City close to being kicked out of the Checkatrade Trophy.

If you create a separate disciplinary system for a competition meaning any yellow cards are not counted against league matters do not be surprised if teams exploit that fact. Add into the mix an ineffective referee and a bit of local rivalry and you get last night’s foul fest at Sincil Bank.

As a spectacle it wasn’t a bad game and separate system or not one would presume the FA will want a word about the sheer number of yellow cards racked up by Mansfield in the first half. O’Connor saw red in the second but that was almost an irrelevance.

With fans boycotting the competition because of the perceived undertones of it you’d think the time would be right for a rethink. The fact that Mansfield don’t have a game at the weekend and City do and of course City are sitting pretty at the top of the division meant that the two clubs had a different outlook on the game. I don’t think anyone present at Sincil Bank last night were surprised to see Lee Frecklington go and get some tracksuit bottoms to keep warm on the bench and John Akinde remain seated. In any event the Imps are not out of it yet.

For all that I enjoyed it. There was a strange atmosphere with the usual vocalists absent, it was a decent crowd, 4200 which many clubs would be delighted with in the league but there seemed little in the way of fervour from the assembled Imps, perhaps it was the absence of our favourite Scotsman.

So there you are. City live to fight another day. Whether they do remains to be seen.