Luke's Birthday Bash - City promotion favourites v Village outsiders: Lincoln v FGR

[FGR Stroud]

Lincoln have won all four matches against FGR since the Cowley management team signed up.
Last season FGR recorded three successive EFL wins in a row. This time FGR are a far better team than a year ago and Lincoln are in the middle of a dip in form. Could Lincoln be FGR's 3rd successive win this season?

FGR travel optimistically to Sincil Bank after a comprehensive win away at Exeter and a good home win against Tranmere. But of course Danny Cowley will not want his proud record dented and I'm pretty sure he will be more than fully prepared for this match. He does seem to have the India sign over us.

At the moment we don't know if Rueben Reid will be match fit after missing the last three games. Lincoln will be happy if he is not in team but FGR are winning without his help.
Over the years results between these two teams have been evenly divided with six wins each.
I'm plumping for a drawn game.

 

[Luke Imp]

Reid always scores against us.

Hopefully we're now over the worst of our injuries. Shackell, Akinde and O'Connor are back, so that just leaves Frecklington and Eardley. I can see all five back in the line-up on Saturday.

EDIT - May have used my MOD POWERS to edit the thread title.

 

[FGR Stroud]

Reid always scores against us.

Hopefully we're now over the worst of our injuries. Shackell, Akinde and O'Connor are back, so that just leaves Frecklington and Eardley. I can see all five back in the line-up on Saturday.

EDIT - May have used my MOD POWERS to edit the thread title.

Happy birthday Luke.

Celebrate and enjoy the morning 'cause on Saturday afternoon you'll have to come down to earth watching FGR run rings round your team.

 

[Chris FGR]

Happy birthday Luke.

Celebrate and enjoy the morning 'cause on Saturday afternoon you'll have to come down to earth watching FGR run rings round your team.

BOOM.

Good article by John Light in the SNJ btw, sums up the clash of styles pretty well. Hopefully Saturday will finally be a victory for the beautiful game.
https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co...s-tiki-taka-will-defeat-in-your-face-lincoln/

 

[Plumbob]

BOOM.

Good article by John Light in the SNJ btw, sums up the clash of styles pretty well. Hopefully Saturday will finally be a victory for the beautiful game.
https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co...s-tiki-taka-will-defeat-in-your-face-lincoln/

The article certainly went down well on our forum!

 

[shoddycollins]

Reid always scores against us.

Hopefully we're now over the worst of our injuries. Shackell, Akinde and O'Connor are back, so that just leaves Frecklington and Eardley. I can see all five back in the line-up on Saturday.

EDIT - May have used my MOD POWERS to edit the thread title.

We all know what happened last time Sincil Bank hosted a birthday party.

 

[FGR Stroud]

We all know what happened last time Sincil Bank hosted a birthday party.

Not me!

 

[shoddycollins]

Not me!

The pitch went unwatered, they failed to win and Danny Cowley cried afterwards.

 

[Davidimp]

Won on my birthday this season...

 

[Vanni]

I wasn't aware that Luke was a

just like me. Consider yourself lucky Luke mate, you were born under the most intriguing zodiac sign of all

Seriously though, this star sign business could be just a load of bull but when I checked out the positive and negative traits of the Scorpio male, only one stood out as being wrong - jealousy. I simply don't know what that word means.

Should I start a Zodiac sign thread in the general chat forum?

Happy Birthday Luke.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

BOOM.

Good article by John Light in the SNJ btw, sums up the clash of styles pretty well. Hopefully Saturday will finally be a victory for the beautiful game.
https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co...s-tiki-taka-will-defeat-in-your-face-lincoln/

Reads like a 4-year-old wrote it. I don't disagree much with the assessments but it gave me a headache trying to read it.

 

[Chris FGR]

We like giving away pens. Akinde (pen) should be fit. We wont be keeping a clean sheet then......

Btw I see I'm still banned from the vital forum lol. Seems they cant handle any banter.

 

[Plumbob]

We like giving away pens. Akinde (pen) should be fit. We wont be keeping a clean sheet then......

Btw I see I'm still banned from the vital forum lol. Seems they cant handle any banter.

What on earth have you done? There are regular pokes from various quarters. I thought they generally got a humorous poke back and/or widespread derision and it's done with.

 

[Luke Imp]

I wasn't aware that Luke was a View attachment 9858 just like me. Consider yourself lucky Luke mate, you were born under the most intriguing zodiac sign of all

Seriously though, this star sign business could be just a load of bull but when I checked out the positive and negative traits of the Scorpio male, only one stood out as being wrong - jealousy. I simply don't know what that word means.

Should I start a Zodiac sign thread in the general chat forum?

Happy Birthday Luke.

I'm definitely not jealous - or violent!

Reads like a 4-year-old wrote it. I don't disagree much with the assessments but it gave me a headache trying to read it.

Likewise.

I think people attribute being strong, powerful and in your face into a particular style of play for some reason, when that isn't necessarily the case. Liverpool and Man City are in your face sides when they press high and hard.

 

[FGR Stroud]

Apparently the press from both counties, especially the Lincoln press, have hyped up this game almost as a Danny Cowley / Mark Cooper rivalry match.
However I notice that both managers are playing down the personal angle and complimenting each other’s team although I suspect both men are determined that this is the one game they want to win above all else this season.
Reason is simple to explain from time when both sides had promotion winning teams in same season. Love them or hate them the Cowley’s are masters of the mind games and I’m pretty sure they have won all against Cooper thus far. But MC talked about the Lincoln game at the recent FGR AGM and he seems to be more relaxed so it is doubtful that Cowley will get inside his head on Saturday.

For years FGR and Lincoln played each other in normal rivalry fashion where opposing fans shook hands at end of game whatever the result. That all changed after the appointment of the Cowley brothers who had Matt Rhead in their team.
A couple of years ago FGR’s central defender was unfairly challenged and lay on ground motionless in a semi-conscious state whereupon Rhead ran round him and scored. Okay that was just about acceptable but what Rhead did afterwards was outrageously unacceptable. He did not celebrate with his own fans but gathered the Lincoln players around him to goad the FGR supporters who up until that time had done nothing wrong except shouted support for their own team.

Cowley, to his credit, is a master of gamesmanship. At TNL there are bets on what time the Lincoln goalkeeper will fall to the ground and call upon physio for treatment while Cowley gathers his players around him to give them tactical advice. It always happens when Lincoln are under pressure and at every match against FGR.
Fortunately MC has wised up to this tactic and now FGR do same but nowhere near as blatant as Lincoln.

 

[Plumbob]

Surely, doing the same going to be just as blatant.
Reckon it will be a good game tomorrow. Think, after a little relatively poor run, we will be at it and right in FGR faces. Fun and games!
Let's hope there is no spit flying around and no abuse of children.

 

[FGR Stroud]

Surely, doing the same going to be just as blatant.
Reckon it will be a good game tomorrow. Think, after a little relatively poor run, we will be at it and right in FGR faces. Fun and games!
Let's hope there is no spit flying around and no abuse of children.

The FGR goalkeeper was aggressively accused of spitting at last match but has been totally exonerated.
He adamantly denied spitting at anybody and video backed up his denial.
It was another case of Cowley's team using gamesmanship to score points.
That goalkeeper is no longer with FGR and in his place we have probably one of the best in the league [and that is despite conceding that unbelievable last minute goal at Exeter]

 

[Davidimp]

Apparently we're rivals... WTF!!!!

 

[FGR Stroud]

Apparently we're rivals... WTF!!!!

I think you could be more than right.
Just had a listen to Lincoln's StaceyWest vodcast where Dan and his mate Gary Field really lay into FGR.
The sad pair want to beat FGR more than they do Grimsby so yes you could say FGR have become Lincoln's main rival.

 

[Chris FGR]

Pair of absolute cnuts. Hope we smash em.

 

[Stagat]

Seriously though, this star sign business could be just a load of bull

1/12 of it certainly is.

 

[Davidimp]

I think you could be more than right.
Just had a listen to Lincoln's StaceyWest vodcast where Dan and his mate Gary Field really lay into FGR.
The sad pair want to beat FGR more than they do Grimsby so yes you could say FGR have become Lincoln's main rival.

I certainly don't see you guys as a rival at all, we were promotion rivals in 16/17, very different.

 

[Davidimp]

Are you bringing many?

 

[Luke Imp]

Apparently the press from both counties, especially the Lincoln press, have hyped up this game almost as a Danny Cowley / Mark Cooper rivalry match.
However I notice that both managers are playing down the personal angle and complimenting each other’s team although I suspect both men are determined that this is the one game they want to win above all else this season.
Reason is simple to explain from time when both sides had promotion winning teams in same season. Love them or hate them the Cowley’s are masters of the mind games and I’m pretty sure they have won all against Cooper thus far. But MC talked about the Lincoln game at the recent FGR AGM and he seems to be more relaxed so it is doubtful that Cowley will get inside his head on Saturday.

For years FGR and Lincoln played each other in normal rivalry fashion where opposing fans shook hands at end of game whatever the result. That all changed after the appointment of the Cowley brothers who had Matt Rhead in their team.
A couple of years ago FGR’s central defender was unfairly challenged and lay on ground motionless in a semi-conscious state whereupon Rhead ran round him and scored. Okay that was just about acceptable but what Rhead did afterwards was outrageously unacceptable. He did not celebrate with his own fans but gathered the Lincoln players around him to goad the FGR supporters who up until that time had done nothing wrong except shouted support for their own team.

Cowley, to his credit, is a master of gamesmanship. At TNL there are bets on what time the Lincoln goalkeeper will fall to the ground and call upon physio for treatment while Cowley gathers his players around him to give them tactical advice. It always happens when Lincoln are under pressure and at every match against FGR.
Fortunately MC has wised up to this tactic and now FGR do same but nowhere near as blatant as Lincoln.

The press our end haven't done anything out of the ordinary for this one.

Both managers clearly don't like each other, and most of the players from the previous two seasons aren't with the respective Club's anyway so the needle isn't really on the pitch anymore.

Nothing changed when the Cowleys were appointed, nor when Matt Rhead was playing. If anything, it would have been when Cooper was appointed at FGR around the same time.

FGR will have known little about Cowley, whereas Cooper and Lincoln already had history going back to his Kettering days 8 years earlier. The 'beef' at this end is down to Cooper, not FGR as such. That's just a by-product of Cooper. He could be managing Grimsby, Plymouth or Woking and he'd still get.

The 'rivalry' was only one season, just like it was with Tranmere and to a lesser extent, Dagenham.

What irks Cowley about Cooper go back to his comments at the end of 2016/17 about Lincoln not being deserved winners of the NL. That's where it starts from. Then of course last season was the first time they'd met since then. Then throw Laird and his Rhead comments, the Ragget incident and it builds up onto the pitch rather than just the dugouts.

As I say, though, Lincoln and Cooper go a long way back.

Ironically enough, he beat Lincoln with his Kettering side playing direct football with Big-Ex launching long throws into the box using all the tricks in the book, so despite his portrayal as some sort of custodian for tika-taka football, he's well averse to the dark arts and direct stuff himself when we initially crossed paths.

 

[FGR Stroud]

I certainly don't see you guys as a rival at all, we were promotion rivals in 16/17, very different.

Listen to the StaceyWest podcast and you will think differently.

 

[FGR Stroud]

Are you bringing many?

32 booked on coach so probably around double that number.
Long day with early start deters many.

 

[Imp in Branston]

Listen to the StaceyWest podcast and you will think differently.

The author who writes the blog takes exception because of numerous things that have happened when we have played FGR. As for rivals, Cheltenham are much more your level than us.

 

[FGR Stroud]

The author who writes the blog takes exception because of numerous things that have happened when we have played FGR. As for rivals, Cheltenham are much more your level than us.

The authors have gone overboard in their anti-FGR rant including much historic stuff that has never affected Lincoln. Any fan of another club could make similar rant about Lincoln because all long established clubs have good and bad history.
A benefit is that it has made the anticipation of match far more interesting.

BTW Lincoln are 1st in table
FGR 6th in table
Cheltenham are 23rd in table.
Seems as if FGR are closer rivals to Lincoln than Cheltenham.
And of course FGR used to regularly beat Lincoln when both teams were in Conference and Lincoln only had a very small number of regular supporters. For most of those years Cheltenham were a Football League club.
Tomorrow is gearing up to be a great treat for both sets of fans.
Bring it on.

 

[The Jovial Forester]

Good news that Reuben is training but wonder if this one will be a bit too soon, especially as we've found goals elsewhere, though he's surely the best option if we go one up front being away.

 

[Luke Imp]

A couple of years ago FGR’s central defender was unfairly challenged and lay on ground motionless in a semi-conscious state whereupon Rhead ran round him and scored. Okay that was just about acceptable but what Rhead did afterwards was outrageously unacceptable. He did not celebrate with his own fans but gathered the Lincoln players around him to goad the FGR supporters who up until that time had done nothing wrong except shouted support for their own team.

I can't remember this one. What game was that?