Not The Top 20 is one of two must-listen podcasts focusing on League One, alongside our own excellent League One show.
The presenters, Ali Maxwell and George Elek, have shaped some of my understanding of League One over the years, and now they accompany me on a run each week as they go through the weekend’s action. They do often leave me worried. They have waxed lyrical about Rhys Oates recently, and I went to Mansfield expecting Messi in a shirt, rather than a messy pitch.
Ali, in particular, has been backing Lincoln for a while now, and after our win at Field Mill, he was not just enthusiastic about the Imps, he claimed to be obsessed with us.
“I am pretty obsessed with this football club right now,” Ali said on the latest NTT20 podcast. “If they continue and get over the line, which I expect them to do, we should be celebrating Lincoln’s promotion as much as we have pretty much any over the last few years.
“If that does happen, I am going to be ready with quite a lot of monologues, maybe some written content as well, because they really have captured my imagination, particularly the way they have played in the last few weeks.”
We know City have been relentless since mid-December, but other teams have probably only started thinking that around mid-January as we have marched on through fixture after fixture with the same aggression and style. It could lead to teams adjusting to combat our threat, rather than us blocking what they do, and the fact we have come through some tough games impresses Ali.
“A lot of teams that have a mid-table budget who get into a position that they are in, you could imagine nerves kicking in. You can imagine that slightly tweaking performances.
“Suddenly you are there to be shot at, teams are playing differently against you. It is not hard to imagine that that can cause problems for teams and we have seen it time and time again from fast starters.
“Lincoln have got better over the last month or two when things have become tougher. When they have been the ones to be shot at, they have got better and I think that is unbelievable from a kind of group psychology point of view.”
Group psychology is interesting, and I suspect ours has improved. I think the management and recruitment do a lot to improve the mentality and keep it strong. For instance, taking up an option on James Collins’ contract, or shipping out Frankie Okoronkwo, who would know he had a bit-part role to play, and bringing in Alfie Lloyd, who will be all ambition and energy at a fresh team.
Where we are does not happen by accident to a team with a bottom-six budget, and it is nice to see industry experts, widely accepted as honest and not out for shocks or cheap clicks, recognising that.
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