16th : Lincoln heading for more mediocrity?

By theimps.tk
July 25 2009

Well I said it was coming, the first time sinced starting this site that I've predicted us to finish outside of the top 7, but to be honest I have good reasons for thinking so, and based on many conversations and comments and various forums, I am not alone.

Let's look at this realistically. In Jackson's first season at the club, after John Schofield's inspired poor start, the Imps recorded 58 points from 46 games, enough for midtable irrelevance, twelve months later and no-one else's bad start to blame, 59 points from 46 games also saw a midtable finish, this time 13^th. However, that doesn't tell the story of the season as City would have finished 15^th had it not been for Rotherham and Bournemouth both having points deductions. In other words, our progress was one point, nothing more, nothing less and all of that was with a squad that I think is better than the one with have now.

I can't really recall going into a season without even the slightest bit of optimism, but I am now. It's hard to put my finger on why but I feel that we've lost some very good players, but replaced them with players who may have impressed in pre-season, but this is a pre-season where City have failed to win as of yet. However, I have been impressed with what I've seen of Chris Fagan. I knew about him from his days at Manchester United so knew he would be dangerous at this level and if there's one player I trust to propel us higher than the 16^th place I am predicting then it's Fagan.

I have a strange trust in our defence. The end of last season (other than the Aldershot game) saw our defence finally gel and stop conceding goals, with Moses Swaibu being excellent after a very shaky debut. It seemed almost strange that our defence significantly strengthened after Danny Hone (our best defender in my opinion). The addition of Heath should be decent and if we sign Hughton then I will have confidence that we can avoid the sort of defending that saw us concede 5 at Grimsby.

If there's one sign of how inconsistent we were last season then it was the fact that if we went ages without losing then we'd rarely win, but if we went on long runs without a win then we'd rarely lose, it was quite strange how it worked out and if we could sort that out then we'd be laughing. I mean look at our win at Gillingham, brilliant win but that was our last win for three and a half weeks. It's that kind of inconsistency that prevents us really going anywhere.

The one thing about this Lincoln side is that I think it has the potential to be a really good side, but I don't think we can fulfil this potential under Jackson. He's had nearly two years to prove he is good enough to be our manager and other than arguably saving us from relegation (although if was Iffy who technically did it as he was in charge at the time), he's done nothing to take this club forward. I've spoken to many fans who have no intention on returning until he leaves, one of whom decided to get a Leeds season instead.

I would just love to be able to be sat here in twelve months being able to predict where we would finish in League One, but I can't see it happening and we appear to yet again be a club in transition. I don't think we'll have any relegation issues at all, even at our worst we're still better than teams such as Accrington, but I don't feel we've adequately replaced the outgoing players and 16^th, give or take, is where I see us finishing.