I don’t think we should confuse being in the National League with being part time. Lincoln City employed full time players during their time in the NL (and Conference prior to that). Their average crowd this season is, indeed, 8,600 where ours is 3,600: this will certainly have been boosted by it being their first season back in the EFL for a while and it helps that Lincoln is both in the middle of nowhere and a bigger city than Crewe.

As regards money, true they don’t have an Academy, but in the short term they are benefitting from a run to quarter finals of the FA Cup last season which will have netted them £180k in prize money plus TV dosh - and good luck to them for it.

I think they have benefitted from last season’s success on the field too; as we know most newly promoted teams start well after promotion, especially those that don’t come up via the play offs. Their ‘style’ certainly owed a lot to what some call non-League football and I imagine they used last season’s windfall to enhance that. In the second half they were a well organised, in your face outfit and, as the manager said, one or two of our players didn’t seem to fancy it. I think DA was, as ever, using hyperbole when suggesting none of them were up for it, but it is high time, as others have said, that he bore some responsibility and was honest about it. Square pegs in round holes and bizarre substitutions were certainly a feature (again) yesterday.

As some of us said after the Rotherham game, I didn’t see that coming at half time - and I said the same to my mate at 5 on Saturday.