Martin met me at Da Vincis - thankfully open on a bank holiday - and for once made the day of the female waitress by ordering a breakfast rather than his usual "just tea".
A peaceful trip north though on the way we got a text from Liz confirming that Rotherham had - as rumoured earlier in the week - taken on Steve Evans as manager. That will be popular.
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| Ultimate embarrassment as Louis scores |
We had time for a quick peruse around Waterstones before hiking up to the other end of the High Street where the Golden Eagle had opened at the very reasonable time of 11am.
This pub was the original DAFTS Pub of the Season quite a few years ago and it hasn't changed much in the intervening years. It is still part of the Castle Rock chain and this is reflected in the beers at the bar: Castle Rock Harvest Pale, Sparrow and Hebridean plus a couple fo Batemans - XB and Eggs-B, plus RSX from Red Squrrel.
Maybe I wasn't in the mood but the beers didn't seem brilliant - the normally reliable Harvest Pale wasn't as crisp and refreshing as it should be - in fact it tasted a little malty - and the others didn't appeal much more.
Still there was a big pot of chilli at the bar which Pete Stockill tucked into. We were joined by Brian as well but that was the extent of the DAFTSness today.
Martin wandered off to the bookies and then Pete and I headed off early-ish to the ground - the weather wasn't brilliant but wasn't as wet as forecast. Fingers crossed it wouldn't get worse.
In the ground I met up with the Lincoln photographers - Graham and Andrew - a real nice pair who always look after you and it was good to catch up with them again. We discussed our respective clubs and like us Lincoln are not in a happy place - crowds are down and the football is poor with no sign of improvement or investment.
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| Red card for Paul Johnson |
It seemed that the Lincoln players were more aware of this than the Quakers and other than for a short spell at the start of the game, Darlo were on the back foot throughout.
Lincoln had a couple of chances but only wayward finishing and a good tackle from Johnson kept the scores level.
McReady was working hard in midfield whilst Bowman and Broughton beavered away but got very little out of the Lincoln defence. The referee seemed to think it was Christmas and not Easter judging by the number of free kicks he gave to their central defenders, with Gowling falling to the ground repeatedly.
Lincoln's early pressure paid off when Pickford parried a well-hit free kick only for Lincoln MOTM Lloyd to tap the ball home.
It wasn't long before the home team doubled their lead after a cross came in and the Darlo defence were beaten to the ball by Taylor who headed in.
And then from a similar move, former Darlo player and journeyman superior, Jefferson Louis, headed the ball past Pickford to make it three-nil. If only he'd shown this much gumption when he'd been with us.
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| Wainy - what am I doing here? |
And then to top off the first half, Johnson was adjudged to have fouled Louis on the edge of the box and the ref continued his Santa act and duly produced the red card. As if Lincoln needed any further advantage!
Wainwright failed to come out for the second half as Paul Arnison came on and Kris Taylor moved back to replace Johnson. The balance was better and Darlington started to keep possession and move forward with purpose but the home keeper was rarely threatened.
Lincoln continued to make chances and Pickford made a couple of excellent saves and it seemed we might keep it scoreless for the second half. And then that man Louis hit the post with a shot before scoring his second with a simple header form close range.
There was a late shout for a Darlo penalty when it seemed Rundle's shot was blocked but there was to be nothing for us today. Poor old Lidds was pulling out what little hair he had left and you had to feel for him.
The referee blew for time and thankfully that was it so that the Darlo fans - just over 170 hardy souls - were spared further pain. They had been supportive throughout with plenty of gallows humour and they clapped the players off, seemingly to their embarrassment.
It seemed the other results were such that it looked as if relegation would be confirmed but it transpired that the west of England had a lot more rain than us - the Telford -v- Tamworth game had been abandoned and so our fate was on hold for another week.
Although we were booked to leave Lincoln after 6pm, I persuaded Martin to leave on an earlier train to Newark Castle station. As we alighted there, the heavens opened but thankfully it was short-lived.
We wandered through the town and headed for Northgate station. As we did I made sure we went a certain way so that we could call into the DAFTS-renowned Appleton Gate Fish Bar. Haddock and chips was the order of the day.
We tucked into it in one of the waiting rooms - envious (or maybe nasty) glances from fellow passengers - it was only when we left we saw the sign saying "Hot Food Not To Be Eaten In Here". Oops!
Our train was on time though not surprisingly it was standing room only unless you had a reservation. After a nice cuppa and a little snooze, it wasn't long before we were back at Kings Cross.
It would have been nice to drown our sorrows with a few beers at the Euston Tap but with it being back to work the next day, we just headed off home.
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| Craig Liddle doing never gives up |
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