Lincoln City 2-0 Southport

Now that's more like it City!
Tonight was one of those rare days following Lincoln City that i have nothing what so ever to complain about. We went a little earlier than we would do normally for a night game so we could get ourselves a nice pre match kebab. As discussed on the Grimsby away blog i was getting the drinks in at the kebab shop as my forfeit for missing the home game with the codheads on Boxing day. However Felice had wheeled out the old "I am at work" line and wasn't in attendance tonight. Whether he was or not is another matter entirely. He fed us the same line for missing the Colwyn Bay match which we have since discovered to be a porky pie.
We made good time and got into the Lincoln for about 6.40pm we parked up and took a stroll up the hightstreet to the Topkapi kebab house. Lincoln seemed pretty quiet and i had a feeling that the match wasn't going to be a sell out.

Soon enough we were tucking into large mixed donners and very nice they were too. As promised i got the three drinks in even thought there were only two of us present. It was a good job that we did have the extra can of drink because due to Baz being well in with the owner of the shop we got a free large portion of chips to go with our meal and the extra drink washed them down nicely. Its a shame Felice wasn't there to collect his drink but he did stipulate that i had to get the drinks in before the Southport home game which is what i did.

More often that not this season the pre/post match food has been better than the football but not tonight. Lincoln had fought back from 1-3 to get a 3-3 draw away at Gateshead on Saturday and were looking to take that form into tonight's match. Southport have had a decent season up to date and although they had faded from the playoff picture in the last couple of months they had a decent away record and would not be a pushover.
This was a rematch from the first game this season which seems a hell of along time ago. Back then it was a nice sunny day, and we had a different manager. Fast forward six months and we have changed manager, much of the current squad, and used 36 players in the process.
One criticism of David Holdswoth recently was the fact that we have been playing with only one upfront. However this changed last time out at Gateshead, and he did the same tonight. Sam Smith lead the line with recently signed Richard Pacquette (who bagged two at Gateshead and is a Dominican international player no less) up front with him. At the back club captain Josh Gowling returned to partner Robbie Williams who has looked solid enough since he arrived from AFC Telford.
The Imps got off to a great start when Christophe headed Lincoln into the lead on seven minutes. Lincoln looked the better side for much of the first half. Southport (as in the first game at their place) heavily rely on getting long throws around the box and using the long throw tactic. At their place back in October it caused City no end of problems but Lincoln were much more organised and prepared for it tonight.

The only downside for City in the half came just before halftime when top scorer Sam Smith got a nasty injury. After the game it was revealed that he could well be out for the season. Smith has had his critics but in my view some of this is unfair. Quite often he has been played upfront on his own and received very little service and support from others. He is still young and could well develop into a very good finding for City.
He was replaced for the second half by winger Danny Lloyd. Danny is quite young and raw but is very keen and covers as much ground as anybody else on the pitch. City continued to push forward and got the crucial second goal on 53min when Pacquette shot from 25 yards giving the Southport keeper no chance. City continued to push forward and continued to repel Southport's long throw tactic quite easily. Jo Anyon made a couple of smart saves but in the main had a very quiet night.

So all in all a first class night. The kebab was great, we got free chips, City played well and I paid my drinks debt off. I would have hated to have missed out on all of that. Its just a shame not everybody could have collected their free can of pop. It was very nice :-)