Lincoln City 3-3 Mansfield Town

FA Cup second round

Saturday was the start of a crazy few days for both Lincoln City and Mansfield Town; two mid-table BSP sides who fought out a thoroughly entertaining draw in the second round of the FA Cup. Obviously a draw meant another replay for the Imps (our third of this cup run) but the magnitude of the replay wasn’t really fully realised until the Sunday when the draw was made for the third round. I had fully expected it to be crap as it normally is when Lincoln is concerned; a Brentford/Bradford at home draw for example. However I think fans of both sides were pretty stunned when the name of Liverpool FC came out of the hat. Although they aren’t the club they were in the 80’s they are still considered a big name in football and would guarantee a full house and a hell of a lot of media interest for the winner. For the loser in Lincoln’s case it would be a trip to Ebbsfleet United and for Mansfield a date with Woking down in London awaits should they lose out.

The first game between the two sides this season was as poor (crap) a game as you will see all season. It was so poor that even I would have struggled to have written anything positive about either side, hence no blog entry for that game. It finished 0-0 which neither keeper being overly troubled; the polar opposite of which we saw Saturday. Such is the beauty of football that two sides can generate a fantasy game after producing a steaming pile of doggy do do just a couple of months earlier.

As today’s game kicked off at 1.00pm it meant an early start. This led us to be sat the pub at 11.30 supping a few quiet pints with Psy’s smash hit Gangnam style blaring out of the juke box. Just the tune to get you in the mood for football I am sure you will agree. Although a large crowd was predicted it didn’t really feel like a big game. Baz however was determined to get into the atmosphere of the big game and was enjoying the chilli flavoured sambucca, and why not at only £1 a shot I say. I just stuck to lager, boring I know, but I needed to pace myself as I was going to have a few in Ordsall after the match and an early kick off meant more post match drinking time. After a quick stop at the chippy to stuff our faces it was off down to the Bank for the big game.

As we approached the ground you could tell that the crowd was going to be alot bigger than anything else we have seen since relegation day against Aldershot. Mansfield had sold around 1,200 tickets and looked as if the “Magic of the cup” had brought out a good few of the City faithful who have stayed away for various reasons over the last season and a bit. We even had to queue up for 5 minutes to enter the famous old ground. As in the last two rounds, admission was the same on all four sides of the ground so we went in the same stand as we did in the last two rounds. However, unlike the last two rounds, the stand was quite full. There were some free seats towards the end of the stand but the central blocks were pretty “chocka” after some dodgy tunes including yet more Gangnam style the two sides entered to a great reception.

Just before kick off there was a minute’s applause for a player who has his own place in Lincoln folk law. Bert Linnecor had recently passed away but will go down in history for scoring a hat-trick for the Imps at Anfield in 1960 when the Imps ran out 3-1 winners against Bill Shankly’s Liverpool.  Both sets of fans embraced the moment fully.

The Stags backed by over 1,000 fans were quick out of the blocks and had the better of the opening exchanges. The Stags have invested quite a bit in the squad over the past year or so but like many sides in the BSP have been inconsistent this season. Some sections of the Stags fan base aren’t overly impressed and manager Paul Cox has come in for a bit of stick and a midweek defeat at Matlock Town won’t have helped the mood.  They seemed to put all this behind them however and fully deserved to take the lead when forward Matt Green latched onto a poor back pass from Boyce and rounded Paul Farman to roll the ball into an empty net. Lincoln had looked nervous up until now but even going 0-1 down didn’t shake them up.  Mansfield had a great chance to go two up when Green again broke free on the right, Farman came rushing out and Green read his movement and slipped the ball past him. Thankfully from a Lincoln point of view the ball went about a foot wide of the post, had it gone in then the Imps FA cup chances would have been dead and buried.

This did seem to be the kick up the arse that Lincoln needed and we started to get our act together. Although we didn’t force the Stags keeper into any real saves we did at least manage to string more than two passes together. Then a minute before halftime the game changed. City won a free kick when Jamie Taylor was fouled by the Stags centre half. Alan Power took the kick and promptly blasted it into the back of the net. The wall wasn’t great and the keeping even less so. To quote commentators I think the keeper will be “disappointed” with that. Ironically we had just been talking about a belter of a free kick that I blasted past Felice in the Retford 5-a-side league many moons ago.  It goes without saying that this really fired up the City players and fans as they were level in a match that they had been second best in for much of the first half.

Two minutes into the second half the game had really turned on its head.  City had made good progress up the right hand side and won a throw in. This was hurled into the box and was met by the head of Andrew Boyce who got the flick on. Redmond in the Stags goal saved his effort but only succeeded in pushing the ball into the path of Jamie Taylor who made no mistake and gave the Imps the lead. So from being 0-1 down in the 43^rd minute, City lead in the 47^th.

The lead didn’t last long as the Stags came back on the attack and put the Imps under pressure. Matt Green drew Mo Fofana into fouling him. The free kick was cleared but it fell to Louis Briscoe who brought the ball down via his chest and sent a fantastic volley right into the top corner. 53 minutes gone and the scores level at 2-2. After such a flurry of action the game calmed down a bit as both sides looked to regroup.  After this short lull both sides sensed that the game was there to be won and we had a real cup tie on our hands. We had to wait till the 66^th minute for the next goal. A Stags attack broke down, and after a couple of quick passes Jamie Taylor sprinted forward for a shot, but his effort was saved, however Alan Power was on hand to bury the rebound and give Lincoln the lead.  The Imps did have a couple of chances to kill the game off; Tom Miller’s volley that crashed against the bar being the best of them that let Mansfield of the hook. As the game entered its last few moments Mansfield threw everything they had at us. In the 3^rd minute of added on time Farman made a smart save at the expense of a corner. From the resulting corner Matt Rhead rose above everybody to head home and condemned the Imps to another replay.

Normally I am gutted at letting in a goal so late in a match but this somehow felt different. In a way I expected it. The game had been a fantastic advert for this level of football with a draw being the fair result in my humble view. Mansfield could have wrapped it up in the first half as City didn’t really get going till Alan Power scored a moment before halftime.

After the game we headed I headed into Ordsall to sample a few drinks and reflect on the afternoons events with a Stags fan (who bailed out when it was his round no less) and very nice it was to. At the end of the night I got a lift home with the official Mind of an Imp taxi driver and ended the night with a swift drink in the old Sun and a yoghurt kebab. A culinary delight if ever there was one. For those who haven’t had one, it’s served in a box; a layer of chopped up pitta bread is laid in the bottom and covered in a spicy tomato sauce, the box is then filled with Lamb donner meat, which is then covered with lashings of fresh yogurt and more tomato sauce. Believe me people this is just what you need after watching a fantastic game of football. ESPN is screening the replay so my advice is to order one sit back and enjoy a great night of FA cup football.

PS. As of the time of publishing this write up (7-12-12) The Imps had sold 903 of their 1200 ticket allocation. So get in quick if you want to go.