Ebbsfleet 1 Lincoln 1 - full-time

“"A few flawed red-top quotes from nigelsparky is no comparison at all.

A little dismissive response from Romanway. Redtop quotes or not, these "examples" happened. Not sure what you mean by being "flawed" though.

Anyway, it was you that drew comparisons, giving the impression that football could learn a lot from the athletes at these games. I was merely pointing out that they too have inherent problems afflicting their sport, no different to football. After all, there is no bigger form of cheating than taking performance enhancing drugs, which we all know is rife in Olympic sports such as cycling and athletics. What sort of example are they setting the youth?

Despite your claims, football is still by far and away, the sport of the masses in this country, and indeed in most of Europe. Arrogance and racism is all around us in everyday life, and is, in my view, a problem with society, not football. Arrogance is quite clear for all to see in just about every other sport, just watch the few minutes leading up to the start of any of the sprint races in athletics. You will not see any better examples of pure arrogance than then. But that is the way they are, and for me there is not a lot wrong with being a bit arrogant in the world of sport, it's all part of trying to be the best, by "psyching" out your opponents. Racism appears to me, to be more widespread and a problem on the continent, which UEFA and FIFA seem to be very reluctant to address, when clear acts of racism occur during games their, but as I said before, for me it's a problem with society and not football.

I agree that there are many improvements that could be made within the game of football, but please do not think that other sports are immune from the problems you have chosen to highlight, after all, we could all use the "a few flawed red top quotes" as you so eloquently put it, couldn't we!”

“A few flawed red-top quotes from nigelsparky is no comparison at all. Life without sport to somebody with as much support experience as me would be no life at all. I find it very sad that many people have recently developed a dislike of football at the top level that has long since lost its 'beautiful game' tag. Attendances down, viewing figures on the floor. Now in sporting parlance top level football can no longer claim to be a game, just a bad presence on the achievement rostrum. Abominable behaviour by arrogant tribal thugs on and off the green green grass is no example to the youth of today. It really is time for somebody to take a responsible position and blow the whistle on events shrouded in arrogance, racism and a great deal more, then and only then will the game at the highest level return to the position it once held. Despite this I will still support the Imps, but wish players would not copy the ugly examples the Premier League seem unwilling to divorce themselves from.”

“romanway I can tell that you are not a football fan, otherwise you will know that being part of FIFA's world X1 is in recognition of how well you have played in the previous year. Nothing to do with ones behaviour.

I also suspect another reason players from the premier league are not included, is one of a "political" decision, as the likes of MR Blatter and his cronies,don't care much for our game.

Now onto your comparison of running football down and the Olympics which has been discussed on here many times.

Football had it's eyes shut when the Olympics were setting "examples" then did they?.

So the athlete that had her gold medal stripped from her for taking performance enhancing drugs, or the cyclist that deliberately crashed his bike after a poor start to have the race re-started, the gymnastic officials that surrounded the judges forcing them to change their minds on a result, the protestations from the Italian boxing officials when our man won, the athlete who smashed up the kebab shop in the small hours of the morning whilst under the influence of alcohol, the all night partying that went on in the athletes quarters, these "examples" were all just a figment of my imagination then!

Who had their eyes shut Romanway, wouldn't be you by any chance would it!”

“More concern over British football is the lack of integrity - the reason why World XI has no Premier league players is that it has more to do with all round behaviour than who can boot a ball best. It is as if football closed its eyes when the Olympics were on and examples were set, and they put the likes of schoolgirl tweeting and cheating before decency.”

“Isambard: I thought for hisfirst game Thomson did fairly well, we all see different point about various players, early days with 1st game, we must both wait and see. The game was'nt bad, butagain the referee was prettypoor, stopping game unnecessarily, and when half of his 7 booking were rubbish decisions.

come on boys”

“I have to agree with Franky68 and SouthernImp. We were very poor for most of the game. On the couple of occassions that we passed it on the floor we sliced through them but for the most part we matched their long ball tactics. They had Elder and another giant to compete up front, we had JT. Our midfield dropped too deep and we defended with 8 against 3 and clearances found an opponent rather than a colleague. Their goal came this way.

Clearly the squad will be stretched with injuries etc. I like Millar defensively but his distibution isn't good enough for a right back which is one of the few positions where the player has some time on the ball.

I noticed that when we break our players run away from the ball. That's why I like Larkin because he comes towards the ball and can link play.

The most worrying aspect was the new "twitter announced" loanee Jake Thompson. He was very poor.

Whilst we're unbeaten in 3, that's 6 points dropped.

Let's try to pass the ball on the floor otherwise we'll not get above mid table.

Up the Imps”

“sfocata,

All professional clubs have Acadamies/centre of excellences, which often start from as young as 7 years old, right the way through to 16 years old. Then if they are deemed good enough they will be offered a 2 year scholarship, although recently the FA have re-vamped the system and introduced youth development squads for the Acadamies, which basically are under 21 squads.

The problem is that English clubs at all levels, won't give the youngsters too many opportunites, favouring this "experience" thing, even though they have bags of ability and often more talented than the so called "experienced" players. Goalkeepers suffer even worse from this mindset than outfield players, hence why there are so many keepers playing into their 40's, and often not getting a run in the team until they are in their middle twenties, which for me, is a ridiculous situation.”

“nigelsparky - oh indeed, but I think the problem is that we're all ultimately dictated by the top clubs. If they nurtured young talent and trained them in proper skills from a young age, rather than just buying in the finished product, the whole sport would be so much healthier.”

“I think Robinson is a good asest but should now get more time on the field still coming from the bench, to gradually bringing him on sooner and sooner in games if that makes sense, he did very well yesterday right from the very first minute he stepped onto the field, having two markers at times, well done Conner.

come on boys”

“We had a fairly strong squad out, the oppositon was poor, a typical amateur side, humping the ball forward hoping for a break, typical old fashioned defence heading kicking the ball anywhere, no directional passing at all, I think we were drawn down to the level of the opposition. I think give Larkin and Robinson a start. We may have Garner and Sheridan injured as well now, have to wait and see.Gray did well again at the back when replacing the injured Garner at HT. Boyce had a tough 1st half with their CF Elder, but he had to contend with alot of elbowing from this guy, he went down twice with facial injury, he and Gray swapped sides in the 2nd half, and were both more settled, with Gray covering Elder well.A really valuable aquisition.

You can't play a team like this at their own game knocking high balls, their defence were big and JT did'nt win anything in the air, our boys can play football, thats why I like Preece in goal the way he distributes the ball, Farman did do well yesterday kept us in the game with two good saves, and seemed alot more assured.

come on boys”