The opening days of the season is always special.
When that whistle blows, anything can happen. All the planning, signings and hard work either come together spectacularly, or you suffer the same gut-punch as the season before. Sometimes, the worst teams get off to a great start, teams that end up relegated win big against team that end up promoted. It is a day of freak results, a bit like Boxing Day and the final day of the season. There is no form to speak of, only excitement, expectation and (for 90 minutes at least) hope.
This weekend, we get to find out pretty much everything and nothing. The team is half-finished, it’s the first game of a new era and the result, whilst important, won’t really tell us much about the future. Still, it’s the opening day, the first chapter in a new story, one that is always more exciting before it is written. Unless, of course, we’re talking about 2016 through to 2020. They were all far more exciting once underway!
I always use to go on about the opening day, how exciting it was, how everyone had hope. To a degree, they do. NTT20 podcast put us 24th this season in their predictions, but you know how many Lincoln fans did? None. Why? Because there’s hope. There’s always hope, and when nobody has any points, you have the same amount of hope as everyone else.
One opening day that typified this was us beating Barnet 1-0 in August 2009. I had this deep hope that our poor summer and weak squad would be enough to push top seven, and when Big Janos gave us the win, I thought I was spot on! We only won two more before the start of October; let’s hope that’s not the case this season!
What other opening day fixtures stand out? Here’s six that I still look back on, fondly or not.
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