Sincil Bank: Lincoln City 2-0 Barnet

Sunday 7 September 2008

Lincoln City 2-0 Barnet

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 7/10

Ease of getting there : 9/10

Atmosphere : 7/10

Programme : 7/10

View of Action : 9/10

Quality of the game : 6/10

The "football" feeling : 7/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 7/10

Legroom : 9/10

Surrounding area : 7/10

Overall : 75/100

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Lincoln City 0-0 Luton Town

With it being a weekend of International matches, only the Football Leagues bottom two leagues were continuing with domestic duties. The match of our choice was Lincoln City vs Luton Town. Not only is this one of the nearer matches on the day but also Adrian hasn’t visited Sincil Bank since 1982!

During Adrian’s previous visit, he saw Lincoln City seal a comfortable 3-0 victory against Sheffield United under the Sincil Bank floodlights. Adrian recalls parking off a street near to the ground and as he got in his parent’s car after the match, a fight broke out on the front of the car bonnet which resulted in Adrian taking cover in his footwell!

So 35 years on for Adrian and almost 10 years on for myself (Ross) previously visiting in 2008, we thought we were due a visit!

We booked our tickets in advance online through Eventbrite who are partnered with Lincoln City to handle their online ticketing. We must note that Eventbrite is not the best ticketing system around based on our experience using other ticketing systems.

We left my house just after 12pm making our way towards the A46 via Newark eventually reaching the south of Lincoln. Adrian recalled his bad experiences of travelling around Lincoln for work and how the roads simply can’t cope with the high volume of traffic. As we approached the main stretch of road into Lincoln (Newark Road), our travels became very slow moving. We decided not to continue with this road and opted to travel through the village of North Hykeham up Lincoln Road which we found to be slightly quicker. We eventually got through the traffic consisting of football supporters, shoppers and tourists and parked the car on Glenwood Grove off Boultham Park Road.

From the car, we walked along Dixon Street before crossing over High Street and walked down the very narrow Queen Street which lead to a bridge crossing the Sincil Dike and to the back of the Lincolnshire Coop Stand.

Upon our arrival, the atmosphere was building around Sincil Bank as we walked around taking photos outside the ground with the sun beaming down. A sea of red and white shirts swarmed the ground with an air of optimism surrounding Lincoln City’s recent success as champions of the National League.

Sincil Bank has been the home of Lincoln City since 1895. Sincil Bank has an overall capacity of 10,120 and is colloquially known to fans as "Sinny Bank". It is overlooked by Lincoln Cathedral. Former Lincoln City chairman John Reames re-purchased the ground from the local council in 2000 at a cost of £175,000. The club had sold it in 1982 for £225,000 in order to fend off the threat of eviction, arranging a 125-year lease.

Software Europe Stand (Main Stand) was constructed in 1987 replacing the old St Andrews Stand, which was named after the street that runs all the way from Lincoln city centre to Sincil Bank. The old stand was constructed in 1932 and was made out of timber. By the mid-1980s, however, the entire stadium was in a state of decline and a renovation project began when the stand was demolished in the close season of 1986. The new stand opened in November 1987 but was smaller in size than originally envisaged, partly due to City's season-long drop into Non-League football. Running only half the length of the pitch, it has a capacity of 1,700 and holds the press box and Directors' enclosure.

Stacey-West Stand is currently the away stand at Sincil Bank. Built in 1990, the Stacey-West Stand is named after two lifelong supporters - Bill Stacey and Jim West - who died in the Bradford City stadium fire. It replaced the old Railway End terrace in 1990, which had a goods rail line running behind the enclosure until the line was demolished in the early 1990s. The Stacey-West Stand first had areas of terracing at either end with a large area of seating in between so that supporters had the choice of sitting or standing at games. However, when City were promoted to the old Division Two at the end of the 1997–98 season, the stand was made entirely terraced. This was because a number of large clubs then in Division Two, such as Manchester City, Stoke City and Burnley were expected to bring large travelling support to Sincil Bank. This convinced the club that the Stacey-West stand should hold visiting fans, rather than a portion of the Co-op Stand. However, when the club was relegated back to the old Division Three in May 1999, a grant by the Football Trust partially enabled just under 2,000 seats to replace the Stacey-West Stand terracing which meant that Sincil Bank, for the first time in the history of Lincoln City, was an all-seater stadium.

Bridge McFarland Stand was built in 1992 and houses 17 executive boxes, Strikers bar for supporters and companies using the executive boxes and the Centre Spot, a fans' bar.

Poacher's Corner (The Family Stand) was built in 1994. It is situated between the Software Europe Stand (Main Stand) and the Bridge McFarland Stand adjacent to the players' tunnel. The land on which it was built was previously occupied by a small, open terrace. When the Family Stand was built, a new building – which incorporates the club's dressing rooms and treatment areas. On top of the stand there is a police control box, which is used to keep a close watch on all areas of the crowd.
Since mid-2008 the stand has been known as 'Poacher's Corner', a reference to Imps Mascot Poacher the Imp. The 'Poacher's Club' initiative by Lincoln saw cheap ticket deals and other incentives offered to any parent/child combination, and Poacher's Corner became the focal point of the efforts.

Lincolnshire Co-operative Stand is the largest stand at Sincil Bank holding approximately 5,700 supporters. This side of the ground was occupied by uncovered terracing ever since the club moved to Sincil Bank in 1895. The terracing was cordoned off in August 1994 and demolition work soon began. The stand was officially opened before Lincoln City's match with Hartlepool United on 4 March 1995. The stand cost around £1 million to build and meant that Sincil Bank stadium had been completely redeveloped from its previous state in the 1980s (at a total cost of £3 million).

After we had our tickets scanned and we passed through the turnstiles, we overheard a bloke claiming to a steward someone was sat in his seat whilst hold his printed online ticket. With this in mind, we went to our seats early which in hindsight was a good decision. With just 5 minutes until kick off, two blokes came up to our row and said we were in their seats. After putting both their tickets and ours together side by side, all four of us found that the club had sold our seats twice! As we were in the seats first, the two blokes went to find somewhere else to sit.

As we approached 3pm, the ground was packed with almost 9,500 supporters in full voice as the two teams emerged from the narrow tunnel on the side of the Main Stand.

A bumper crowd of over 9,000 and a game full of energy and effort but a lack of clear cut chances made this a stalemate in the late summer sunshine.

Efforts on goal were few and far between, Lincoln’s Neal Eardley headed away and blocked attempts on goal in the first half from Collins and Berry, while Billy Knot came closest for City with a left foot shot just wide.

More of the same in the second half, last ditch tackles denying Luton, while the Luton goalkeeper pushed away a header from City’s captain Luke Waterfall.

Nathan Arnold had a chance for the home side but his control let him down and the opportunity was lost.

Lincoln finished the stronger as they looked for the winner, backed by a vociferous crowd, while the Hatters often broke quickly without delivering the killer pass.

So, the best attendance of the day in League Two, raised the roof. They saw plenty of commitment and endeavour but crucially did not see a goal. A 0-0 stalemate was probably a fair score line in the end.

After the match, we made our way down Queen Street and crossed High Street. We continued to walk down Dixon Street back to the car joining the queue of cars leaving the city. When we reached the bottom of Newark Road, we joined the A46 traveling south via Newark before reaching Leicestershire.

Lincoln City 2-0 Barnet

Sincil Bank is home of Lincoln City (The Imps). I (Ross) went on my own to this game, getting the train from Loughborough to Lincoln getting there at 1:30pm and walked to the ground which was a 20-30 minute walk from the station. On my arrival at Sincil Bank, you can see marvellous views of the Lincoln Cathedral. Tickets are available on the day at the ticket office unless they are expecting a sell out which you would want to by your tickets in advance. After me and my rucksack were searched and my bottle lids removed from my two un-drank drinks, I went into the ground. Un-reserved seating meant that you could sit pretty much where you want. The main Lincolnshire Echo stand is a very small stand which doesn't run the length of the field which is totally different to the Co-op Community Stand which at one end homes the Away Supporters. The two stands behind the goals, the Imps Stand and Stacey-West Stand (named in memory after two Lincoln City supporters, Bill Stacey and Jim West who died in the Bradford City fire) are both very similar one tiered stands which is for Home supporters. A very good game as Lincoln won by two goals to Barnet’s nil, Lincoln scorers were scored by N'Guessan and new striker Patulea both in the 20 minutes of the 90.