Match: v Lincoln City - Coca-Cola League Two

Date: Saturday, February 19th, 2005

Result: Lincoln 2 Cambridge United 1

THE JOURNEY

Departure Time: 10.30am

Arrival at Ground: Sitting typing this article on the morning after the match with snow starting to settle outside, makes me think that it was as well that the weather was more conducive to travelling on the day of the game - although, given the paucity of our first half performance, some of us were hoping for a half time blizzard to bring a premature end to an encounter which, at that stage, looked like turning into one of United's more embarrassing results.

As it was, the sun was shining, the traffic was light and we parked by the ground at about 12.15pm.

AT THE GROUND

The Ground: Medieval builders knew a thing or two about impressive architecture and where to site their constructions for maximum impact. This was demonstrated to perfection by Lincoln Cathedral. Built on top of the hill that dominates the City, the Cathedral was the focal point on the skyline for anyone whose mind wandered from the first half performance on the park.

In contrast, the Sincil Bank ground sits in the flat part of Lincoln, among a maze of down-at-heel side streets that are on the other side of the railway lines to the hill hosting the more picturesque parts of the City.

All-seater, the ground consists of four distinctly separate and very different stands. Faded red seats are in a low stand behind one goal, while executive boxes at its rear curtail a similarly sized stand at the other end. This stand was originally filled with green seats, but as they wore out seats of random colours had replaced a few.

A two-tiered stand ran along one side of the pitch, with seats that faded from red to a mere blush of pink from one end to the other. U's fans were allocated the redder quarter at one end of this.

The other side contained a stand about half the length of the pitch, which sat astride the centre line. Seats in this stand were spaced out more than elsewhere in the ground and there were walkways every five rows or so that were wide enough to have been lined by avenues of trees.

This stand, of course, contained the directors' box and, more surprisingly, one of the more comfortable press boxes. Having said that, this stand was very exposed to the elements with a bitterly cold wind blowing straight into it. You could tell it was cold & even John Vickers, Lincoln's hardy Internet Manager and Programme Editor, had to put a jacket on!

United Fans: Loud to start with, support quickly tailed off as they began to criticise the performance in the first half. The goal got them going again and there was decent support for the remainder of the match.

View from Away End: With no pillars in the way, the view wasn't bad - although given the first half showing, some U's fans might have wished there had been some pillars to obscure the view.

Home Fans: The first thing you find out about Lincoln fans is that they have a drummer. The second is that he only knows how to play the music Max Wall used to have when he strutted onto the stage. Unfortunately despite the build up, Mr Wall wasn't at the match.

As far as the vocal element to their support was concerned, it took two goals from their side to wake them up, although they did get going in the second half to try to match the support from the travelling U's fans.

Stewards: There's something strange about Lincoln's stewarding arrangements. The first sign of this was a notice on the outside wall of the stadium saying that 'Static Security' guarded the premises. This begged the question if they are static, how are they ever going to catch anyone?

Almost as strange, was the way the stewards were handed their pay packets midway through the second half.

Programme: 64 pages for £2.50. I have to admit that until I looked at the programme, I hadn't realised how much of a legend Steve Thompson is at Lincoln. This meant that, among the wealth of reading material, there was plenty that was of interest to U's fans. The text was broken up with bags of pictures too, including a real collectors item - one of Stuart Bimson with hair!

AFTERWARDS

After the Match: The press area at Lincoln is one of the easiest and friendliest in which to work - at least until after the match when a couple of obstacles cropped up. The first was that although the post match interviews were conducted in a nice, warm room just inside the tunnel area, for some reason the doors that lead back to the stand containing the press area were then locked. This meant a circuitous route back, which lead outside the ground and back in through the sponsors' lounge - an area for which most of us were unsuitably attired.

Once the route march had been accomplished, the kit packed up, and the car loaded, there was one more problem to overcome. A double-parking system by the ground that meant that more than a little delicate manoeuvring was required to extricate ourselves before we could get underway on the journey home.

Mileage: 195.9 miles

Total Distance for Season: 5,126.3 miles

Mark Johnson, with additional reporting by Gordon McMillan

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