Aldershot (2011)
Ground Zero in my Imps’ fandom. Arguably, the lowest time in my life. Personally, I was going through hell, and during those times, you need a club that you can identify with, and this wasn’t it.
One win in 11. That’s all we needed, yet as we limped pathetically towards the final day, aspirations of survival went from expected to impossible, and that was no opinion, that was fact.
Final day, Aldershot at home, we knew bettering Barnet’s result would be enough. The only way we’d do that is if Barnet lost, because from start to finish, the gutless Imps were lost.
I remember the pain as Danny Hylton scored his penalty. Without a smartphone, I went around to the DJ booth for most of the second half, watching Barnet and Port Vale’s score on a television screen, waiting for a change that never came.
This pain never subsides. England last night failed on the brink of success. Lincoln City in 2011 failed harder on the brink of mediocrity. If you’ve never dropped out of the Football League, you’ll never know pain like this. Never.
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