Marked for Milos Markovic
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Jan 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market15 Jan 2035
The offer from Hamrun Spartans for George Graham was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market15 Jan 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lincoln City can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2035
Lincoln City asked and West Ham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Caio Alexandre and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market15 Jan 2035
The paperwork is done: Pelle Newman joins from Stevenage in a deal worth $310.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Martín Szumik falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match13 Jan 2035
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lucca Kakai’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lincoln City.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2035
A loan move for Dani Ángel is in the works
Lincoln City have made the call to Peterborough United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Teddie Bloomfield is in the works
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Tom Meynadier
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Dec 2034
Liam Palmer breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Dec 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lincoln City can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
Wessel Brugmans: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lincoln City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Caio Alexandre and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Lucca Kakai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Giorgio Canali ran the middle of the pitch — 7.19
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.19, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Match16 Dec 2034
Barnsley made Lincoln City work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad18 Dec 2034
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2034
Liam Palmer breaks a bone — 54 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Nov 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Clay Atkins in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lincoln City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Martín Szumik falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Lincoln City are still strangers to each other
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market20 Nov 2034
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Wessel Brugmans has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Lincoln City.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zaid Koblev, and the manager let it.
Market20 Nov 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lincoln City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
James Graham has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lincoln City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Oct 2034
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Lincoln City did not have in the autumn.
Market23 Oct 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lincoln City can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Caio Alexandre and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match21 Oct 2034
Lincoln City make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Szumik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
Joe Wormleighton is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Player ratings23 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Sep 2034
Newport County go through and Lincoln City go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match23 Sep 2034
No end in sight to Lincoln City's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lincoln City has to find a result from somewhere.
Market25 Sep 2034
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lincoln City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Sep 2034
Whatever happens, Lincoln City do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Lucca Kakai falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match20 Sep 2034
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Newport County had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Flavio Milillo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Twelve yards and the whole ground holding its breath, and it did not go in. He will put his name down for the next one, which is the only thing to do.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Marked 7.50 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Lincoln City had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Apr 2034
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lincoln City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Apr 2034
108 days out for Wessel Brugmans after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lincoln City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 Apr 2034
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Lincoln City know it.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Caio Alexandre and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match22 Apr 2034
2‑3 to Millwall, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Words at Lincoln City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Szumik is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings24 Apr 2034
Marked 8.28 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout24 Apr 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 Apr 2034
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Feb 2034
22 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Huddersfield Town were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market20 Feb 2034
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lincoln City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market20 Feb 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lincoln City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Thomas Waddingham was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings20 Feb 2034
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Szumik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets20 Feb 2034
The window shuts on the Simon Clarke deal
Lincoln City ran out of time with Reading. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Match18 Feb 2034
A 1‑0 win over Huddersfield Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Feb 2034
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Jan 2034
No end in sight to Lincoln City's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lincoln City has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Jan 2034
A fracture rules Lukáš Prokop out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lincoln City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market9 Jan 2034
a squad player asks to leave Lincoln City
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets9 Jan 2034
The offer went to Bournemouth this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets9 Jan 2034
Everything agreed with Bournemouth, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad9 Jan 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giorgio Canali and Lincoln City agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Thomas Waddingham and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets9 Jan 2034
Lincoln City asked and Bolton Wanderers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Jan 2034
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Lincoln City know it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Dec 2033
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Coventry City, and it could have been more.
Player ratings19 Dec 2033
A brace, and Roko Šimić takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Roko Šimić provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
Milos Markovic: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cardiff City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings19 Dec 2033
George Earthy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Lendrit Shala falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Daniil Shamkin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch19 Dec 2033
“I watch every Cardiff City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ponferradina runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Dec 2033
13 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad12 Dec 2033
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pierre Jouan
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lincoln City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match8 Dec 2033
Tottenham go through and Lincoln City go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad12 Dec 2033
50 days out for Lukáš Prokop after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lincoln City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match10 Dec 2033
No end in sight to Lincoln City's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lincoln City has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joe Wormleighton has just signed for Lincoln City, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout12 Dec 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market12 Dec 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lincoln City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout12 Dec 2033
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.