The unwanted Blue Square Premier era starts at Southport

Despite what the mandatory sign at Sincil Bank says, Lincoln City are not proud members of the Blue Square Premier. Anyone at the Conference who genuinely believes we are proud to be here is kidding themselves, however, the reality of the situation will truly hit in on Saturday afternoon when the Imps travel to Southport.

A long time ago in a division are far, far away......

(please note that these are estimated times)

April 30th - 15:47 - The referee blows for half time in the penultimate match of the season. Lincoln City are 1-0 up at Oxford, Barnet are losing at Accrington. As it stood Lincoln City were safe and Barnet were relegated.

April 30th - 16:53 - Elliott Parish has done his usual act and conceded every realistic shot on target against him and City lost 2-1. Barnet lost at Accrington and leaves the Imps 2 points ahead of Barnet with just one game left. Due to inferior goal difference, City need to win on the final day to guarantee survival, anything else would mean that Barnet would stay up if they won.

May 7th - 15:46 - It's half time at both Sincil Bank and Underhill. Lincoln are 0-0 with Aldershot, Barnet are 0-0 with Barnet. As it stands Lincoln are safe.

May 7th - 16:06 - Cheers comes from the away end at Sincil Bank as the news filters through the Barnet have scored within a minute of the kick off for the second half. Lincoln must now either score themselves or hope that Port Vale equalise against Barnet.

May 7th - 16:17 - Aldershot take the lead, meaning that the Imps will now go down unless they score at least twice, or Port Vale equalise.

May 7th - 16:45 - The Imps are 2-0 down and hoping for a miracle when someone in the Stacey West decides it will be funny to shout that Port Vale have equalised at Barnet. During the celebrations, Aldershot scored a third and it doesn't take long for City fans to realise that the Barnet score isn't shifting from 1-0 on any score service and that infact Port Vale had not equalised.

May 7th - 16:54 - The final whistle goes at Sincil Bank, City are down unless Port Vale can score, but despite scoring seven the week before, Port Vale couldn't find the net, giving Barnet the 1-0 win they needed to secure last day survival for the second year in a row. Lincoln's 23 year spell in the Football League is over.

3 months later.......

There is a sign currently outside of the reception at Sincil Bank that says "Lincoln City : Proud Members of the Blue Square Premier" ...... one of the most inaccurate statements since the words striker and Drewe Boughton were in the same sentence. Don't get me wrong, there are far worse things than being in the Blue Square Premier, but to say we're proud members is quite frankly bullshit.

The only good thing about being relegated is that we finally saw the back of most of the players who quite frankly didn't give a second thought when the Imps were losing. Drewe Broughton, Joe Anderson, Cian Hughton, Mustapha Carayol, Jamie Clapham, Delroy Facey, Paul Green, Luke Howell, Patrick Kanyuka, Ben Hutchinson, Julian Kelly, Elliott Parish and Scott Spencer have all left the club via one method of another over recent months and all would be in serious danger of making an all time worst Lincoln City XI. The most shocking thing is that some of them have somehow managed to find another Football League club.

Incoming we have seen players that, at least on the evidence of the pre-season friendlies, will actually give a crap. These are players that will chase after things and break into a sweat, something which couldn't be said about most of the aforementioned wasters from last season. I am particularly excited by Sam Smith (right), who has arguably been the most impressive of the strikers in pre-season, hitting the net on a semi-regular basis.

Smith is one of a plethora of new faces at Sincil Bank, with John Nutter, Josh Gowling, Jamie Taylor, Alan Power, Kyle Perry, Francis Laurent, Tony Sinclair, Simon Russell, Nicky Nicolau and Brad Barraclough all joining in the summer.

The first game for a new look Lincoln side is a trip to Southport, a team who were also relegated last season, but due to the financial troubles at Rushden, they won the annual AGM Cup. More on them later.

City's pre-season was mixed, beating everyone below the Blue Square Premier but failing to beat anyone at or above that level, including not winning at Sincil Bank (not in 90 minutes anyway).

Tony Sinclair and Francis Laurent are almost certain to miss the match through injury, but other than that the Imps are believed to have a near full squad to choose from.

With the club standing a realistic chance of setting a record for the most about of debutants in one games, it's hard to truly predict a starting line up. Some positions are easy to predict, such as the goalkeeper (mainly because we only have one), whereas the main debate could come up front. Sam Smith has played extremely well in pre-season, whereas Jamie Taylor has impressed many with his chasing abilities, however, Kyle Perry scored more goals than both of them combined in the Blue Square Premier last season, so it's an interesting choice that Tilson faces.

THE LIKELY CITY STARTING XI
	WILL MAKE HIS FIRST APPEARANCE FOR THE IMPS SINCE THE 2-1 DEFEAT TO WYCOMBE ON JANUARY 15TH IF HE STARTS. Joe spent the latter part of last season on loan at Morecambe and helped them survive at the expence of the Imps.  He hasn't played for Lincoln City since January 15th as yet another mistake cost Lincoln points in a game against Wycombe.
	WILL MAKE HIS LINCOLN CITY DEBUT IF HE PLAYS AGAINST SOUTHPORT John Nutter replaces Joe Anderson as Lincoln City's new left back, although it's not hard to replace Anderson. The experienced left back joined following his release from Gillingham and has vital experience at Blue Square Premier level.
	WILL BECOME A TWO-TIME IF HE MAKES AN APPERANCES AGAINST SOUTHPORT Josh returned to Sincil Bank in the summer following on from a loan spell at Sincil Bank last autumn. He will be easily noticeable thanks to the pineapple currently residing on the top of his head.
	Watts is one of the few survivors from last season and that is probably only because he was already under contract for this season. Adam will be under pressure to perform this season after a poor 2010/11 season and knowing that he is not guaranteed to be here for the following season for the first time in his Sincil Bank career. Watts will probably be playing at right back for the game against Southport due to the injury to Tony Sinclair.
	Another player who is under pressure to perform. Despite gaining a new contract during the summer, many questioned that decision following the defence becoming considerably less stable with Hone in it towards the end of last season. For the second season in a row Hone will be playing in the Blue Square Premier early on, having spent time at Darlington on loan last season.
	McCallum is another player who has survived from last season, but realistically he would have been gone had it not been for him already being under contract. Gavin was rarely more than a disinterested bystander for most of last season but has been a relevation in pre-season, scoring some stunning goals and he could arguably be the key to Lincoln's entire season.
	<----SIMON RUSSELL WILL MAKE HIS LINCOLN CITY DEBUT IF HE PLAYS AT SOUTHPORT Another man likely to make his debut is the experienced Russell. Despite only being in his mid-20s, Russell has established himself as one of the best midfielders in the Blue Square in recent years and was Cambridge's player of the season. I will make a player-image soon.
	I've never been impressed with Fuseini. During last season I think he became the new Scott Kerr, in other words he replaced Kerr as the midfielder who couldn't complete a pass to save his life. During this pre-season he has done enough to have earnt himself a starting place on the first day.
	WILL MAKE HIS LINCOLN CITY DEBUT IF HE PLAYS AT SOUTHPORT Another player who was a Blue Square Premier team's Playoff of the year last term. Power will make his debut following his signing from Rushden and Diamonds and will almost certainly make his debut at Southport.
	WILL MAKE HIS LINCOLN CITY DEBUT IF HE PLAYS AT SOUTHPORT Jamie was the first signing of the summer and after hitting 19 goals in all competitions for Eastbourne last season, it looks like a clever signing from Tilson. Although he hasn't been on fire during pre-season, Taylor is likely to start because of his attitude during the matches, something which has impressed almost all in the Sincil Bank crowd.
	WILL MAKE HIS LINCOLN CITY DEBUT IF HE PLAYS AT SOUTHPORT Much like Taylor, Perry scored a lot of goals for a side battling relegation last season and he has already done something in pre-season that Drewe Broughton didn't manage once, not even in friendlies, he scored a goal. Although he has spent most of the pre-season injured, he will probably start ahead of Smith because of the goals tally from last season.

The winners of the AGM Cup this summer were Southport FC. The annual "let's see who we can chuck out" meeting at the Conference AGM saw Rushden by the unfortunate team this time, and relegated Southport gained a reprieve. It was a lucky escape for the Sandgrounders, who were in their first season back at Blue Square Premier level.

Southport have overhauled most of their squad from last season with very few of their players last season remaining at the club. There aren't many names that most fans would have heard of, although Scott Spencer was on trial at the club during the summer. People will remember Scott Spencer from his time at Sincil Bank, where many a dangerous attack was thwarted by the ball being played to him.

Despite an entertaining game against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup that was shown live on the BBC, it was largely a season to forget for Southport last term. Only twice during the entire season did they record back to back victories and they failed to score in 15 of their league matches last season. They only kept a clean sheet on eight occasions, half of those coming by the first week in September.

Much like the Imps they also conceded goals on a regular basis, with some of the more noticeable results being 0-5, 1-4,  2-4, 0-6 and 0-4 in the second half of the season.

Looking through their recent player history, only two players have represented both clubs in the recent past. Chris Ward was at Lincoln in the 2002/3 season, whereas Gary Brabin was on loan at Sincil Bank in the late 1990s. Brabin would go on to become Southport player and manager later on in his career, guiding them to the Playoffs before leaving for Cambridge. He was interviewed for the Lincoln City job in 2009 following the sacking of Peter Jackson.