So on Saturday there is no doubt at all that City under performed, and there can be no excuses for that. However LCM had decided to have a trip down to Rockingham Road to try and soak up some of the Blue Square Premier atmosphere, in an attempt to gauge exactly how far the non league pinnacle division had come since we were down there in 1988.
The trip to Kettering wasn't too bad, and upon arrival we parked down a side street and headed back to the ground. Some stewards pointed us in the direction of the local pub The Beeswing, and there we went.
The pub itself was surprisingly friendly. The beer was good, the food was great and the atmosphere was electric. We chatted with some Kettering fans, and eventually made our way to the ground at 2.30pm in plenty of time for the game. The only slightly pointer as to later events was that every twenty minutes or the police came in and had a look around.
The walk to the ground took us past two more police vans as well, which LCM considered strange for an FA Cup tie that can hardly be described as local. Anyhow we passed out tickets, paid £3 for the programme and walked into the 'stadium'.
From here we really did get a taste of the 80's as I expected, but not entirely the one we wanted. The away terracing certainly wouldn't be up to League Two standard, it wasn't even stepped just a nasty little slope down to the pitch. The entrance was cramped and allowed for four people at most to get through, and the toileting facility was woefully inadequate. There were TWO urinals for the entire away end, and they were situated by the turnstiles leading to a nasty bottleneck. That seems okay perhaps for the visit of Farsley Celtic, but could cause major problems if Northampton Town brought 2,000 over.
Despite this we did as football fans do and tried to make the best of it. This reporter got hit in the face during the warm up, thanks to an errant shot by one of the Imps subs. At that point I think we realised it wouldn't be our day.
The game itself was poor, and in fairness to Kettering their support was vocal if not a little misguided (note to fans, if the away team are singing a song, you singing 'shall we sing a song for you' is not effective).
The game really sparked in the 84th minute, just seconds before the opener. Some fans noticed Peter Jackson going ballistic on the touchline, pointing furiously into the crowd at a supporter. Indeed as the ball hit the back of the net, Jacko didn't even appear to be paying attention. We now know the incident led to an allegation of racist abuse, something Lincoln City left behind in the 80's as well.
City grabbed an equaliser in the 85th minute, and the natives finally imploded. Their fans seemed desperate to climb the segregation fences and attack City fans. LCM saw nothing from Imps fans to suggest it was provoked, but will happily stand corrected if something happened out of site. The stewards at the home end made no attempt to stop the aggressive scenes, and the final whistle was welcome after things threatened to turn ugly.
There were two others in LCM's party, and the three of us made our way back to the car. Unfortunately one of the touring Imps had left his lights on when we arrived, so we were stranded and in need of a push start. Helpfully another City fan stopped and we waited for a break in traffic. Unfortunately that break in traffic contained a car of Kettering fans. One wound the window down, and spat the words 'It's a long way home you ******* *****' before driving off. Lovely.
We couldn't start the car and waited for the RAC, and the nice side street we parked down seemed to turn nasty after dark. A couple of groups of young lads gathered round where we waited, and after a few minutes from somewhere a glass bottle was thrown at the car shattering on the front end and showering the road with glass. Thankfully within minutes the RAC van turned up and we were able to return to Lincoln.
On reflection we saw a very dark side to football and their fans on Saturday, and the expected look back into the eighties almost seemed to take us there. Football violence, heavy police presence for the smallest of fixtures, racist abuse, caged in fans and not being able to safely wear your clubs shirt.
Sunday threw up a potential away tie with Notts County, a game that will have far more fans, and probably one that would be identified as a potential trouble spot. However you can guarantee there will be ample toilets, decent seats for away fans and most importantly no racial abuse.
LCM will happily say that if The Imps do beat Kettering a week on Tuesday it will give us an immense amount of satisfaction to know that what is essentially a non league club will be out of the competition. Some BSP teams are proper teams with nice stadiums and decent facilities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Torquay. These 'real' football league teams know how to conduct themselves and how to behave. Sadly from Saturday's experience it appears Kettering do not.
LCM comment - Any Poppies fans doubting the validity of this statement should have a walk down Grafton Street, a few hundred yards from the ground. About fifty yards down there on the right hand side will be the shattered glass from the bottle.