Show time for Lincoln Cup heroes
... but where will Gabby change?
FINDINg a room for gabby logan to change, the installation of electronic advertising hoardings, lines of fans snaking round Sincil Bank in the hope of snapping up tickets, the biggest gate since 1999 — there is nothing routine about lincoln City this week.
‘It’s the highest interest in the club since 1976,’ confirms superfan Chris Ashton, who can claim 60 years as a supporter and 40 years in charge of away travel.
the lincoln team of 1976 was managed by graham taylor. how poignant the minute’s applause will be tonight before the FA Cup third round replay against Championship Ipswich.
yesterday dark clouds sat at roof level, the magnificent cathedral invisible and a steady drizzle soaking the players as they trained under the tutelage of management team Danny Cowley and brother Nicky.
Former Pe teacher Danny has already drawn comparisons with taylor, who led lincoln to the old Fourth Division title and into the fourth round of the Cup.
they certainly share the knack of forming a bond with the local community. the Imps are top of the National league, beat gateshead in the FA trophy on Saturday with a rotated team and have an extra £350,000 in the bank courtesy of this FA Cup run.
taylor, who died last week, was patron of the club and stayed in touch. As Ashton said: ‘I was so shocked when I heard the news. ‘graham’s achievements were the pinnacle and then elton John pinched him.’
the first thing Ashton did was ring his 88-year-old father, george, who has missed 13 home games in 82 years and will be in a crowd just shy of 10,000 tonight, the biggest since Sunderland were the FA Cup visitors 18 years ago.
lincoln’s highest ever finish was fifth in the old Second Division in 1902. they dropped out of the Football league in 2011 and in the six years since never finished above 13th in the fifth tier.
In 2013 they were almost relegated to the sixth but a 2-1 win over tamworth saved them that humiliation. Scorer of the winning penalty that day was club captain Alan Power. the Irish midfielder is lincoln’s longest-serving player.
‘there were 1,400 people here and we knew we had to win to stay up,’ recalled Power. ‘I tried not to think about it. It’s amazing the difference now. We came in the other day and saw fans queuing for tickets. everybody is excited and we know there is no pressure on us at all. We’re on national tV and Ipswich won’t want things to go wrong.
‘I’m hoping my ma and Da come over. I’ve got them tickets and it’s not far to fly from Dublin.’
two goals from theo robinson should have earned City a shock win at Portman road but Ipswich hit back to draw 2-2, force a replay and give the Imps another unexpected pay day.
managing director Kevin Cooke says that the cash is likely to go to Cowley’s team building as the club are debt-free.
‘this will be our sixth game in the FA Cup, we’ve also progressed in the trophy, we are on tV three times in a week and our gates have doubled since December,’ he said. ‘We are in a lucky position.’
‘It’s been full on,’ added community manager and PA announcer Alan long. ‘We’ve had the BBC technicians here all week.
‘We’ve been on tV twice. Bt Sport asked for a green room and none of us knew what that was.
‘the BBC want somewhere for ms logan to change. I think this is the first time lincoln have been on BBC1! We’ve had a lot of low points but this has been brilliant.’