Grim times at Blundell Park

UNLESS there is an absolute catastrophe, Lincoln City look certain to avoid emulating Peter Daniel’s no-hopers of 1987, who dropped into non-league.

We have to thank Grimsby for being so horrendously bad for that and it appears they couldn’t win a raffle if you gave them all the tickets.

I know there will be a few of you out there who will relish their demise, but you won’t find me siding with those who are laughing at our fishy friends.

Having been over to our sister paper the Grimsby Telegraph and finding civil war had just about broken out, I have empathy for a fan base that is being torn apart.

Their team is about as much use as Inspector Clouseau when it comes to keeping hold of leads and they have a chairman who continues to make odd decisions.

The appointment of Neil Woods as manager was undoubtedly John Fenty’s biggest ‘risk’ and it has been a gamble that has spectacularly backfired.

Not that I blame Woods for this malaise, because I’m sure he will make a good manager in time, but it was just a case of wrong man, wrong club.

The Mariners needed someone with experience, someone used to putting out fires and above all someone who could pull the entire club together.

All Woods’ appointment smacked of was the cheap option and was a decision that seemed to divide the fan base even further.

Loyal club servants such as Woods never tend to work out – Stuart McCall’s decline at Bradford being a prime example.

Woods does not deserve that and I suspect his hunger to become a Football League manager overrode the fears of the pitfalls he is now facing?

Shame, because he’s a nice bloke, but nice guys don’t win all the time and Fenty will have to have a justifiably brilliant reason to remain as chairman should they go down.

It saddens me that Grimsby are in this state and, unfortunately, I cannot see a way out.They do appear doomed to non-league and all they hope for is that sometimes you have to take a step back to go forwards.

But, generally, to lose the county derby from next season’s fixture list would certainly be felt by Lincoln in a financial sense because it provides their biggest gate of the season.

And in a footballing sense it would be a bigger loss.

The derby between these two sides 11 days ago was one of the best I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness.

It was played at a dizzying tempo and the atmosphere as you walked around the ground prior to kick-off was electric.

No self-respecting football fan of both clubs should ever want that to disappear. But if they were to go down, I hope they make a quick a return and above all hope they learn lessons from the catalogue of mistakes that have plagued a very sorry season.