By Nathan Jackson
December 1 2007

November was certainly an interesting month for the Imps, and despite only 1 victory the optimism seems to have definitely returned to the stands at Sincil Bank, and it's all thanks to one man. 4 defeats didn't reflect the overall performances in November and the Imps can consider themselves unlucky thanks to a certain referee's incompetency at beginning of the month.

THE POSITIVES

Well there are quite a few of these this months and that may surprisie some people. I'm not quite sure where to start to be honest after usually struggling to even think of one positive. I think I'll start with the enthusiasm that Jackson has infected the fans with.

Having personally met Jackson two or three times I have seen his passion for football at close range and those who saw the feature on Soccer (what a stupid American word) Night on Thursday night could see that passion. It makes a hell of a change from Schofield where he just seemed to give off the impression that he didn't give two shits about whether we lost, either that or I mis-interpreted his monotone voice.

Schofield completely killed my enthusiasm for going to watch Lincoln. I'd go but I'd want to leave as soon as possible, and Sincil Bank was a morbid place. Now he's gone and Jackson's installation as manager has seen the atmosphere now return to Sincil Bank.

With regards to the League games, there is only one team that have truly outclassed us and that was Chesterfield. They were the only team that we've played in the League in November that impressed me. Chester were extremely lucky to beat us thanks to the referee's complete and utter incompetence, we were outclassing Wycombe until the sending off and Notts County, well, were just plain shit.

If Schofield and Deehan had been more ambitious in the transfer market then we could have potentially lured Jack Lester to Sincil Bank, but god forbid if the John's brought in a player who would actually be better than what we already had. Hopefully that will change with Jackson and his one signing so far (Smith on loan) has been fairly ok, saving shots we've seen Marriott let in time and time again.

Speaking of players, in my opinion Danny Hone has been very impressive since making an unexpected debut at the beginning of the month. The crop of youngsters he came from has been very hit and miss. Of course you've got Frecklington on the good side of that, but then you've got Ryan, Warlow and Watt, none of whom appear good enough for first team football in the League. Thankfully Hone appears to be in the same category as Freck though.

Finally comes the most important positive that I can think of and that's despite going bottom, City are now just a draw away from moving outside of the relegation zone. A win against Stockport on Tuesday could potentially see us move up to 20th, something we could have only dreamed off this time a month ago.

THE NEGATIVES

Well, my only real negative comes about one or two of the players. Firstly it's Owain Warlow. He has got to be one of the least committed players I've ever seen. I could count the amount of run's he's made in his near 20 appearances for the club on one hand, and still be wasting fingers. His lack of effort when going into tackles has also won him few friends, with one message board member declaring : "Owain shares my exact tactic with tackling. I run 3/4 yards alongside the player but then just give up and let them run on".

But the thing that's fucking me off most about Warlow is that he doesn't stay where he's supposed to be. He keeps wandering into the middle of the pitch leaving Gary Croft (or however our left-back appears to be at the time) with 3 opposition players running at him. It truly amazes me that some other fans can't see this at all, some seemingly thinking that in his 18 appearances he's actually done something worth doing.

The whole situation reminds me a lot of when Ollie Ryan started out. Everyone saying he should be given a chance but then when he is, he completely wastes the chance and will seemingly never make a Football League player. If Owain Warlow manages to break into a sweat on of these days then maybe he would stand a chance in actually being a worthy member of the first team.

Anyway, so that's it really, hopefully by the next time I write a reaction then we will be quite far away from the bottom 2....and maybe Owain will run out of breath at least once.