18 October 2019 –
Lincoln City 0 Shrewsbury Town 0 (8,710)
A double header weekend
with two games to enjoy, lovely! First up was our first visit of the
season to Sincil Bank, home of newly promoted Lincoln City, who were
hosting Shrewsbury Town. But first I had to collect Sam from
beautiful downtown King's Lynn, so set out at 1500, allowing LOADS of
time – but the A17 was a shambles and we arrived at the ground just
ten minutes before kick off. This is NOT how we like to do it.
Seats found in the
small Stacey West end stand, programme (£3) and 50/50 tickets (£1)
in hand, the match began with the usual forward facing Poznan from a
section of Lincoln fans known as “617 Squadron” after one of the
Dambusters squadrons. These fans occupy a small end block in the top
tier of the largest stand at Sincil Bank, and can usually be relied
on to keep up with some kind of noise throughout the game.
Unfortunately they constantly use a drum, and too many of their songs
seem to be sixties pop songs rather than something more inspiring for
their own team or intimidating for the opponents.
The first half
was....terrible. Low on quality, low on excitement, not helped by
Shrewsbury blatantly hoping to escape with a draw from the off.
Lincoln's new manager has been left with a million midfield players
by previous managers The Cowley Brothers, so pre-match gossip tends
to centre around which of these will start on the pitch. Our tickets
cost £34 which is a little on the high side for this level, and the
football on offer was worth about a fiver. All played out to the
incessant drum banging and the strains of Hey Jude, Twist And Shout,
etc. Half time was a welcome relief from the dross on display.
We didn't have time for
food before kick-off so had to buy some at half time. And Lincoln
City have a REAL problem in this respect. There are simply not enough
outlets for the number of fans housed in the Co-op and Stacey West
stands. I imagine that when they designed the food provision they
were working on attendances expected at that time, which would be
maybe 2500 per match, but they are now having over 8000 regularly,
and they need to increase facilities. They've added a couple of
hotdog stalls and burger vans but it's ramshackle and still
inadequate. There were still 15-20 people in front of us in the queue
as the second half began, and when we did eventually reach the front
they had to start preparing more food. And had to borrow items from
one of the stalls. Absolutely dreadful. Sam's double burger cost
£6.50 believe it or not, and was “very good”, my pie was bang
average. We missed about 10 minutes of play.
Football-wise the
second half was as bad as the first, the only highlights being two
disallowed goals and a suspicious red card for Lincoln's Cian Bolger.
It ended goalless and we headed back to the car via the blue bridge,
with our goal average slipping.
And so to the scoring:
Atmosphere 2.5 – Same
old Lincoln
Food & Drink 3 –
Over-priced with terrible service
Stadium 3 – It's a
bit odd as nothing matches, but it's OK
Value For Money 2 - £34
for tickets, £11.50 for a burger and a pie (no drinks). Poor
Bonuses for Bovril,
mascot in a costume, 50/50 draw, and singing at least three
different songs.
Point deducted for home fans having a drum,
terrible.
Final score 13.5.
Mid-table mediocrity for The Imps.
Current table:
1 Rotherham United –
19.0
2 Boston United –
15.0
3 Lincoln City 13.5
4 Falkirk – 13.0
5 Mansfield Town –
12.0
Total goals so far =
14. Average goals = 2.8. Global average 2.75.
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