Hero and Villain.

Had Lincoln City hung on to their lead in Saturday’s eventful clash with Woking the headline was going to be “City win the lottery” for lottery it was given the weather.

Poor old Paul Farman had every goal keepers worst nightmare not once but twice as relatively routine saves squirmed through his hands as Woking firstly took the lead and were then pegged back as City applied themselves to the task in hand.

Back to the weather and it looked so threatening as the start of the match drew near we retreated well back into the Echo Stand, fairly close to chairman Bob Dorrian. Not in the posh seats you understand but within eyesight and he cut a strange figure as he watched the game. If anything he is enjoying his football even less than us long suffering fans and was a picture of, well whatever the opposite of enjoyment is and that was after City had just scored!

The game progressed and I’m sure fellow fans, like myself were fearing the now familiar calamity and so it seemed to come to pass as Farman let one in. Worse was to follow as the Imps conspired to let slip all three points and in a stroke of disastrous defending the onrushing Betsy was upended in the box to give Woking a stone wall penalty.

Just time for a final drama, this time of the good variety as Farman went some way towards making amends for his afternoon as the City stopper not only saved the penalty kick but also the rebound to preserve the point. Had City’s plight not been so pressing this could have been cause for much celebration and as it was it still felt like a win as we all made our way home.

Manager Simpson felt there were positives to be gained from the match and, whilst it’s never a bad thing to have a penalty saved in the last moments of the game, particularly when a point is rescued, nevertheless three points was really a minimum requirement and City find themselves, once again precariously placed in the league as the winter drags on.

Talking of precariously hanging on it would be interesting to know what the manager’s thoughts are on his beleaguered goalkeeper and what he is going to do about him. Many fans will be thinking that with a perfectly adequate back up in Preece maybe the time is right for Farman to have a couple of games to get his head sorted out. After all it worked wonders for Joe Hart at Manchester City.