Yesterday, I did a Patreon dog walk video and said I’d prefer to lose tonight, and against Man Utd kids, and beat Stevenage and Bradford.
This morning, I’ve seen a few tweets about tonight being a free hit, and Peterborough being the main focus. It happens every time we have a big cup tie, and I am always the worst for it. Many loyal Imps fans, who go away, or remember the journey from Welling station to the ground, feel a bit like we’re selling out by getting excited about these games, don’t we?
I’m not sure it’s snobbery. In the music industry, it would be the equivalent of saying Dookie was alright, but did you listen to Kerplunk? That’s classic Green Day. It’s as if somehow, by not following the masses and reeling out our own, intimate experiences supporting the club, we’re better than the national media pile on. We’ll be here when the crowds clear, right?
I’m always one to review a situation and change my mind, and maybe the emotion of my current situation has moulded my change of attitude, but I don’t actually think it is all about Peterborough at the weekend. Here’s a big statement as well – I’m not sure which I’d rather win.
It all started a few years ago as we left Bramall Lane, having beaten Premier League Sheffield United. My mate Matt had picked me up on my belief the League Cup was the third trophy, given the limited earning potential year on year. “Sometimes, Gaz, it’s not about money, it’s about moments,” he said, or something similarly profound. Leaving the ground with him, my Dad and Ben that evening, I felt that connection to this competition.
Since then, I’ve wanted the spotlight to shine on us. I don’t feel cheated when I see the national media taking an interest, and I’ve realised something about the cup – it’s all about moments. Football is all about moments, it’s all about those memories we make and the people we make them with. We labour under the misapprehension that it’s about promotions, but it’s not. Why do people who seemingly find watching their club a penance come every week? Because they meet their friends and because they can talk about Spurs in ’83, or winning the GMVC, or the day Amoo was on fire.
Moments. Memories.
Let me ask you a question. Remember when we played Everton in the FA Cup, and hipster try-hards like me said it was all about the next game? Who did we play in the next game? No? I had to check as well. It was Swindon, and we drew 2-2 with ten men. How did that result impact our final place after 46 games?
It didn’t, we won the title by six points.
What about when we played Liverpool? What was the next game? How about West Ham? Spurs, in 1983, how did we do in the fixture afterwards? Stoke, in 1976? No? I didn’t think so. I’m the same. For most of those games (the ones post-87) I would have preached about the next game being the more important, and we didn’t win any of those trophies, hell, we even lost some of the games, but in truth, which stay in your mind? Which go towards defining an era? Which do you look back on and think ‘I watched that with my Dad’ or ‘me and my mate such and such went there together’ and smile fondly?
That’s tonight. Strip away the razzmatazz, the incessant articles about last meetings (guilty), the radio stations crawling out of the woodwork for an interview. Take all of that away, and what do you have? A moment. A memory, matter not what the result is.
What if we win? What if Lincoln City were to do the impossible (just an opinion) and beat Chelsea tonight? What would you have then? You’d have something for life. You’d have a moment that you look back on and recall, even if you’re a teen now, when you’re deep into retirement, you’d remember it. I’d remember it as being the first game I took my nephew Isaac to on his own.
What else would it mean? A win against Peterborough would mean three points, and would they be crucial at the end of the season? Maybe, but most likely not. Our entire campaign won’t hinge on the result at London Road. But if we beat Chelsea, imagine the increased focus, the revenue we could generate from a run. We’d be remembered outside of Lincoln as well. As a fan, I remember Chesterfield going deep in the FA Cup in the late 90s, Bradford City making the League Cup final, and a host of other cup runs. It would create not just a memory for us, but a football story that once again, we’d be a key driver in.
Whatever the result tonight, we can’t lose. We can actually lose, but then we bank the revenue, wave goodbye to the papers, and crack on with the task in hand. If we did anything else, we’d keep that swag bag open for the money to roll in, we’d embrace the attention, and who knows, maybe an Irish left back not sure about coming across to England might see it all and think ‘I want a part of that’. Reputation, revenue and reverence for the club.
A lifelong memory for you and I.
So, if you do believe Peterborough is more important than tonight, that’s cool; it’s up to you. Me? I’ve shifted my belief, and I think tonight has the potential to be just as important. If you offered me a win tonight or a win on Saturday, I’d take tonight and let Michael Skubala and his Imps squad sort Saturday out for themselves.
Up the Imps.
Agree that everyone is entitled to their opinions, but it’s wild to me that there are any Imps fans out there who think beating Peterborough on Saturday is more important. As you say, if we could somehow better Chelsea in normal time or on penalties it would be one of most famous wins ever. A huge moment in our entire history. Something that we would be remembered for. Not only that, there would be the potential for even more sizeable revenue if we drew another big team – which would surely dwarf the Peterborough fixture in terms of importance to the club. Another big windfall might mean we are able to clear some debts, or have a bit of money to strengthen in January, for instance.
The season is 46 games long, and the result at Peterborough would hardly be decisive at this stage, if we are to have a promotion push (it’s far too early to judge on that anyway). We’ve played Peterborough a gazillion times, the Chelsea game feels like a novelty and really special. This is what makes cup football exciting and why it is important to get through the earliest rounds.
I also enjoy the increased coverage of the club at the moment, it is good to read articles and watch videos about us and I think it helps further build our profile as a club that is on the right path. When we had the FA Cup run in 2016/17 I saved newspapers from the time, it makes you proud to be a part of the club and I really don’t know why anyone would be against it.
You can savour this and still be up for the bread and butter of the league, they are not mutually exclusive. Are there really people out there who would rather we still had 2,000 fans at home and were dossing about near the bottom of the National League, losing to Carshalton in a cup competition a millions times less glamorous than the Carabao because it feels more “authentic” somehow? Madness if so. The “selling out” argument I don’t get – we’ve earned this tie on the football pitch, we’re not a underground punk rock band like Husker Du signing to a major label. We’re not betraying any principles by playing Chelsea. In fact, i’d say the selling out argument “Makes no sense at all.”