Five Reasons So Many Lincoln City Fans Are Always Pessimistic

The first ‘you’re going up’ message I got was from my nephew, sometime before Christmas. Since then, a handful of people outside the fanbase have added their voice to that. Even my mate Pete is convinced we’re going to be playing Championship football next season.

Me? I still predict a draw every game because I daren’t predict a win. I’m still gripping my seat with a minute left of a 3-0 win against Bradford because they might get a couple back. If anyone starts talking about promotion, I say come back when we’re 16 points clear with five games left. Oooh, I’m so edgy, right?

Aren’t we all? The shouts about us going up, they’re coming from outside the club. When you’re inside looking out, it’s not always easy to see the bigger picture. I had it in 2017, sweating as we were level with Bromley on April 1st, not realising we were two weeks from getting our Football League status back. All I could see was the worst-case scenario.

Why? This may be perception bias, but I can’t help but feeling we’ve been the King of the Collapse during my tenure supporting the Imps. Today, I saw an article written about Mansfield Town in 1973 and their collapse that cost them promotion. 1973? Is that the best you’ve got? I can give you five examples of a City collapse since then.

I’ve been a Lincoln City fan for 40 years this year, and I can point to several collapses that haunt me, both in matches, and over a whole season. I won’t go into matches right now (3-0 up at Barnet, missed a penalty and lost 4-3, or 3-0 up at Forest Green with 21 minutes to go, drew 3-3), but there are plenty of seasons I can point to as an example of why I can’t see us going up automatically until it’s absolutely certain.

1982/83

Was this the ultimate collapse? Possibly. I wasn’t aware of the Imps at this stage of my life, but it gets spoken about a lot.

Just before Christmas, we thrashed Bournemouth 9-0. It left us in pole position, and with a healthy gap over the side in fourth. Three went up, no play-offs, and we were cruising.

League Division Three table after close of play on 18 December 1982

There is context. Colin Murphy wanted money to pay for two new players, but the chairman refused. We played a keeper, Stuart Naylor, up front early doors to make a point, and lost 1-0 to Newport. There were signs of cracking, but even so, seven points and a game in hand was a huge gap.

By the end of the season, we were 15 points off the top of the table, having won just nine of our last 28 matches. We had changed chairman, but the rot had set in. We even made a domestic cup final – before December 18th we’d beaten Leicester City, and gone toe-to-toe with West Ham in the League Cup, and we’d defeated top-flight Norwich City enroute to the Football League Trophy final.

On April 20th, Millwall beat us in the final at the Bank. A season that should have brought a league and cup double became a starting point that, four years later, would lead to another collapse.

League Division Three end-of-season table for 1982-83 season