Lincoln City 0-0 Maccelsfield Town

Thankfully its over!!!!
Well that's it. The 2009/10 season is over and not a moment to soon. Relief was the word around Sincil Bank this afternoon. For a long while it looked as if this game would be the one that would decide whether or not we stayed in League two. Thankfully our last home win spared us a final day shootout and another couple of weeks with no sleep. That pleasure went to Barnet and Grimsby Town. Today the results of those two sides were at the forefront of most Lincoln fans minds.

The weather was just like City's season. Dull, grey with just a ray of sunshine poking through. Just when you thought the sun would poke through a quick rain shower came along to piss on your chips, in pretty much the same way a 4-0 away defeat at Port Vale can do to you. All that was on the table for the Imps was a chance to finish 20th in the league. Macclesfield haven't done much better so a crap game was always on the cards.

First stop as ever, was the club bar for a swift pint. Macclesfield don't normally get great crowds, normally well below 2,000 at home, but they seemed to have a brought a few fans with them for todays match several of whom were milling around in the bar. Quite a few were wearing baseball caps with the message "Hats off to Keith" in respect for the late great Keith Alexander; the former manager of the Imps, who was the Macclesfield manager until his sudden death this year. He will never be forgotten. The 15-16 year old Macc fans in there were starting a few chants and stuff (all in good nature) maybe they should start some chants at their home matches as it is normally a very quiet place. On the big screen Nottingham Forest were getting stuffed by Blackpool in the first leg of the Championship playoffs.

Before the match the club did the normal end of season awards and there were no real surprises. Cian Houghton won young player of the season(chosen by the manager). Away player of the year, which is voted by the fans who go on the official coaches, went to Goalkeeper Rob Burch. The player of the season as voted by the fans went as follows
Joint second: Cian Houghton, Davide Somma
Winner: Rob Burch

Well done to all. It pretty much tells you all you need to know about our season when the Goalkeeper wins two of the awards and one of the players who got second in the player of the season award has been on loan with us for a couple of months. The match itself was as dull as most had expected it to be. It was basically two sides going through the motions after a long hard season battling against relegation

The only real moment of note was Davide Sommas sending off. He had been battling with Towns' Centre half Sean Hessey all game, with words being exchanged. Somma, with his great goal record since joining Lincoln, is becoming a bit of a target for limited defenders like Hessey. After yet another snide foul from the former Chester city player went unpunished, Somma took the law into his own hands (or head) and butted him in front of the ref. Obviously you can't get away with this, but the way Hessey went down (like he had been shot at by a battery of Gatling guns!) left a bad taste in the mouth. Its very rare for me to slate a player on this blog but hessey deserves it.


The Imps played better with ten men that they did with eleven but still couldn't force a goal. The loudest cheers came when each of Burton Albion's Goals went in against Grimsby Town thus condemning them to relegation and leaving us as the only Lincolnshire side in league two next year. Even if they won, it wouldn't have mattered due to Barnets 1-0 win over Rochdale.



After the game we had the traditional lap of honour as Chris Sutton lead the team around the ground although only about 50% of the crowd stayed to see it. On the one hand its pretty crap finishing 20th in league two but when you look at how bad it could have been then we should all be thankful Chris has kept us in the league.



I will be writing my thoughts on the season later after a few days reflection. Chris Sutton has had his doubters this year but he was brought in to save us from relegation and he has achived that.

I will leave you with this thought. Rob Burch and Cian Houghton who picked up the end of season awards were signed by.... Peter Jackson so before we all start blaming Jacko and saying it was his fault that we were in a relegation scrap, just step back and think. Also when Jacko was sacked we were 17th in the league after 5 games. 41games later we finish 20th. It goes deeper than Chris, Jacko and even the bloke who cooks the pies and burgers.
Speaking of food. Gillingham have been relegated to league two so that means a return to one of the best fish and chip shops i have ever been to before a football match.
Good times are ahead!!!