In general, it seemed to me that we made significant progress, shaking off the claustrophobic cloak of the previous two seasons, the stifling straightjacket of functional football, and moving towards something better.
I’d be a hypocrite if I pretended to be a dissident voice throughout Michael Appleton’s final season and Mark Kennedy’s entire campaign, which I wasn’t. I enjoy football in three stages: not losing, winning, and winning while entertaining. My base level of happiness is football when you don’t lose, which we had under MK. Finishing 11th was not to be sneeze at, and while I frequently returned home a little bored, I understood that sometimes, needs must.
However, 2023/24 brought us something different, something new and exciting. For a few moments, I wondered if we’d be breaking goalscoring records until the end of time; such was the wonderful impact of Skubala’s ethos in March. Of course, it wasn’t to be, but we certainly created memories during that time.
It got me thinking in the warm spring sun, what were my highlights of 2023/24? What moments pleased me the most, and what will I look back upon in five or ten years time and remember as key games or incidents from the season?
Well, here they are. Five of them.
It would be remiss of me not to include something from August, a month in which I felt so optimistic about the future. Who knows, if we hadn’t lost Ben House and Tyler Walker at the same time, things could have turned out differently. However, the first month of the season culminated with a trip to Bramall Lane, where the Imps won comfortably on penalties.
It was an excellent night from beginning to end. A resilient City, bolstered by a large crowd, penalties, Jensen rebounding from their custodian tossing away the water bottle, and then drawing West Ham on the way home. I could argue that the West Ham performance was even better, but we lost that game, whereas this one made us happy
on the journey home.
This was the one that finally changed my mind about the League Cup
Let me stress, I do not feel happy a man lost his job, nor Danny Butterfield. I’m sure both meant well and tried their hardest to make things work. However, in the weeks after the Sheff Utd game, things just started to feel wrong.
The post-match interviews Mark gave were often tetchy. He started talking about being in the ‘losing my job’ business, and some players came under fire. Against Wolves, a game we won 2-0, he started his post-match interview with a bit of a dig at Michael Hortin, something that was later edited out of videos. He called Jovon out after that game, then there was the Mandroiu incident. However, the Burton game was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I’d become disillusioned with the output. Even the game we won after West Ham, against Cheltenham, was unconvincing. It all felt like we were moving towards a precipice that we might not be able to pull back from. Then, one Wednesday afternoon, I was out for a run, and my phone rang, giving me the heads-up. I hadn’t considered how I’d feel if it happened, but it was instant relief that we might now see change, before it was too late.
Even now, whenever anyone asks me about Mark Kennedy’s reign as manager, my first thought is that feeling I got running down my road, the Hallington Top Road. I even know the exact point I was on the road when I got the news, the exact spot. That’s really telling.
Tom Shaw did a commendable job in the weeks before Michael Skubala came in, but this tie looked daunting. Michael Appleton had got Charlton on a bit of a run, and their squad was (and still is) packed with talent. On the other hand, we were going to have to play a winger up front, and it felt like we might have to lock the doors and hope for the best.
There’s something nice about beating a former manager, even one I liked, as with MA. However, a win might not have made it onto this list, but a real story unfolding certainly does. Haks, banished by MA after his Carlisle incident, put in a stellar performance, bagging two goals. Sean Roughan, not picked for almost a year, and the only player taken off against Bowers and Pitsea, adds one. Lasse, tried a couple of times at right back and deemed a failure under MA, has 11 shots from that position and steals Man of the Match.
I would have included it purely for Haks’ redemption, and if he’d gone to Doncaster the next day, he’d have done enough to leave the Imps with his head held high.
By the way, I took no pleasure in Michael’s loss. He’s still a man I have respect for, which is something I say an awful lot!
This may appear to be a significant fast-forward, but I promised it would be five moments, and cutting it down after Christmas proved difficult. It feels strange to encapsulate Skubala’s rule into two instances, and if I had ‘ten top moments’, six would be his (beginning with Cambridge away). However, I have cut it down, so Barnsley away is the one.
Why? Because that was the first of three magnificent contests in which we scored 16 goals? Maybe. Because the goals were incredible? Perhaps. Because Jack Moylan channelled his inner Messi for 45 minutes. Could be. Because the next day, we had a Christmas meal for my Dad after he recovered from cancer, and that connected the weekend together to make it unforgettable.
The final moment isn’t a game; it’s a goal. Cheltenham away felt more nervy than Portsmouth for some reason, not least when they took the early lead. I can handle failing because we couldn’t beat the champions on the final day, but I wasn’t going to be happy at failing because we lost to a poor Cheltenham team. Also, this day was a 3pm kick off, meaning we had all morning to stress about things, to build it up and worry. Then the early goal just had me on edge.
I know we levelled, but Freddie’s goal was the release, the pressure gushing out like a bleeding radiator. It wasn’t just a tap in either, it was a wonderfully struck goal that, criminally, was not on the Goal of the Season contenders at the presentation dinner. The control and touch were outstanding, and Freddie created a goal befitting of a moment that will live long in the memory.
There were plenty of other moments I could have talked about. The 3-0 win at Cambridge, beating Orient in the last minute, and signing Joe Taylor after his heroics at Colchester were all moments that I’ll recall in years to come, but I think these were the five that stood out the most.
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