Fans Forum Summary - Part One - Vital Lincoln City

Last night saw the rearranged fixture between Lincoln City Management Group versus the fans (aka the Fans Forum) take place, following the Covid induced December postponement.

You can discuss what has been said in this article HERE (you can also watch the fans forum on that link), as well as many other topics on our 100% Imps forum! Every page view helps raise money for Lincoln City Football Club!

Part Two of our Fans Forum Summary can be found HERE!

The Management Group clearly showed they had put events arising since the delay to good use, putting in a consummate and powerful performance. Providing safe hands and performing the sweeper-keeper role, all the way from South Africa was our number one Clive Nates. Such was his composure that he even managed to leave his area to deal with an errant rescue dog (named Danny Growly if you were wondering) before recovering his position to make a last gasp goal-line interception following a hopeful punt from one of the fans.

Jez George provided solid defence, calmly reading the game and stepping in with a couple of timely interceptions as required. Midfield maestro and playmaker was of course Michael Appleton who demonstrated his no-nonsense short passing game. Nothing got past him and having taken possession of the ball it was invariably laid off accurately, purposefully, and without fuss.

Leading the line and arguably man of the match was the indomitable Liam Scully who demonstrated his ability to switch from a classy number 10, but when required ran the channels combatively whilst still maintaining a fine temperament and discipline. His finest moment was holding off a persistent ‘fan’s clogger’ who would not let the issue of disenchanted former turnstile staff go. Scully like his name sake, held off three crude challenges before cutting inside to score the winning goal, finding the top corner with a superb effort as he pointed out that since the turnstiles had gone cashless, revenue returns had increased. His only blip in an otherwise faultless performance was when he under-hit a back pass to Clive regarding the latter’s tight fistedness in not updating the LNER electronic scoreboard to a standard that can be easily read by the Selenity veterans.

The fan’s team were overwhelmingly a solid bunch who put up a commendable performance themselves. Most of the questions were sensible choices that required concentration from the Management Group, who soaked up any momentum and pressure with ease leading to some enjoyable, easy-on-the-eye midfield triangles from both sides. Of course, there was the obligatory late call-up from ‘The Dog and Duck’ to make up the numbers for the fan’s team, who insisted on one or two pointless long punts. However, it was nothing that spoiled the match which was carried out in good spirit.

The Match official was BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Michael Hortin who was probably relieved to see the game play out without any controversial decisions or off-the-ball challenges. He played a great advantage with the ‘turnstile’ challenger – a lesser referee would have been tempted to issue a yellow for time wasting but he allowed the move to playing out resulting in the Scully winner.

Anyway, have away with the frivolity, and let’s have a brief summary of what came out from tonight’s Fan’s Forum in no particular order:

Ground Development: Any new ground remains phase 4 of the city Western development project and as such the club’s future very much remains at Sincil Bank/LNER for the next ten years and beyond. The club have carried out an audit which has identified improvements with costings coming in at over 6 million pounds. A staggering feature of that is the revelation that even if all the improvements were carried out, many of the upgrades would be hardly noticed by the fans. As a consequence, the club have to carefully consider and prioritise those they proceed with to ensure value for money.

The impact of Covid is still being felt. The Imps find themselves caught up in the worldwide ravages of inflation and supply chain issues. As such a comprehensive, ongoing review of the Stacey West development is underway. The club will only decide to proceed with or postpone the works once full clarity has been provided from all of the relevant parties.

Investment: The club continue their unending search for further investment. The club have to date avoided private equity themed investment and are concentrating on attracting people with a love of football and the club. Harvey Jabara is a good example of that model, with the US being an active area being explored.

The importance of ongoing investment was highlighted when considering that in the past six years over 6 million pounds has been put into the club whilst the only time that has returned a profit was during the famous FA Cup run and National League Championship season.

Writer: hulloutpost