Lincoln City 2-0 Reading: Opening Day Frustration

Harry’s take as the Royals begin the season with a disjointed loss at Sincil Bank.

It’s good to be back, eh?

91 days since our last league fixture and, on a personal note, 242 days since the last game I attended, today was the day that we really got down to business.

It’s been a bit of a reality check of a summer so far, as we all know. A lot of outgoings - compounded by Harvey Knibbs’ move to Charlton Athletic yesterday, not as many incomings as we’d all have hoped for, and some concerning pre-season results and performances, have made for a bit of a tense atmosphere among the fans.

In spite of all that though, it felt so good to have a proper pre-match buzz again when I woke up this morning. It’s been a long time coming.

When push came to shove though we were delivered a performance as frustrating as it was, deep down, expected. A 90 minutes indicative of the slow, tenuous transfer window and pre-season we’ve endured.

Contrary to the desperate desires and hopes of every Loyal Royal heading to Sincil Bank this morning - myself included - the fact that today was the first game of the season, where the real action begins, meant it was never suddenly all going to click.

This is a team that have barely played together. I don’t mean to be patronising or state the obvious but it’s going to take time for this group of players to gel and fully take in how Noel wants them to play.

If I were writing this on the way back from a 3-0 thrashing, where we’d been played off the park, then yeah, there may be a bit more of a despaired tone about this report. But, let’s be honest, we weren’t.

Don’t get me wrong, switching off the way we did for the second goal is criminal - and the lack of clear-cut chances we created is a concern - but that was the only real difference between the two sides today.

I don’t think we’ve learnt anything particularly new off the back of today is what I’m trying to say, I suppose. We knew it was going to take time for this team to click, and there’s a lot of work to be done on the training ground in terms of how we’re going to go about scoring goals. None of that is new information.

But it’s still frustrating. We all had that first-game-of-the-season buzz, and all woke up with the anticipation that the opening day brings. So to be limited to Lewis Wing hitting the post from range twice is annoying.

In the most ideal of ideal worlds we’d have our squad sorted by now, and would’ve been able to come into this game 100% prepared and raring to go. But that’s not the case, and I’d imagine isn’t the case for the vast majority of all the other teams who played today.

In the same way we wouldn’t be going up as champions if we’d have won convincingly, just because we lost today doesn’t mean the season's going to be terrible.

There are 45 more games to go: a huge amount of football to be played. And, looking into the nearer future, there are more signings to be made. With that, and with time, will come cohesion, refinement and momentum - I’m sure of it.

Its very easy, and very understandable, for the default setting of a football fan, particularly one who’s gone through the turmoil we’ve had to endure over the last few years, to be one of negativity and apprehension.

An underwhelming transfer window, some poor pre-season results and now a dejected and disjointed opening-day performance will be more than enough to have people worrying about what is to come this season.

But it’s not the end of the world. Far from it, in fact. And that’s not just the three pints of flat Stella Artois talking, I promise.

This team is by no means the finished article yet, so let’s not judge them as if they are. Onwards and upwards is the order of the day.