Sincil Bank, home of Lincoln City based just outside of Lincoln City Centre. Nicknamed the “Imps” after the famous Lincoln Imp wall in Lincoln Cathedral. 24th November 2018 and Mansfield Town were the visitors, me, Broseph and the Super Stag were in attendance today for this one. Lincoln City at the top of the league looking a good bet for League 1 next season with Mansfield looking good for automatic promotion nevertheless.
Arrival in Lincoln at 11am, we headed to The Square Sail situated on the Lincoln Waterfront. The Mansfield fans were gathered here for pre-match beers. As kick off drew closer, the Mansfield fans began to turn the bar into a party atmosphere! Chants of “YELLOWS!” and “MANSFIELD TILL I DIE” began to ring around! Like in Nottingham, we then had a supervised police march to the ground. With chanting all the way through, safe to say were buzzing for this one!
£20 to get in! Alright! The Lincoln fans sat near the away end in the upper part of the main stand were loud and proud already! “OHHHH LINCOLN CITY!” whilst bouncing! A big sing off between fans imminent… Kick Off! 5 minutes in and Danny Rose for Mansfield… Good save by the Lincoln keeper. Around 20 minutes in and the Mansfield keeper Bobby Olejnik received a pass to hit up field… Oh no he’s misplaced it… straight to Bruno Andrade….. Open goal but he’s put it wide. Big chance for Lincoln there. Both teams continued to battle in this physical game but no team could break the deadlock. Half time was goalless.
Second half, Lincoln were the team looking most likely as they started to take the game to Mansfield. John Akinde received a ball over the top and fired at goal but Bobby Olejnik alert in the Mansfield goal. “THIS IS THE BEST TRIP I’VE EVER BEEN ON!!” Fantastic from the Lincoln faithful!! Relentless all game so far.
As the game went on, the closer that Lincoln got to scoring with John Akinde again for Lincoln causing problems for the Mansfield back line. Mansfield’s old fan favourite Matt Green entered the pitch for the Imps with 10 minutes left to play, “Greeny!” from the Mansfield fans who won’t forget the crucial goals he scored for Mansfield in the year they won promotion back to the football league.
5 minutes left to play and the nerves were settling in for the me and the rest of the travelling Mansfield fans. Bruno Andrade on the left now for Lincoln City who put in a low cross towards Matt Green with his back to goal, puts it on a plate for Kellan Gordon… They’ve got it!!!!! 1-0 to Lincoln! Devastating blow for Mansfield and me and the travelling Mansfield fans were as all as sick as each other. “It’s over now” I said to Broseph and the Super Stag.
Mansfield had hardly had a sniff at goal in the second half but in the 93rd minute of the game the ball was launched up field by Matt Preston, Danny Rose got there first and ran down the right wing and whipped in a cross, the ball was cleared straight to Tyler Walker played it to Craig Davies who shot but was blocked and the ball fell to Jacob Mellis on the full volley! I DON’T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!! 1-1!!!!!!!! WHAT A HIT!!!! Cue Carnage in the away end… I’ve gone and broke my watch… That’s how crazy the celebration was! IT’S GONE MAD!!!! THIS IS WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL!! The Mansfield players didn’t give up and scored with their first chance of a second half dominated by Lincoln and we were all delighted!! That would be the last action of the game and now it’s the Lincoln fans turn to be hurting… Did not deserve that but hey, that is football!
FT: Lincoln City 1-1 Mansfield Town
Ratings
- Atmosphere: 10/10 – The game was a sing off in the end, both sets of fans did their team proud but in terms of the atmosphere battle, Lincoln fans edged it for me, they were fantastic with the bouncing and drumming they were relentless! Fantastic Support!
- The Ground: 5/10 – It’s an OK little facility but nothing more than that.
- Expense: 9/10 – Not the best game I’ve ever seen, for 85 minutes it was just physical and good attacking from Lincoln, but as every football fan knows, it can all change just at the flick of a switch and boy did it do just that!
- Overall Experience: 10/10 – The whole day and the end of the match was incredible as a whole! I left the ground out of breath and over the moon with the result in the end, a fantastic day out!
34/40