakes). I recall the Tilson defeat at Braintree, a low low point. I had a brief chat with Bob afterwards and he was as distressed as the rest of us at the performance and agreed that Tilson had to finally go.
And on investments, Bob said over and over again he was looking for an investor to change the club. He always knew the solution but it wasn't until he met Clive that he finally found that solution.

So yes, Clive Nates u are a saviour but Bob Dorrian so 100% are u. Many thanks to both from all of us.
 
Agree with all above comments. There are two levels:

John R, the Trust, Rob B and Bob D (latterly) kept the Club alive and with a team for us to support. But with the level of investment available we were probably stuck at a level of just surviving

The investment from Clive N was an incremental step which led to us being able to recruit the Cowleys, and that (hopefully) has led to some sustainability as well, through cup revenues and bigger gates, as well as great success on the field to date

They are all part of why we are where we are now
 
No slight intended on Bob and he was one of the candidates i was referring to. I accept he played s significant part in keeping us afloat. I also think that the Cowleys liked what they saw initially from the people running the club, ie genuineness and integrity. However we can't gloss over that Bob was the chairman through arguably our darkest days and under his leadership and stewardship some very poor and questionable decisions were taken. I am pleased for Bob now that he can bask in the warm glow of our current success.
When it comes to the major credit i stick with Clive. Without his initial funds which meant we could attract Danny and Nicky, we would be sunk; but more importantly his nous and acumen have helped us turn the corner. In fact turned the corner and then sped along the race track, overtaking and barging others out of the way as we go, and the juggernaut has been unleashed.!! Without Clive in my view we would still be languishing in the National League with crowds of just over 2,000. UTI
 
Bob is no doubt the financial saviour who kept the club alive through many dark years. However his inability to pick a decent manager extended those dark years.

Clive came in knowing exactly what type of manager he wanted, and went out and found him/them. If that search had have been left to Bob alone, the Cowleys would not have even been on the radar judging by Bob's past record in that area.

So Bob deserves plaudits for keeping the club alive until Clive came along, but the Cowleys and therefore our current success are 100% down to Clive in my view.
 
Not forgetting that under Bobs chairmanship, we flirted dangerously with being relegated from the National League let alone promoted
 
Had a chat with Bob last night, and he came across as a thoroughly decent down to earth man who clearly loves the club and all that it involves...
 
Let's not also forget that Bob took the Chairmanship on by default i.e. no-one else would take it at the time and he reluctantly stepped forward.
 
I think we need to add the role that the entering of "Administration " played back in 2002. That process was crucial in offering protection from creditors and eventually got rid of approx £K 700 in debt.If we had not gone into administration we would have gone under,no question.We should also give credit to the Administrator ,David Ellingworth,who was in overall charge for about 1 year.He initiated the huge cost reductions that needed to take place.This was managed sucessfully by the Board and continued after he left.
Lets not forget the vital £K 100 cash inflow from Keith Roe and Rob Bradley who stepped in when it looked if the Administration process might fail,despite the fundraising efforts.
 
Bob was not involved in 2002 !
( trust me Jeff i was!)
Rob Bradley saved the club imo!
Also JR ( paid bills on the quiet i believe) and latterly Bob has with loans etc etc.
 
One of our many creditors which "took a bath" ironically was Coventry City. We owed them about £K 4 which I think related to Robert Betts who was on loan with us for a while.
 
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