Lincoln City gained a very credible and nervous 2-2 draw away to Fleetwood Town on Friday night in the Conference Premier division. This draw delayed the home side the chance to pick up the league title in front of the live TV cameras and 4,511 fans at Highbury.
The Imps came into this game knowing that they needed at most just three more points to guarantee their status in this division for next season. Not many, including myself, gave the imps much hope against top of the table and deserved leaders of the league Fleetwood town. As it turned out the result was enough after Saturdays league fixtures to secure both Lincolns survival and Fleetwoods crowning as champions this weekend.
The Imps started this game once more in their familiar 4-42 formation, with Lloyd and Bore starting the wide areas to showing some attacking intent from the start form Holdsworth. Sadly Tom Miller was injured in the warm up for this match and as a result Karlton Watson replaced him in the starting line up just before kick off, breaking up the back four for the first time since Miller signed.
It took City only eight minutes to take an unlikely but deserved lead through Jamie Taylor. His left footed shot went past Fleetwoods keeper Scott Davies with ease and this was the first sign that the Imps may well be able to cause a unlikely upset on this Friday the 13th fixture. In the 13th minute of the match Andy Mangan may count himself as a little lucky not to see a red card for a reckless and studs up challenge on Tyrone Thompson, he escaped with only a booking when replays suggested a red card could have easily been shown to the forward.
Fleetwood failed to take control of the game following the early goal from the imps and they were made to pay for a second time on 20 minutes when Jefferson Louis made the score 2-0 to the Imps. This second goal came from a John Nutter free kick that was curled in towards Louis at the front post who headed the ball home in front of a shocked Fleetwood crowd. No one would have dreamt of this start from the imps.
The imps impressive start to the match continued until just minutes from the half time whistle. whilst Fleetwood had spurned good chances I was hopefully that the imps could see out the first half with their clean sheet, this was ruined however when the leagues top scorer Jamie Vardy pulled a goal back after a scuffed shot landed at his feet following a superb save from Anyon, he smashed the ball into the roof of the net and gave the home fans something to cheer on their supposed night of promotion.
the second half kicked off with both sides unchanged. There was a sense thoguh that Fleetwood would be the more likely to attack and get the next goal in the match. Sadly it took only four minutes of the second half before the match was all level, a Gowling header back to Anyon was under hit and instead of coming out with his hands and claiming the ball he slid out feet first, his weak clearance was touched past him by Vardy who then smashed the ball in, leaving the home fans once more of dreaming of lifting the trophy.
At this point I feared that our great first half performance would be completely undone and that Fleetwood would go on and get a few more goals to seal the win. Luckily for the imps Fleetwood, whilst dominating the second half, couldn't find away to really break down the Imps back line and create a clear cut chance. As a result Anyon went the the remaining forty minutes keeping the Fleetwood attack at bay.
A brilliant result for the Imps, one which will be remembered. sadly it is also a show of how far the club has declined over the previous few years. Just twelve months ago we wouldn't dream of playing let along being second fiddle to Fleetwood Town. The lessons for the Imps were not only on the pitch on Friday thoguh, off the field Fleetwood have an incredibly rich owner who has invested into the club from the bottom up, improving the ground, facilities and the squad. I do fear that it will be a very long time before The Imps are in a similar position to be able to challenge for the solitary automatic promotion spot from this division.
At least we are now safe and can build for next season. Talks over a contract for Holdsworth are set to take place this week between the Board and the manager. He has kept us up when many of us were fearing the worse and relegation and even the very existence of our club if that event occurred.
Next season must be better for all involved in the club. We have learnt some very harsh lessons this season both on the filed and off the filed. Lets hope they have been learnt unlike last seasons and that this time next year we are in with a shout of the play off places.
No comments:
Post a Comment