Imps draw leaves fans talking about anything but the football.

All the comment last night after City’s draw against Altrincham was about the referee. The manager, perhaps unwisely, and on the radio amongst the fans, the talk was about the inadequacy of referee Ollie Yates performance. I’ve said before in this blog though, referees don’t win or lose games and City should have had this one put to bed in the first twenty minutes, such was their dominance at the start.

Having said all that I’m now about to dismantle my argument and say that the overwhelming incident, the injury to Matt Sparrow and the way it was dealt with, did have a bearing on the game insofar as it completely took the wind out of City’s sails, Altrincham equalised whilst they were trying to regroup and try as they might, the Imps never reimposed themselves on the match as they were doing at the start.
I didn’t actually see the incident myself, some correspondent I am, but the din from the crowd confirmed that a major transgression had taken place but you can tell when a referee embarks upon a protracted conversation with a player that a red card is not going to be issued and Altrinchams man stayed on but what the referee was unwilling to do Jake Moults manager did for him a little later and he was duly and ignominiously substituted for his own good just before half time although of course the match remained 11 versus 11.

Sorry to harp on about it but man in the middle continued to antagonise the crowd by breaking up the game every time it threatened to get going pulling up for every minor misdemeanour and missing the glaring fouls. The second half was just as bad for a different reason, virtually nothing was penalised.

Shall we talk about football? There is much to admire about our new look side and I like what I see of the players Chris Moyses has brought in. However, if City are going to do any good this season they will have to learn to overcome setbacks like they suffered last night and prevail over sides such as Altrincham who were robust but visibly tired towards the end of the game. They should have been run ragged in the final third of the game.

A word about City’s goal, it was exquisite. I really like Matt Rhead and it was his knockdown that laid it on a plate for Alan Power. They all need putting in though and Power duly obliged with a confident finish. When he’s good he’s very good. I didn’t really agree with Rheads nomination as man of the match. I thought Chris Bush was outstanding as was Farman and the sponsors ought to think a bit more about sharing out the plaudits

Talking of ragged it's Torquay next at Sincil Bank this Saturday and the fans will not be best pleased to see City fail to win against them. Last night can be regarded as a bit of a slip up in difficult circumstances. Saturday will be a different matter.