Middweek round up.

On the whole it was a pretty good week in my sporting world. It rarely goes as well as these past few days have done so it is with great pleasure i share these jolly japes with you chaps.

Tuesday 15th March

Lincoln's quest for survival continued with a decent enough away point at Macclesfield Town. Lincoln took the lead through Steve Hunt midway through the first half but were denied the full three points by an injury time equaliser. The main talking point from the game seemed to be Ben Hutchinson who was dismissed with 34 minutes left to play for two bookings. The second of which being for the pointless act of kicking the ball away. Hutch seems to be getting a fair bit of stick for this and rightly so, but i don't think we can totally blame him. If you are sitting on a one goal lead you are always on edge and in the lap of the gods and an own goal, wonder strike, dodgy ref decision can always throw a spanner in the works (Not that this was a dodgy decision) By all accounts Lincoln had plenty of the ball in the first half and thus should have done a hell of a lot more with it. Had we got the 2 goal lead Hutchinson's sending off wouldn't have had as much impact.
Never the less i would have settled for a point before kick off and a point we got. We now sit 12 points clear of the drop zone with 10 games to go.

Meanwhile Inter Milan became only the 2nd team in Champions league history to go through in the knockout stages after losing the first leg at home. A 3-2 win away against Bayern Munich was enough to send the champions of Italy, Europe and the world through to the quarter finals. Another trip to Germany now awaits as Inter were drawn to play Schalke 04. Not only is it a decent draw but it also gives Inter a great chance to avenge our 1997 UFEA Cup final defeat to them on penalties. Looking at the draw i will stick my neck out and say it will be an Inter Milan v Real Madrid final.

Wednesday 16th March
Another great result for me as the Nottingham Panthers retained the Challenge Cup. They lost the 2nd leg 2-1 in Belfast but won the cup 4-3!

Thursday 17th March
Only live sport midweek sport for me this week but what a game. The derby de la Bassetlaw. Worksop Town v Retford United (played at Retford) This was the third attempt to get this match played due to the weather we have had this winter and while saying it was well worth it may be pushing it slightly, it wasnt too bad a game all in all.

Worksop started very quickly and created several good chances and had a goal disallowed. New signing Luke Beckett was looking quite sharp. After weathering the storm Retford did get back into the match but failed to create many clear cut chances. When they did get into the final third the final pass wasn't good enough. Worksop continued to look the most dangerous side although they started to run out of ideas towards half time.

The only two moments of note in the second half were Worksops goal which came from the penalty spot following a handball. And the game being held up for 13 minutes when the referee was injured and a replacement found from the crowd. In the end the game finished 18 minutes later than it should have done. Retford had a couple of half chances and all in all put up a decent showing. Worksop didnt hit top gear but with the amount of games they have coming up in the next few weeks it was a case of just getting the points which on the balance of play they deserved.