Dany N'Guessan set for Leicester City move?

Rumours are rife this morning that Dany N'Guessan is all set to sign for Leicester City, who have won the League 1 Championship this season. It is believed they have offered Dany a 3 year contract andit is thought the deal is set to be finalised as soon as possible.

There have been numerous clubs following N'Guessan since January with clubs such as Hull City, Wigan Athletic, West Brom, Sheffield United, Leeds and MK Dons believed to be just some of those to have been showing an interest in the talented Frenchman.

As Dany N'Guessan is under 24, Lincoln will recieve a transfer fee which is likely to go to a tribunal. It has been mentioned that a percentage of the transfer fee will go to his previous club Glasgow Rangers as a sell on clause is in place.

Please remember the 56

Yesterday, May 11th, was the 24th year since the Bradford Fire disaster. A memorial service was held in Bradford, which was held in Centenary Square, Bradford and hosted by Bradford's Lord Mayor. A minute's silence to remember those who died was held at 11am.

54 Bradford City and 2 Lincoln City fans tragically died after the fire which started during the Bradford v Lincoln match. It was later found that the cause was probably a lit cigarette that was dropped under the Valley Parade stand which in turn ignited litter dropped under the stand.

Please remember those who are no longer with us after that tragic day, May 11th, 1985:

John Douglas Ackroyd Aged 32 from Baildon
Edmund Anderton Aged 68 from Bingley
Alexander Shaw Baines Aged 70 from Bradford
Herbert Bamford Aged 72 from Bradford
Christopher James Bulmer Aged 11 from Burley-in-Wharfedale
Jack Leo Coxon Aged 76 from Bradford
Leo Anthony Coxon Aged 44 from Halifax
David James Crabtree Aged 30 from Bradford
Harry Crabtree Aged 76 from Bradford
Derek Dempsey Aged 46 from Morley
Muriel Firth Aged 56 from Baildon
Samuel Firth Aged 86 from Bradford
Andrew Fletcher Aged 11 from East Bridgford, Nottingham
Edmond Fletcher Aged 63 from Pudsey
John Fletcher Aged 34 from East Bridgford, Nottingham
Peter Fletcher Aged 32 from Gildersome
Nellie Forster Aged 64 from Bradford
Felix Winspear Greenwood Aged 13 from Denholme
Peter Greenwood Aged 46 from Denholme
Rupert Benedict Greenwood Aged 11 from Denholme
Norman Hall Aged 71 from Bradford
Peter Anthony Halliday Aged 34 from Bradford
Arthur Hartley Aged 79 from Bradford
Edith Hindle Aged 79 from Bradford
Frederick Hindle Aged 76 from Bradford
Moira Helen Hodgson Aged 15 from Oakenshaw
Eric HudsonAged 72 from Bingley
John Hughes Aged 64 from Bradford
John Hutton Aged 74 from Bradford
Walter Kerr Aged 76 from Bradford
Peter Charles Lovell Aged 43 from Bradford
Jack Ludlam Aged 55 from Bradford
Gordon Stuart McPherson Aged 39 from Bradford
Irene McPherson Aged 28 from Bradford
Roy Mason Aged 74 from Silsden
Frederick Norman Middleton Aged 84 from Bradford
Harold Mitchell Aged 79 from Bradford
Elizabeth Muhl Aged 21 from Leeds
Ernest Normington Aged 74 from Shipley
Gerald Priestley Ormondroyd Aged 40 from Bingley
Richard John Ormondroyd Aged 12 from Bingley
Robert Ian Ormondroyd Aged 12 from Bingley
Sylvia Lund Pollard Aged 69 from Bradford
Herbert Price Aged 78 from Shipley
Amanda Jayne RobertsAged 20 from Bradford
Jane Sampson Aged 18 from Leeds
William Stacey Aged 72 from Sleaford, Lincolnshire
Craig Albert StockmanAged 14 from Bradford
Jane Ashley StockmanAged 16 from Bradford
Trevor John StockmanAged 38 from Brighouse
Howard Malcolm TurnerAged 41 from Bingley
Sarah Elizabeth TurnerAged 16 from Bingley
Simon Neil WardAged 18 from Shipley
Robert Wedgeworth Aged 72 from Guiseley
William James West Aged 78 from North Hykeham, Lincoln
Adrian Mark Wright Aged 11 from Bradford

May they all rest in peace.

The not so magnificent seven

Lincoln City have released 7 players from their squad with effect from the end of the season. The released (not so magnificent seven) players are Ayden Duffy, Frank Sinclair, Owain Warlow, Gary King, Martin Pembleton, Geoff Horsfield and Ben Wright.

The release of these players also comes at the time when the club have announced there will be a reduction in Peter Jackson's player budget for the new season. This is believed to be due to the average attendance for the past season to be less than the figure that the club had projected. The club had expected the average to be in the region of around 4,300 to 4,500 but the average eventually settled at just under 4,000.

Dany N'Guessan, Adrian Patulea and Sam Mullarkey have all been offered new deals for next season. Also, Lee Beevers offer is still on the table that was offered to him earlier in the season and the club are due to sit down with the player's representatives to discuss this offer.

Lee Frecklington is also set to complete a permanent move to Peterborough in the coming week that is thought to net the club close to £200,000.

The club are expected to receive further money from clauses relating to Jack Hobbs transfer to Leicester City and also Peterborough's promotion to the Championship meaning we receive money from the time that Keith Alaxander was their manager.

It is widely expected that Dany N'Guessan will reject the Imps latest offer and move onto a bigger club. As he is under 24 years old, Lincoln City are entitled to a fee which will be set by a tribunal. Many clubs have been linked to Dany since January and some of the clubs still being linked to Dany include Leeds, Leicester, Crystal Palace, Cardiff, Scunthorpe, Burnley and Preston. Other clubs rumoured to have been linked since January include Marseilles, Valencia, Wigan, Hull, West Brom and MK Dons. The Dons had 2 bids for Dany turned down in the January transfer window.

Classic Matches – Lincoln City 4 – 1 Manchester City, 17/09/1996

This was a typical David v Goliath encounter. Lincoln City were struggling in 15th place in Division 3 (currently League 2) and Manchester City were in the top ten of the division currently known as the Championship. It was the first leg of the second round of the Coca Cola Cup and I had a ticket for the terrace area of the Stacey West End. As an adult I paid only £8 for my ticket. An absolute bargain considering what I was about to witness!

Manchester City were a team that lacked direction at the time of playing them. They were without a manager. The caretaker in charge for the game was Asa Hartford, who actually was part of the Manchester City team that won the trophy twenty years prior to this game! Manchester City had 10 players out injured for the game, including the mercurial Georgi Kinkladze.

Lincoln City fell behind within the first 40 seconds of the start and I like most others around me sensed a real drubbing. Uwe Rosler scored from a left wing cross from Paul Dickov who is still playing today! After this poor start Lincoln failed to cave in and started playing the style of football that manager John Beck is so well known for. We started to batter Man City’s goal and the equaliser duly arrived in the 29th minute when a Gareth Ainsworth cross (I think) was turned in by Terry Fleming with a sweetly executed volley! Terry is still playing his football in the city of Lincoln, currently plying his trade for Lincoln Utd!

Just before the break Lincoln City went in front from a typical John Beck set piece goal. Mark Hone (Danny Hone’s dad) put in a free kick that landed kindly on Steve Holmes head for him to place a bullet past Andy Dibble. I remember reading the next day that Dibble was unhappy with this goal as he felt Ainsworth had impeded him when the cross came in! So, Lincoln went in at the break leading 2-1 and it wasn’t long after the break that Lincoln City went further ahead! Another typical John Beck style goal it was too! Terry Fleming put in one of his trademark long throws and Gijsbert Bos’ near post header looped over Dibble to land in the far corner of the net. Sincil Bank was rocking. The atmosphere was amazing. The Railway End / Stacey West terrace was in full voice and the 1,500 or so Manchester City fans were very quiet.

Manchester City started pressing and came close on quite a few occasions. Nigel Clough even hit the post for them on about the hour mark. Lincoln however wanted more and we got more! Another Terry Fleming throw wasn’t dealt with and Jon Whitney stabbed in from close range in the 79th minute to send the Lincoln faithful wild and cue the hordes of Manchester City fans heading for the exits!

This ranks as one of my all time favourite city games. Ok, the style of football under John Beck wasn’t for the purists but he knew how to grind out results which led to promotion the following season. Did anyone else go to this game? What were your memories of this amazing game?

The teams that played that day were:

Lincoln City: Barry Richardson, Steve Holmes, Grant Brown, Jon Whitney, Gareth Ainsworth, Mark Hone, Terry Fleming, Worrell Sterling (Colin Alcide 34), Gijsbert Bos, Jae Martin.
Manchester City: Dibble, Lomas, Wassall, Symons, Ingram, Summerbee, Clough, Whitley, M Brown (Crooks 63), Rosler, Dickov

Goals:

Lincoln City:
Fleming (29), Holmes (44), Bos (49), Whitney (79)
Manchester City:
Rosler (40 seconds)

Attendance: 7,599.

We fared pretty well in the second leg, taking well over 2,000 fans to Maine Road! That match will be discussed in a future blog entry!

Lincoln City’s most internationally capped player of all time

City’s most internationally capped is Gareth McAuley. Gareth joined Lincoln City in 2004 from Coleraine of Northern Ireland and after a very solid first season for the Imps was called up by Northern Ireland to play a friendly against Germany at Windsor Park on the 4th June 2005. McAuley started the game on the bench but was finally brought on for his international debut in the 70th minute, replacing Keith Gillespie. By that time Northern Ireland were already 3-1 down and Michael Ballack had already scored two goals.

Northern Ireland’s next game was against Malta in the August of 2005, for which McAuley wasn’t called up.

McAuley missed out on the wins over Azerbaijan and England but was on the bench for the World Cup Qualifier against Wales. However, he never made it off the bench as Northern Ireland crashed to a 3-2 defeat.

McAuley next game was a friendly against Portugal and he again started on the bench. This time though he came on at the start of the second half, replacing Steve Jones who on the books of Crewe Alexandra at the time. The game ended in a 1-1 draw with Warren Feeney, then playing for Luton Town grabbing a second half equaliser.

Gareth McAuley started the next game for Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, which was a 1-0 friendly win over Estonia. This was to be the first time he was in the starting line-up for Northern Ireland.

Jeff Hughes alongside his Lincoln City teammate Gareth McAuley was called up to play two friendly games in America at the end of the 2005/2006 season. They both played in the defeats to Uruguay and Romania.

The defeat to Romania was to be the last time McAuley played in an International match whilst with Lincoln City. A summer move to Leicester City on a free transfer put an end to that.

To date, McAuley has made 12 appearances for Northern Ireland, with 5 of those callups coming while he was playing for Lincoln City. His first International goal came against San Marino on the 11th February in a 3-0 away win in the World Cup qualifying tournament for South Africa 2010.

Where are they now... Ryan Amoo

Ryan Amoo joined Lincoln City in the summer of 2006 as one of the first signings under the new management regime of John Schofield and John Deehan. Deehan already knew about Amoo from when they were both at Northampton Town and had obviously seen enough potential in the player to make Lincoln give him a trial, even though he'd been ploughing up the non-league circuit for a year. The trial was a success for Amoo and he subsequently signed a one year contract.

The 2006/2007 season saw Amoo make 35 league starts. His moment in the spotlight undoubtably came in the clash with Peterborough United at London Road where two Amoo goals saw the Imps win by two goals to one and maintain their challenge at the top of League Two. Ex Imps Simon Yeo and Peter Gain combined to score the only goal for the Posh.

However, although Amoo was considered to be one of the best crossers of the ball at the club fans were constantly on his back claiming he was not good enough. At the start of the 2007/2008 season Schofield even started playing Amoo at right back and he really looked like a fish out of water. Come October 2007 when Schofield and Deehan were eventually relieved of their duties and were replaced by Peter Jackson as manager, Amoo never really had much of a look in anymore and was eventually released from his contract by mutual consent at the end of the 2007/2008 season. His last game for Lincoln City came against Bury in January of 2008.

Before joining Lincoln City, Amoo was involved in a six month relationship with Jade Goody.

In total, Ryan Amoo made 52 appearances for the Imps, 11 as substitute, scoring 3 goals.

So where is he now?

Ryan Amoo can now be found putting on the shirt for Midland Alliance league team Barwell in front of crowds of less than 100. It is a far cry from his glory days with Lincoln City...

5 of the best for Lincoln City

Friday night gave Lincoln City their first win since the end of October and since Peter Jackson won the Manager of the Month award for October.

The Imps ran out 5-1 victors having been trailing 1-0 at halftime. Jackson made all three of his substitutions at half time, taking off David Graham, Lennel John-Lewis and Stefan Oakes. Jackson also changed the formation from the ineffective 4-3-3 to a more conventional 4-4-2. The lads must've had one almighty kick up the backside at halftime as they tried to make amends for a truly shocking first half display. All the substitutes had a hand in the goals. Adrian Petulea scored two, Ben Wright scored one and the energetic Sam Mullarkey had a had in a couple of the goals. Aaron Brown and Lee Frecklington scored City's other goals.

The result was an amazing turnaround from a team that has struggled to find the back of the net just lately. Lincoln had scored just one in their previous five league games.

Chesterfield 1 Lincoln City 5, April 1992.

You need to go back 16 and a half years in order to find the last time when Lincoln City completed such a significant turnaround from losing at halftime. Trailing 1-0 at Saltergate, City hit back in the second half through Tony Lormor, Sean Dunphy, David Puttnam, Matt Carmichael and Jason Kabia. This result was in the middle of a run that saw City win their last 7 league games of the season and also finish the season with just one defeat in their last 17 league games. We still only managed to finish in 10th place that season.

The 7 game winning running consisted of the following results:
A Scunthorpe 2-0
H Carlisle Utd 1-0
H Maidstone Utd 1-0
A Chesterfield 5-1
H Hereford Utd 3-0
A Halifax Town 4-1
H Blackpool 2-0

Our twice former manager Keith Alexander scored in the 4-1 win at Halifax and we managed to stop Blackpool from gaining promotion by beating them on the last day of the season with two Matt Carmichael penalties.

The 1991-92 season was also of particular sad note for Aldershot FC fans as this was to prove their final season in the Football League as they folded due to serious financial problems. Aldershot Town have since been reborn and still play at the Recreation Ground where Aldershot used to play. Lincoln City were to play the last Football League game at Aldershot on 14th March, 1992 in which City won 3-0. All Aldershot's records for this season were expunged.

Lincoln City's next match is away to local rivals Notts County on the 20th December.

Will Jacko sign a new contract with The Imps?

At the end of September of this year Lincoln City manager Peter Jackson agreed to an extension of his current managerial contract. The Imps had had an indifferent start to the season and were languishing near the bottom of League Two at the time Jackson was offered the new contract by the Imps board.

What was bizarre about this situation was Jacko himself allegedly stated that he'd only sign the contract when Lincoln started picking up League Two points. On the 6th November it was announced that Jackson had been named League Two Manager of the Month for October for a fine run of results, so it was assumed that Jackson would sign his new contract. Well, it's now December 10th and Jackson still hasn't signed the contract. However, since winning the Manager of the Month award, Lincoln have gone on a terrible run of form, being knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league Kettering Town and also not winning a single league game. Apparently he was due to sign the contract the day after we got knocked out of the FA Cup but this was postponed because of the timing.

Will Jackson sign or won't he? There are rumours that he may go back to Huddersfield - this I don't believe, because at the moment he is struggling with a team in League Two. Jackson is out of contract with Lincoln City at the end of the season. He has publically stated he is very happy at Lincoln, but nothing lasts forever and the word loyalty does not seem to exist in the world of football anymore.

Some fans are starting to question Jackson's ability and his man-management skills but a manager is only as good as the set of players he has at his disposal. Lincoln City still have a very average League Two squad. In my opinion only a couple of players could make a name for themselves in a higher division at the moment. They are Danny Hone and Lee Frecklington. Jackson did bring in eight new players in the summer and of these, only Rob Burch appears to be earning his wages.

Whatever Jackson decides to do, it is going to be a long hard winter for Imps fans!

The Rollercoaster that is Lincoln City

It has been a good 6 months since I last posted on this blog. However, not wanting to make any excuses I have been extremely busy with work.

After a summer involving lots of hype from Lincoln City manager Peter Jackson, the expectations to say the least were quite high for most Lincoln City Fans. During the summer months Jacko had dipped into the transfer market and signed his 'fantastic seven' - these were seven players who he felt would most definitely strengthen the squad. They were also said to be his first choice transfer buys. In the past at Lincoln City we have been used to signing players who no-one else seemed to want!

The seven players in no particular order - all signed as free transfers were:
Aaron Brown, Rob Burch, Frank Sinclair, Kevin Gall, David Graham, Stefan Oakes and Janos Kovacs. He also signed Sam Mullarkey from non-league Lincolnshire team Grantham Town.

When these signings were made each player was hyped up by Jacko to make it sound like we had signed a team of world beaters! It made for an exciting summer as a Lincoln City fan, just for a change!

Rob Burch was brought in as a replacement for Alan Marriott who was controversially not given a new contract which would have seen him given a testimonial match as he would have passed the magic ten year barrier playing for the same club. Disgruntled fans Internet message boards wondering what their local hero had done to not deserve a new contract. The jury was definitely out on Rob Burch as he would be scrutinised by the 'Marriott mafia' for the first few months of his Lincoln City contract. I think he has done a good, consistent job from the start. He commands his area well by shouting at players constantly, collects the ball from crosses easily, is a good shot stopper and his distribution skills are also top notch.

Frank Sinclair was brought to Lincoln with hype surrounding him that he was the best signing Lincoln have ever made! That has since been proved to be a load of nonsense as 19 year old Danny Hone, son of former Imps player Mark Hone has kept Frank out of the team. Danny came through the Imps ranks as a Youth Team Player and has become a fixture as a centre back this season. He has a contract with Lincoln City until 2010 but i likely to be snapped up by another team by then as scouts from Championship clubs have been watching him this season.

Janos Kovacs has been paired with Danny Hone at centre back. He has made one or two errors of judgement but has performed reasonably well.

Stefan Oakes arrived at Lincoln with the reputation as having one of the best, if not the best left foot in the lower divisions. Jacko claimed that his left foot can peel carrots! We hoped for good things from this midfielder who on his day commands the midfield like a lower division Steven Gerrard, but who has mostly disappointed this season. He has regularly been out injured and when he has played he has with doubt played some wonderful left footed passes but has in my opinion appeared to look lazy and uninterested for the most part.

Aaron Brown was brought in to fill the left back slot. He started as left back at the Don Valley Stadium on the first day of the season but was soon found to be out of position quite regularly. Then he got injured and his slot was fill by the industrious Lee Beavers. Lee has taken his chance and claimed that position for now. Aaron has played fleetingly in the first eleven - up front and on the left wing. I think we can use the term utility player here!

That brings me onto the last three signings - all strikers! Kevin Gall joined on a loan spell until January but has recently been informed that he will no longer be needed at the end of the spell.
David Graham helped get Torquay United promoted to League 1 back in 2003/04, and scored over 20 league goals in the process. Since then his career seemed to have been hit by controversy. However, Jacko was willing to give him a chance to repeat his goalscoring skills of his first spell at Torquay United. So far he has only played a few times for Lincoln and like Kevin Gall has scored no goals yet which considering they were both brought in as strikers is pathetic to say the least.

Sam Mullarkey has just turned 20 and in the few appearances I have seen him wearing an Imps shirt he seems to have the potential to do well.

It would seem that the much hyped 'fantastic seven' haven't really turned out to be that fantastic at all. It all sums up to a poor season for the Imps so far. Some onlookers will say Jacko has won a Manager of the Month award - that may well be true but we haven't won since then!

13 months of suffering

by Cathedral Imp

I have supported the mighty lads in red and white vertical stripes since 1985 when the first match I witnessed was a 4-0 home thrashing by Cardiff City, but never have I known us suffer so many thrashings over the period of 12/13 months as recently. Who am I discussing? Lincoln City, of course. The disinterested reader now clicks on another web page.

Last November after a 1-0 win at Swindon Town put us top of League 2 we could have been forgiven for thinking that years of stagnating in the Football League's basement division were finally going to be behind us. However, we didn't manage to score more than two league goals in a game for the rest of the season and a 4-1 home thrashing by Hereford United was the start of many poor results. This season has seen us concede 4 or more goals on 9 separate occasions. In October we changed our manager, getting rid of John Schofield and bringing in a man with experience at this level in Peter Jackson. His immediate aim was to save the Imps from relegation. That appears to have been successful now.

However, Peter's biggest battle is currently away from football when about 6 weeks ago he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Obviously my best wishes are with him for a full and speedy recovery. Temporarily in charge of the Imps now is Iffy Onuora and since being in charge he has overseen six games, three of these being heavy thrashings.

So is it the player's fault or the manager's? Certainly Peter managed to get the best out of the players before leaving for his cancer treatment, as we went on a great run of results, getting seven wins in nine games. Let's hope that on Peter's return he can get the lads to return to winning ways and hopefully mount a reasonable charge for promotion next season.