City are all the better for the experience

Steve Tilson was finally able to call upon the services of some wiser old heads on Saturday and it showed as the team arrested the alarming series of losses in the fixture against Crewe Alexandra. In the end it was, not for the first time, a case of so near but so far as with a kind of inevitability the team from higher up the table were awarded a penalty which many regarded as dubious and which was duly converted by Clayton Donaldson. All this after City were denied what looked a clear spot kick when Julian Kelly was upended in the first half.

Lets not get too carried away though, not many of us would have refused a point prior to the game against a side that had not so much defeated Cheltenham but had kicked their doors in to use an expression doing the rounds at the moment albeit in a different connotation. With the Imps propensity to leak goals with a vengeance latterly many feared a new, unwanted record against an outfit that had scored eight last time out but, thankfully it wasn’t to be as the manager was able to draft in Paul Green and Clark Keltie to provide some welcome know how in what were probably swan song appearances from these two who are unlikely to feature next season. Not that these players would not be welcome in a Lincoln City squad but more that a club like Lincoln could not afford the luxury of players who can not largely play a whole season, or near enough.

As it was, despite conceding in the seventy-sixth minute having led for much of the game a point from this game at least gives the team heart and dispelled the notion that no further points can be gained from the remaining fixtures leaving the club hostages to their opponents should they start to garner points themselves. In the event, those below them did not, to any great extent gain ground over the Imps. Burton squandered another game in hand last Tuesday but won on Saturday against Cheltenham who are having a torrid time at the moment and are a point ahead of City. Barnet continued where they left off before the Mad Dog’s brief tenure in the managers hot seat, Bury putting paid to two of our rivals in the space of a week, but of course we play them next. Stockport really do look dead and buried at the foot of the table and lost to Shrewsbury. City need to gain one more point to no longer fear the Hatters overhauling them.

It is difficult to see that point coming in the next fixture, away at Gigg Lane but there again who among us would have put their mortgage on a point at Gresty Road? Let’s not forget Chesterfield were dispatched on this ground recently. No toys out of the pram this time from Steve Tilson;-

“It was always going to be a tough game but, I’m proud of the lads today I thought they’ve done fantastic.

“I think in this situation you need your players to be brave, play with no fear and I thought we’ve done that today. We knocked it around really well, created some good chances, we should have won the game, no doubt about it”

Play with no fear, where did we hear that before? Oh yes, Lincoln City Mad called for just that on Friday so no complaints from us. Indeed, just for a change we offer our congratulations on a job well done. In the words of a fellow fan in the Echo Stand. “Let’s ‘ave another!”