After another dismal and aimless performance which saw the mighty Alfreton Town become the latest club to leave Sincil Bank with a swag bag filled with three points, City have to start facing up to a horrific possibility that is looming ever larger - consecutive relegations.
Even the most pessimistic of fans at the start of the season saw a double relegation as beyond contemplation, but that awful reality seems to be edging closer. It feels as if the only talent the Imps have is to plumb ever deeper depths of atrociousness year on year.
The parallels with last season are terrifying:
- A group of players who think they are better than they are but who have a shocking tendency to lose evenly-balanced matches
- A manager who is convinced that he doesn't need to change anything he is doing
- A set of restless fans starting to get angry, which will affect the players performances even more
- Teams below us with better organisation and a greater desire to win
The silence about our predicament from the manager and board is deafening. Words are cheap, but we're not even getting any fighting talk. Has the entire club gone into atrophy or is there simply such shock about just how fatal the fall through another trapdoor would be that it cannot even be voiced?
The sad truth is that doing nothing will get us nowhere. On paper the players should be good enough. The problem is that they are not playing as a team, they are not organised, and they simply don't ever look fired up enough to chase and harry the opposition into making mistakes. We stroll around casually, waiting for something to happen rather than fighting for every lost cause and loose ball. When was the last time the City players left the field looking like they were about to drop from fatigue after running themselves into the ground?
City fans have long viewed the Conference as the ultimate abyss, but now have to face the thought of instantly dropping even lower - to a level so cataclysmically embarrassing it has never really been contemplated.
Even when Boston United dropped down through the leagues, at least they had the excuse that they had been punished for off the field irregularities with points deductions. The Imps would have to live with the fact that they had been relegated through sheer lack of ability.
The time for
the ship to be turned around is now, but are the players and manager up to the
task? I begin to fear not…
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