Gimps Top.....Aghhhh

Quoted from promotion plaice

And as much as it pains me to say it Hurst was the man that would have taken us to another level in my opinion, you only have to look at what he achieved at Shrewsbury.
We should have fought tooth and nail to keep him but the present regimes penny-pinching did away with that one.

Hard to argue with this, even though plenty of our fan base would like to say different. We’ve not had anyone like it since. May be holloway will change that but I suspect Covid and the long term penny pinching will still stop any sort of progression.

It’s clear to see that Appleton is likely to take Lincoln to the next level. Cowley’s style was, as many real, longer than 5 years a Lincoln fan will admit, not very palatable or easy on the eye. It was effective at the time and got them what they needed, the club invested and gave them free reign. It worked and they are reaping what they sow.

I couldn’t care less about Lincoln, they’re not a rival to me and as a football fan, whether it goes belly up or not, it’s hard to find criticism with them.

Quoted from aldi_01

Hard to argue with this, even though plenty of our fan base would like to say different. We’ve not had anyone like it since. May be holloway will change that but I suspect Covid and the long term penny pinching will still stop any sort of progression.

It’s clear to see that Appleton is likely to take Lincoln to the next level. Cowley’s style was, as many real, longer than 5 years a Lincoln fan will admit, not very palatable or easy on the eye. It was effective at the time and got them what they needed, the club invested and gave them free reign. It worked and they are reaping what they sow.

I couldn’t care less about Lincoln, they’re not a rival to me and as a football fan, whether it goes belly up or not, it’s hard to find criticism with them.

Out of interest who do you consider a rival?

Please don't say Hull, West Brom or Stoke as you havn't played them since the last Century?

Quoted from NorfolkImp

Out of interest who do you consider a rival?

Please don't say Hull, West Brom or Stoke as you havn't played them since the last Century?

Neither of you ...... you’ll play the Targers this season as they’re on their arses.

I don’t waste time looking at other clubs but I’d suggest your new found Champaign football has come about as you’ve probably got the best squad you’ve had in decades as you can pay more to get better players.

All that said from what I’ve seen (and it’s not much) of Appleton’s sides he does like to get the ball down and play, if you’re playing rather than hoofing then any success is worthy.

Scunny. A rival doesn’t have to be someone you play regularly, let’s face it, until they went back out the league Boston were your rival. My Lincoln STH friend still hates them.

Never understood this pseudo rivalry with Lincoln. When I first moved to Lincoln way back when the odd Lincoln fan would make some snide comment and when I didn’t react they’d get bored.

Lincoln are no more a rival to me than Mansfield or anyone else that’s a short way trip.

I mean we all hate hull but that’s not just a football thing...

Quoted from HertsGTFC

Neither of you ...... you’ll play the Targers this season as they’re on their arses.

I don’t waste time looking at other clubs but I’d suggest your new found Champaign football has come about as you’ve probably got the best squad you’ve had in decades as you can pay more to get better players.

All that said from what I’ve seen (and it’s not much) of Appleton’s sides he does like to get the ball down and play, if you’re playing rather than hoofing then any success is worthy.

Under Cowley then yes, but it was unsustainable hence the change of direction. Appleton's budget was cut by 40% for this season, but the recruitment started early and his contacts for young players (eg: West Brom) has been successful so far. He has also lowered the average age of the squad considerably releasing the likes of Eardley & Bostwick among others.

Hurst taking us to the next level is one of the funniest things I've read in ages.

He did his job, eventually, in getting us out the Conference but we fell over that line and you could argue that he only actually stumbled upon a system that worked because his favourite, Andy Monkhouse, got injured which meant he made to switch things up in midfield.  It also meant we couldn't continue with the long ball out to the left wing, having seen it fail pretty much every time since about late August of that season.

Whist I had no issue with his decision to rebuild that squad, because it was barely good enough to get promotion from the Conference, he then spectacularly failed to do so and ended up weakening it.  Vernon for Amond.  Berrett for Clay.  Chambers for Arnold. That's ignoring the players that he had no chance of keeping like Toto, Nolan and Tait, those were well out of his control.

His public relations skills were dreadful.  He was never going to take us to the next level of anything because he totally alienated a large proportion of the fan base.  A banner hanging from the flyover declaring 'Hurst Out' on the eve of a play-off semi-final second leg was in poor taste.  But cupping your ears to the fans having finally stumbled over the line was even poorer.  He hadn't been there for the last 15 years of abject failure, he hadn't felt it when we failed time after time after time.  He didn't have the right to stick that middle finger up at us.  That moment was as much ours as it was his, if not more.

Am I grateful he got us out the Conference?  Yes, but I don't hold him in this state of some sort of Messiah.  I always felt he held us back with his negative style of play.  I'll always remember him saying that as a player he much more enjoyed those 1-0 smash and grab wins than trouncing someone 5-0, it showed in his managerial style too.  

Did he deserve better investment from the board?  Yes, absolutely.  Promotion or not, denying any manager that level of basic infrastructure is criminal in this day and highlights the wider problems we've got.  

But to say he would have taken us to the next level is fantasy stuff in my eyes.  We had a poor squad that year and were in a bit of a honeymoon period type false position when he left.  What probably makes his record look better is that he was followed by a guy who was bat excrement crazy!

If I had to sum Hurst up it would be a great spotter of talent, but largely fails to get the best from those players when he has them at his disposal.  His other outstanding attribute is building a dressing room.  You can't deny the spirit he built here and evidently he built one at Shrewsbury too.  But that will only take you so far.

Quoted from aldi_01

Scunny. A rival doesn’t have to be someone you play regularly, let’s face it, until they went back out the league Boston were your rival. My Lincoln STH friend still hates them.

Never understood this pseudo rivalry with Lincoln. When I first moved to Lincoln way back when the odd Lincoln fan would make some snide comment and when I didn’t react they’d get bored.

Lincoln are no more a rival to me than Mansfield or anyone else that’s a short way trip.

I mean we all hate hull but that’s not just a football thing...

Just Scunny? That surprises me tbh, because I've never really considered them a rival as such as their history is virtually half both Town/Imps?

They had a brief sojourn in Tier 2 thanks to the investment by Swann, but wasn't backed numbers wise in terms of support by the town itself ... one could say they are back at their natural level, and a spell in non-league about due?

Don't really have a problem with Lincoln to be honest.

In fact I'd say that if we didn't have a football team in Grimsby (Cleethorpes), then I'd probably support them over Scunny or Hull who are nearer to here.

Most fans on here seem to dismiss Lincoln as rivals, but people my age - I started supporting Town during the early 00's decline - will have seen more derbies with them than any other local side.  I don't really care about Scunny: don't know anyone who supports them and the derbies that I've seen have been uninspiring.  On the other hand, I have several Lincoln-supporting friends (now that they actually have a strong youth support) and if there's one local rival that I'd want to beat to set the record straight, it would probably be them.  

Also, for a board that feigns indifference towards our county rivals so often, there have been an awful lot of threads about them over the last couple of years.

I think we should be indebted to both the Gimps and the Scunts as they alongside the obsessions of

- Hurst, was he all that?
- JF and his loans are killing us.
- The Checkatrade is the evil spawn of Satan

All keep this board alive when there is nothing on the field to talk about.