Lincoln City: Only You. Land, air and the red and white life.

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Tom Reed

All I needed was the love you gave
All I needed for another day

And I all ever knew

Only you.

Legend has it that the devil sent two Imps down to cause mischief on earth.

They stopped at Chesterfield first, twisting the church spire in the market town, before moving East, to Lincoln to cause merry hell in the City’s cathedral.

“Stop me if you can” cried one of the Imps to an angel sent to halt them, causing the heavenly messenger to turn the trouble maker into stone.

It was apt then, for the football club with the Imp on its badge and tattooed on the limbs of its fans, to make a difficult task of a crunch promotion match on Saturday.

Lincoln sounds historic, without ever having visited and the city’s location diagonally North-East of Nottingham and similarly, South-East of Sheffield means it can often be overlooked in national and sporting matters.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Lincoln City supporter at Lincoln Cathedral.

That’s an advantage for the yellow-bellies of Lincoln however, as they can enjoy their fine city unspoiled, on a par with York, if not better, without too much of the tourist excess of its more vaunted counterparts.

There’s no no particular explanation of why the people of Lincoln are known as “yellow-bellies”, some say it is down to the gold sashes worn by local troops in the civil war, others due to a malaria like illness from working in the marshy conditions in the fens, with much of the County under water till the 19th Century.

Lincoln has always been connected to the land though, which the story of William Foster and Co exemplifies, moving from making threshing machines to tractors, to the first tanks in World War I.

Air supremacy was a theme too, with Lincolnshire home to the 617 Squadron “The Dambusters” who used Barnes Wallace’s bouncing bomb to demoralise the Nazi war machine in destroying targets that just wouldn’t budge previously.

“Après moi, le déluge” reads the insignia of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron and also writ large on a mural in the corner of the GBM stand at Sincil Bank, home of Lincoln City Football Club.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Lincoln City FC.

The active supporters at Lincoln City have taken the name as a badge of honour, incredibly proud of their city and its history and dedicated to creating a raucous atmosphere to cheer their team to victory.

Before we get to the idea of some sort of triumphalism from the Lincoln support we have to understand the loss the club has been through, such as the death of the highly respected player and manager Keith Alexander, who sadly passed away in 2010, aged 53.

The club losing its league status the same year pales into in insignificance obviously but leaves its mark on the team from the county city. The Imps have been close to going bust on more than one occasion too, being saved by a fans’ buyout in 2000/01 and then a year later when supporters had to rattle buckets after the collapse of the ITV digital deal.

There’s been some bad luck along the way, again, par for the course, on the day when Lincoln would see three goals chalked off, when so close to the League 1 playoffs.

Before the match, the 617 Squadron ultras had placed their drum quietly in the safe standing section of the GBM stand, ready for what was to come. Outside they were enjoying pints in the April sunshine with some lads visiting from Olympique Lyonnais in France.

©Tom Reed/ Terrace Edition. Olympique Lyonnais fans at Lincoln City FC.

The story of why Lincoln and Lyon are mates is lost in the haze of the Stella Artois served with its suitable red and white pump branding. It might have been a sticker seen by the Frenchmen who dwell to the East like the yellow-bellies or a chance encounter but, whatever the case, the Frenchman gather round ex-Imps player Lee Frecklington like he is a god and sing rude songs about Grimsby.

The French lads have gone wild in the aisles in the Lincoln club shop, spending hundreds on replica shirts, bucket hats and pin badges and probably several hundred more on beer.

They should give the keys to the club to the 617 Squadron, the punch drunk drummers, used to football kicks in the nuts but also growing Lincoln City day by day with their infectious love for the club and friendships like the ones with Lyon.

Actually, you do need a few business minded individuals around the place such as Clive Nates, the Lincoln chairman, who fell in love with the Imps via an infatuation with Alan Ball’s Everton, the Mersyside giants who had a short-lived link up with City in 2002.

It’s clear that Nates is in the process of club building, bringing the community on the way, with gates going from from the dodgy territory of 2,500 to a healthy 9611 on Saturday for the visit of Wigan Athletic.

In conversation, Nates is complimentary about the impact of the reign of Danny and Nicky Cowley and their frankly insane feat of taking the then non-league Imps to the FA Cup Quarter-Finals in 2017, which brought in £2million that could be invested in club infrastructure.

A new training ground was sorted and a Skills & Education Hub built behind the Stacey West Stand to help with the community work of the Lincoln City Foundation. Further investment came from American Harvey Jabara, while the Red Imps Community Trust does its bit, as it has done since the late 90’s with Rob Bradley, the elected supporter/director sitting on the club board. CEO Liam Scully had provided continuity and a train of thought.

Climbs are gradual in Lincoln, the walk up to its cathedral steep, energy sapping and in needing of a couple of rest stops on the way.

Wigan Athletic settled quicker on Saturday, wrestling control of the ball and the all important mental battle with little to play for, in comparison with the weight of expectation from the home fans.

A sexy strike apiece had made it 1-1 with long rangers fizzing in from Wigan’s Jonny Smith and then Lincoln’s Daniel Mandroiu.

But then, those three disallowed goals played havoc, like the Imps throwing things around at the Cathedral, two goals not given for offside against Lincoln and a further cruel chalked-off for a ball out of touch that looked close to being in.

You can see Nates’ work in action, via a young side who are comfortable in possession but perhaps need a Simon Yeo or a Matt Rhead to mould a cult moment.

Wigan took the win with a last gasp strike that, on another day, would be saved, as the Imps made life difficult for themselves, leaving a five point gap to the final playoff place and a Tuesday night date with Oxford United, who hold that position.

The 617 Squadron showed their love with a sincere rendition of “only you” by Yazoo in the imposing GBM stand which replaced the old open West Bank terrace, highlighting the transformation of Sincil Bank since the 80’s.

“Greatness always starts from nothing” is another motto of the 617 and playoffs or not, they are onto something significant here.

The Lyon lot would agree…“une autre bière peut-être?”