Lots of efforts don’t always pay dividends.

Interesting stuff in the Echo bearing out what I think many of us have concluded, City are doing more attacking at home this season. Unfortunately, whilst desirable that alone is not propelling the Imps into the play off zone, but of course every little helps.

Some good news and some not so good. As mentioned before, Matt Rhead is working wonders up front, both in terms of goals but also assists as anyone who was at Sincil Bank last Tuesday will testify. Also a big plus, for me is a resurgent Alan Power who I thought put in a really good shift on Tuesday. Consistency is needed from Power and I think the manager shows his frustration and the player now knows, if he didn’t before, that lack lustre displays will result in a spell on the bench. We do have players of this type, Nolan’s another who can look great but can also be a liability although Nolan obviously thinks he knows best and wants to try his luck elsewhere. Personally it wouldn’t surprise me to see that player go out on loan rather than a permanent transfer straight away but we will have to wait and see.

I haven’t forgotten the not so good. Liam Hearn not only didn’t start on Tuesday but came on very late, certainly too late to affect the game and I don’t think that points to a rosy prospect. Readers need only to consult this blog to realise I’m no expert but one has to conclude that the player is, sadly and once again, falling victim to his fitness worries whether that be injury or illness and I’ve got this horrible feeling it’s not going to work out for him at Lincoln but I do know that he is a wonderfully talented player and I desperately hope I’m wrong and we see Hearn return to health and fitness and we see what his partnership with the sparkling Matt Rhead can produce. The fitness experts at the club seemed very confident they could help Hearn play many more matches than has hitherto been able to and I pray they’re right.

So City failed to exact maximum reward from whipping boys Altrincham so step forward another desperate case, Torquay. If ever there were three points for the taking that opportunity presents itself on Saturday. If only it were that easy. City can only keep on the way that they have been going recently and rain the shots in but there’s got to be a bit more venom in the attack as Chris Moyses told the Echo:-

"Some of our efforts were a bit tame against Altrincham, however, we had a lot of chances on goal.
"It shows we are going the right way and that people who are coming to Sincil Bank are going to be put under pressure. They are going to come here for a battle and will have to defend.
"People know we are direct, but we can also play football as well. We create a lot of pressure on teams and it can be very hard to defend against that for 70 to 80 minutes.
"If we keep asking questions of the defence then we will score goals."

I’m not sure about that direct tag, for this level I think we play a bit but he’s right about one thing, we’ve got to be ruthless in attack if we’re going to succeed.