Safe At Last!

13th April 2008

We will begin this week's round-up by say something that back in September, we did not expect to say: Lincoln City will play League Two football next season!

This was confirmed after Lincoln were victorious at Chester City, where they won 2-1 on Saturday afternoon.

A big thank you must go to Peter Jackson (manager), Neil McDonald (former assistant-manager), Iffy Onuora (current assistant-manager) and Grant Brown (coach) for their work in managing The Imps to safety.

It was an eventful match at Chester City that belittled its predicted "end of season affair". In truth, Lincoln were fortunate to cling on to their lead, especially as they lost Dany N'Guessan to a second bookable offence in the 71st minute.

No sooner had the match begun, than Lincoln were facing a penalty after Imps' goalkeeper Alan Marriott had brought down the lively John Murphy inside the penalty area for a rather harsh penalty. However, justice was probably done when ex-Imp Kevin Ellison saw his spot-kick saved by Marriott.

Ten minutes later, Marriott was unable to continue after he aggravated a hamstring injury that had bothered him during the pre-match warm-up. Stepping up to make his debut was reserve goalkeeper Ayden Duffy.

Lincoln won an 19th minute corner, which was blocked by Ellison. This immediately launched a counter-attack from which Chester scored, as Paul McManus flicked the ball past Duffy for 1-0. There was little that Duffy could have done to prevent the goal.

Suddenly, Lincoln were level again, as within a minute of the restart, Ben Wright passed to Jamie Forrester, who found himself in space to send the ball into the Chester net for 1-1.

If that was not unbelievable enough, Lincoln suddenly made it 2-1 when Wright's well won header was flicked on to Forrester, who scored.

Lincoln were good value for their 2-1 half-time lead, although Chester did have some shots at goal that Duffy coped well with. Duffy appeared a little nervous at first, but as the match wore on, he gained confidence despite his back four looking shaky at times.

Youth teamer Martin Pembleton is also worth a mention despite looking a little lost at times during the first half. By the second half, he was playing very well and was unlucky to be tactically substituted in the 75th minute. By then, Lincoln were down to ten men after N'Guessan had been shown two yellow cards.

N'Guessan's sending off was probably deserved as he was late on a tackle that saw him collect his second yellow card. However, the sending off could have been avoided as N'Guessan had previously been booked for dissent.

Despite Chester throwing men forwarded, Lincoln clung on to their lead. In truth, had the match lasted much longer, Chester would probably have scored and even had a shot cleared off the line late in the game.

That though does not matter as the victory means that Lincoln have won their relegation fight with three games to go. Perhaps now, Lincoln will start to enjoy their football again, although certain players cannot rest as their contracts expire in June

Meanwhile, one person who has severed links with Lincoln City is former director Ray Trew who has sold his shareholding to current director Chris Travers.

Also revealed this week is that Lincoln City will play Derby County in a pre-season friendly - as announced by Derby County's official website.

Click to view cheap merchandise for Derby County or Lincoln City football club.