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Lincoln 1
Bristol Rovers 0
29th January 2006
Victory for Lincoln City FC against one of the play-off
rivals maintained their fine start to 2006 - or at least
regarding the events on the pitch!
Perhaps the off-field events have inspired Lincoln City's
players, but the popular theory is the enthusiasm of
youth is spurring City onwards. Once again, Imps' boss
Keith Alexander named several first year professionals
and youth team players in yesterday's squad.
Awaiting their opportunity on the Lincoln substitutes'
bench was Lee Frecklington plus youth teamers Leon Mettam
and Tom Wilkinson. This was the first time that Wilkinson
had been involved on matchday for the first team.
Rovers stated that they had watched Lincoln several times
this season, and claimed that The Imps just play
"route one football". As City's fans would have
realised, The Imps have played much more passing football
recently, so a City victory was always going to be a
possibility. However, that possibility almost vanished in
the 2nd minute when Sammy Igoe had a speculative shot,
but the ball flew wide.
Lincoln's response was to create their own attack, which
led to a corner for City. Scott Kerr's subsequent
delivery was cleared by ex-Imp Aaron Lescott.
Alas, the first half was very scrappy from both sides,
who both failed to play to their potential. Lincoln did
have one excellent chance, which arose in the 16th minute
when Christian Edwards handled the ball to concede a
free-kick. Steve Robinson delivered the ball into area,
where Gareth McAuley headed just wide.
The only real efforts at goal came from long-range shots,
which failed to trouble either goalkeeper. However, there
were a couple of important defensive tackles made to
prevent goals, including McAuley's 30th minute block to
stop Richard Walker from scoring.
After countless throw-ins, a poor first half drew to a
close with the score at 0-0. Unfortunately, the second
half began in the same manner, although at least Lincoln
did start playing some passing football.
Soon after Jamie McCombe had headed wide for Lincoln,
former Imps' striker Junior Agogo embarked on a goal
bound run. He was the sole creator, as he expertly
trapped the ball before beating his marker, but his shot
went just wide of the post.
The turning point in this match, which created the
victory, came in the 57th minute when Frecklington
replaced Marvin Robinson. It was a tactical substitution,
as Nat Brown switched from midfield to attack, with
Frecklington slotting into the midfield.
Frecklington's understanding with Ryan almost created a
goal within minutes. The pass and Ryan's skill fooled the
defender, which allowed Ryan to cross to Brown, but
despite Brown's brave lunge, his shot went inches wide.
At last, we now had a game of football, as Rovers replied
by winning a corner, which Imps' goalkeeper Alan Marriott
punched clear. The Imps then countered, and won two
consecutive corners, with the second seeing Ryan head
just over the crossbar.
A 71st minute substitution saw Brown replaced by Gary
Birch, who promptly scored, although it was the
Frecklington-Ryan pairing that created the goal.
Frecklington's vision released Ryan, whose shot was well
saved by the legs of Rovers' goalkeeper Scott Shearer.
Luckily, Birch's anticipation placed him a few yards
ahead of Rovers' defence, and he was able to head the
ball into the net for 1-0 to Lincoln.
Although stunned, Rovers nearly levelled within seconds
of the restart, but McAuley's well-timed block ended that
threat.
Lincoln made their third substitution when they replaced
Ryan with Jude Stirling, which allowed a switch in
tactics to 5-3-2.
Rovers failed to create anything else bar a speculative
shot from Lewis Haldane that could have gone anywhere but
luckily, it flew over the crossbar.
In the dying seconds, it was almost 2-0 to Lincoln, but
Shearer made an excellent save to deny Franny Green,
whose pace had created the opportunity.
Overall, a good victory from a match that saw neither
side play particularly well. In fact, the only difference
between the performances of the two teams was that
Lincoln corrected their poor performance at half-time.
Lincoln
City: A Marriott, C Cryan, G McAuley, J
McCombe, J Hughes, S Kerr, N Brown (72 G Birch), S
Robinson, F Green, O Ryan (79 J Stirling), M Robinson (59
L Frecklington)
Unused subs: T Wilkinson, L Mettam
Bristol
Rovers: S Shearer, A Lescott, C
Edwards, S Elliott, C Carruthers, L Haldane, S Campbell,
C Disley (80 A Gibb), S Igoe, J Agogo, R Walker
Unused subs: J Anderson, J Bass, D Mullings, S Book
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