Are we really still non-league off the pitch?

One thing I noted from Danny’s post-match comments was his insistence that off the pitch Lincoln City are still a non-league club. I’m not one for disagreeing with Danny, far from it. That man has delivered my football club back to me, hosed down, polished up and fit for the Football League.

However, I can’t help but feel that his comments are exclusively aimed at the training facilities and perhaps, just perhaps, they don’t do justice to the strides the club have taken over the past few months. I’d also have to ask exactly how ‘non-league’ we were off the pitch when we were actually in the non-league. Had we not been down to skeleton staff to save the pennies, did we really erode away to a non-league club?

I get how important the training ground is, I understand now we have a management team and coaching staff that will add significant value to the current squad by spending increasing amounts time with them. The squad themselves work tirelessly too, I’m told Billy Knott is often out there on his own practising free-kicks and he is by no means the only one putting the extra hours in. He needs to by the way, our free kicks have been terrible this season. That aside though there is a real desire to get better and our training facilities are hampering that effort.

By describing us as ‘non-league’ though I think perhaps there was a sweeping generalisation that we’re not up to scratch in many ways and aside from the training ground and staff numbers I’m not sure we were ever truly ‘non-league’ in our set-up. Anyone who queued for tickets last season or anyone who waited for away shirts to come into stock this season might disagree, but in my eyes being non-league involves situations such as your local Post Office selling your match day tickets or your games being called off every week because your pitch is essentially a quagmire, or your club shop being a portakabin or shipping container lit up by industrial building site lights.

We’re making small steps, but at present they’re little cosmetic changes that improve the experience but not significantly. I firmly disagree, each little step has a major impact on fan’s enjoyment

Have you looked at the Sincil Bank surface recently compared to years ago? I know we used to suffer from having the Ladies play on the pitch and having to train on there, and I know the facilities available such as covers has improved, but we had the best playing surface in the division last season and that was the case right up until the final day. I don’t care what Mark Cooper said about it after our 3-1 win in March, our pitch is Football League quality.

Every game sees our fan experience improving too. Speaking to Liam he feels we’re making small steps, but at present they’re little cosmetic changes that improve the experience but not significantly. I firmly disagree, each little step has a major impact on fan’s enjoyment of the matches, and the willingness to listen and develop is refreshing also. The need for focus on fan experience wasn’t as pressing when we had 2,200 turning up at just gone 2.50pm each week, but we’re a booming business now and I’m noticing a change every game that makes Sincil Bank a better place to be. This week there were several, firstly Ribs n Bibs in the fan zone. It has long been the desire of fans to be able to grab some different food outside the ground, no slur on Double M nor on the excellent catering in the TP Suite, but the more options you have the more likely you are to please a larger portion of people.

Music in the fan zone too, such a small step and I would imagine inconsequential to many, but it is just another little tweak that adds something. Like Danny loaning some cover in midfield or training Josh Ginnelly as a striker as well as a winger, it is something small that helps to develop the overall value. I didn’t get to hear too much of it (a by-product of the new fan zone is I’m not allowed to sell A City United in there) but it did improve the atmosphere. The warm October weather helped, but Saturday felt like a carnival and remember, it was just a run-of-the-mill home game against Cambridge. I noticed away fans mingled with home fans too, that isn’t particularly new but I’m sure our set up left those away supporters with a better view of our club, plus we took those notes out of their pocket and put them in our bank account. FA Cup run or not last season, profits still need maximising and that is happening.

Another change made came at the back of the Stacey West stand. It sounds very obvious, but the gate the cars exit from was moved from one part of the car park to another. This meant that fans leaving the game and walking behind the stand were not mingling with moving traffic, nor were they crossing in front of cars exiting the car park either. Foot flow was improved, safety was significantly improved and everything just worked a little bit better. Last home game that barrier at the rear of the South Park stand got opened, removing that bottleneck that has plagued us for seasons. These are all small steps, things that maybe those in charge see as obvious tweaks, but with each one I feel we take a step forward.

I know there are other things being addressed, larger changes being investigated that hopefully will allow lower tier fans to buy a beer or smokers to poison their lungs at half-time for example, but all things take time. Three matches ago an area was roped off and a few tables and gazebos set up outside the ground and every match since then large numbers have congregated and enjoyed their pre-match beer at the ground. Sure, they’re small steps and everyone must recognise that it is all work in progress, but this isn’t the thinking of a non-league club, not one bit.

The only aspect I feel is non-league is the lack of training ground. How much damage did Goal 2010 really do? I don’t know the politics and background to our mothballed training ground, but it breaks my heart to know we had exactly what Danny wanted right there in the palm of our hand, and now we don’t. It might not have been exactly what he needed, but there was a purpose-built facility that was simply wasted. I do know hard work is being put in to move us forward but I hope for our sake that it continues to progress quickly. I believe a site has been identified and plans are being laid but I don’t know specifics. It won’t happen overnight but progress does need to accelerate. Danny Cowley isn’t a man to place blame anywhere, not at the feet of individual players, not at conditions and certainly not directly at the lack of training ground, but he is clearly frustrated with having to travel up the barracks every day. The guys involved in getting that facility useable deserve much credit, having it last season helped the pitch no doubt and the players, but we have now outgrown it.

Holding us back? We’re tenth in League Two, three points outside the play-offs and unbeaten in four games. If we’re being held back, what might be achievable when he gets what he needs? Promotion? The Championship?

Danny hasn’t moaned once about his budget, unlike almost every manager from Gary Simpson right the way back to John Beck. He doesn’t hang players out to dry, they’re fit and the effort is never questioned. The one thing he refers to constantly though is the training ground and how much it is holding us back. Holding us back? We’re tenth in League Two, three points outside the play-offs and unbeaten in four games. If we’re being held back, what might be achievable when he gets what he needs? Promotion? The Championship? It might sound ridiculous, but where can this club go when things do finally fall into place?

I feel in every aspect other than training facilities we’re a Football League club. We’re learning and adapting but in truth we never were a non-league club off the pitch. We mothballed a training ground, never to be used again, and we cut down on staff which essentially mothballed much of our set up behind the scenes too. We were always fit for purpose but we didn’t have the staff to carry out the things we needed doing. Now, a few bits need replacing here and there, things need tweaking and re-introducing, but Lincoln City were always a Football League club in waiting. We’re not (for instance) Forest Green Rovers, throwing money away on players and arrogantly proclaiming that we’re in an easy league. We think Football League, on the pitch we look Football League and our fans are Championship standard. Once those pitches and facilities appear for day-to-day training I see no reason why we can’t achieve Goal 2010, maybe a decade later but without the fan fare, big promises and empty gestures.