A game of two halves, again.

You might suppose, looking at the results, that City played well yesterday and did not do so last Tuesday v Welling. However the best spell of football occurred in the first half on Tuesday evening when the Imps showed they were capable of producing good football and Alan Power showed that he is a good footballer. The much maligned (by some) Power then faded, as did the team as a whole and, having failed to put the ball in the net when they were strutting their stuff they slipped to another home defeat.

Yesterday at Sincil Bank City got it the other way round producing a totally ineffective first half display. It would be interesting to see those fancy stats they produce for us on the telly for that half. If City managed 10% accuracy in their passing I’d be surprised. However, all that was consigned to the memory as the Imps well and truly got their act together and swept Braintree aside and with just a few games left now surely have assured themselves and their supporters a run in to the end of the season free of relegation worries, not that it has been anything to write home about.

We had a lady referee and, for my money I thought she acquitted herself well although my view does not seem to be shared by one of my female followers on twitter. Judged against the general standard of referees in this league I don’t think you could argue that she was any worse than some of the refs we’ve seen this season and considerably better than others. Certainly there were no chants of you don’t know what you’re doing although I do gather, from my lady follower, that there was some regrettable misogynist calling out which is frankly pathetic in this day and age. It must be difficult to ensure that there are sufficient referees coming through and with more and more women attending matches that sort of nonsense has got to stop. I hasten to add that there was nothing of the sort in the Echo side of the ground.

Talking of calling out, Alan Power did not win man of the match, Sean Newton did and there was general acclaim for the player and indeed the sponsors who chose him and who showed that at least they had been paying attention. Newton would have been my choice and I have really enjoyed watching this player this season. I described him in an earlier article as a marvellous mixture of skill and belligerence, he’s the sort of player the fans can relate to and I would like to think he’ll be around next season.

City resume hostilities against the same opponents on Tuesday and if they can maintain the performance of the second half there is every reason to be confident. Can they though?