News Round-up (04/01/09)

4th January 2009

Lincoln City FC had a mixed end to 2008 when they extracted one point from a possible six.

On Boxing Day, The Imps held promotion contenders Bradford City to an entertaining 0-0 draw. Imps' goalkeeper Rob Burch made several excellent saves to deny Bradford the winner.

Two days later, and Lincoln travelled to rock-bottom Luton. That said, if it was not for Luton's thirty point deduction, then they would be in a similar position to Lincoln. This showed as the match could have gone either way; in the end though, Lincoln lost 3-2.

What did for Lincoln was conceding two goals within two minutes when Luton's Chris Martin scored in the 31st and 33rd minutes. Lincoln pulled a goal back before half-time through Lenell John-Lewis.

The killer blow came in the 50th minute when Ian Roper headed home. Janos Kovacs hit the crossbar as the match progressed. This was to prove a costly miss as in injury time, Adrian Patulea reduced the deficit to 3-2 with a well taken goal.

That match was to the be the last one that Imps' striker David Graham was to be involved in - albeit as an unused substitute. This pretty much summed up Graham's Lincoln City FC career as he struggled to break into the first team despite displaying some good skills in the only two matches that he started. Graham's six-month contract expired on January 1st and he was not retained.

Also officially leaving Lincoln City is striker Kevin Gall, although he actually left the club a month early of his six month loan deal. Gall, unlike Graham, was given plenty of opportunities in the first team and at first looked a decent signing as he was full of running. However, it was his goal scoring ability that failed him as he failed to score once for Lincoln.

Taking the place of Graham is former Fulham and West Bromwich Albion striker Geoff Horsfield. Now 35, Horsfield has joined The Imps until the end of the season in a bid to help Lincoln reach the play-offs. The signing is seen by many as a coup and comes about as Jackson and Horsfield were former team-mates at Halifax Town; Horsfield has been out of the game for several months as he has been battling cancer.

It was hoped that Horsfield could make his debut at Morecambe on Saturday. That though did not happen as the game was postponed due to a frozen pitch.

Finally, it just leaves TFI to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope that 2009 brings everything that you wish it to.

Click the links to view cheap football merchandise for Bradford City, Fulham, Lincoln City, Luton Town or West Bromwich Albion football club.