Hayes and Yeading 1-2 Lincoln City

At last; a decent away game and one that i thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. Over the last few years it has been a tough job writing about Lincoln City games but for once i can report on a decent away day and result for the Imps.
 Just two of us again for today's game. You have to back to the away match at Grimsby on New Years day to find an occasion that 3 or more Retford Imps all attended a Lincoln City match together. Hayes and Yeading are playing at Woking FC at the moment as their current ground is being rebuilt. The journey is a good three hours or so on a straight run and it means negotiating the M25. We left our North Nottinghamshire base at bang on 2.00pm and headed down the A1. The M25 wasn't too bad (by M25 standards anyway) with the only real congestion of note being around the junctions for Heathrow airport. Woking FC play on the outskirts of old Woking, driving around the town you get the feeling it is quite a well to do commuter town for those in the big smoke. The ground is actually a bit of a bitch to find as you have to go through the town and then its in a quiet residential area. As we were quite early we pulled up into the club car park and asked if we could park there to which we got a negative answer but we were told we could park in the leisure centre just opposite the ground.

We parked up at the centre and as we had plenty of time before kick off (We pulled up at just gone 5.45) We decided to head off in search of a kebab. As always Baz had done his research diligently and had located a kebab shop a mere half a mile away. So off we went to locate it. We are enjoying some great weather here in the UK at the moment so it was nice to be able to walk around in our Imps shirts and not have to wear three/four layers. A couple of things stood out, one was there was some pretty pricey looking houses and secondly everybody seemed to be out jogging. The Sultan Kebab shop was about a ten minute walk from the leisure centre and is pretty easy to find. As we arrived he was just opening up and seemed a tad surprised that he had a couple of customers quite so early. The shop was quite large, well decorated but quite empty. There were no menu leaflets but all the dishes were written on a blackboard behind the counter, all in all it had a quite traditional feel to it. The kebabs came in three sizes; medium, large and extra large so not wanting to appear like a total porky pig i just went for the large donner, while Baz went for the healthy option of chicken shish. The sauces were freshly made and the pitta bread cooked to perfection. They weren't the largest portions we have had on our travels this season but they were certainly amongst the best cooked, well prepared, and tasty. The chief was certainly a master of his trade.
We still had plenty of time to kill so we went in search of beer (coke for the driver) Looking at the conference ground guides we deduced that there was a clubhouse at the ground but we could only gain entrance to it if segregation wasn't in operation. Now if this game was a Saturday match i would have been pretty sure that it would be segregated but as it was a Tuesday night i thought there was a good chance that it wouldn't be.
When we got back to the ground we asked a steward if we could get a drink in the clubhouse and we were directed to the snooker club next to the away turnstiles. From this we deducted that segregation was in place.

When we arrived there was already a decent enough number of City fans in supping. The club was quite dark but after your eyes adjusted to the lighting level it was decent enough. Hot food was also on sale and doing a roaring trade. Hayes and Yeading get the lowest attendances in the division. How they can afford to turn down folks' hard earned cash is beyond me but i am sure the snooker club committee don't mind at all. I wasnt tempted to hit the green blaze myself however I was crap when i played in the local Retford league about 15 years ago (Played 13 won 1 lost 12) so i cant imagine myself improving in the mean time. While in the club we met up with a southern based Imp who i often chat to on twitter. Its always nice to meet other imps fans and put names to faces as it were. If you are on twitter give him a follow at @Trisimp it was a pleasure to meet you good sir.
 

We wanted to beat the rush at the turnstiles and left the comfort of the snooker club at just gone 7.20pm. Today's admission price was a very pleasing £12 (which is the cheapest we have paid all season) Another pleasant surprise was the gateman, who was sporting a Glasgow Rangers home shirt and was only to happy to chat for a minute or so about the old Firm result at the weekend. It was such a shame that the "Man of a thousand teams" couldnt make it tonight as he claims to like Celtic. His Celtic knowledge may be limited to the fact that he knows that Neil Lennon has ginger hair, but when you have as many teams as he does he tough to keep track of them all. I watched the old Firm game from the pub and texted him updates incase he wasn't watching it but received no replies or reaction to Celtic getting a good kicking on the pitch. The matchday programme was on sale inside the ground for the standard price of £2.50 and was a joint issue combining this match and the previous Saturday home game with AFC Telford. In the programme it said programmes from the original match were on sale from the programme hut for £1.50 but as we couldn't go round to the hut i was unable to get one. The clubshop was also out of the question, so i got a club badge on EBay the next day (Yet more cash lost by the club). Another waste of money seemed to be the outside security team they got in to steward the away section who would have looked more at home controlling the London riots than a 5th tier English football match with 280 or so people at and taking part at a neutral venue.

Wokings ground is a real contrast of stands. By far the best stand in the ground is the large seated stand behind the far goal. This naturally was shut tonight. I would imagine this is the best single stand in the BSP this season. The Imps fans were given an uncovered terrace that ran the length of the pitch. Opposite us was a much older covered area and a small terrace area near to the new large stand. The final stand behind the other goal was a covered terrace. All in all quite a decent little ground with bags of character. It would have been a bit shit if it was raining but seeing how the weather was quite pleasant all was well. Some of the flask and blanket brigade who travelled down on the bus kicked up a bit of a fuss about there being no seats so they were allowed to sit in the large stand behind the goal. To be fair we all knew what to expect from the ground weeks ago when details were published in the city programme and website etc. On the other side of the coin they weren't going to cause any harm to anybody by sitting in the stand. In the end it was all sorted and everybody was happy with the outcome.

I know the phrase "massive game" is over used by the clowns on Sky Sports etc but this really was a massive game. Hayes and Yeading were in the last relegation spot a couple of places and two points below Lincoln. A defeat here and the Imps would be in the drop zone. Which isn't where you want to be really. As you would expect from two sides in the lower third of the table the game wasn't the best. City made the best of the chances in the first half with efforts from Laurent, McCammon and Louis all going either wide or straight at the keeper. At the other end City managed to keep the home attack at bay with Anyon having precious little to do. As the half went on both sides seemed to be less and less keen to throw men forward.
The first half came to a rather tame end with the score goalless. With only 327 hardy souls in the ground the atmosphere was rather flat. An Imps fan we spoke to before kick off said he was from Hayes and he had a 1hr 45 minute journey to the ground. With that kind of travelling involved its not surprising so few home fans made the trip. HT 0-0

The Hayes manager had clearly kicked his side up the arse in the dressing room at halftime as they came out a totally different team. They pretty much laid siege to the City goal for the first 15 minutes of the second half as Lincoln struggled time after to time to clear the ball. Between them Anyon in goal and the centre backs Gowling and Miller saved the Imps time after time. It was beginning  to look like a case of 'when' Hayes and Yeading would take the lead and not 'if'. However as Lincoln have found out time after time this season, if you don't take your chances when you are on top you are in big trouble. The game turned on its head in the 68th minute thanks to a huge boo boo by the homeside keeper. As he looked to launch another long ball down field to set up another attack he was closed down by a City attacker. This caused him to mess up his kick and slice it out to the right where it was collected by Jefferson Louis who controlled in ran on and blasted the shot low into the far corner to give the Imps a lead that they didn't really deserve on the balance of play.
The lead didn't last too long. Two minutes later the hosts were level when Pele headed home unmarked from a corner. I had one of the best views in the ground of the goal as I was about to "empty the snake" and the toilets in on the away side are bang in line with the penalty box which Hayes were attacking. So before i went into the toilet i watched the corner and saw on of the best headed goals i have seen this season. The City defence were all rooted to the spot as Pele ghosted in at the near post. Hayes corner taker was no other that famous City flop Jamie Hand.

City didn't let their heads drop and were back in the lead three minutes later. We forced a corner of our own and centre back Tom Miller rose to head home from six yards out. This goal really did seem to take the wind out of the hosts sails and although they had more of the ball than City they never got back dominating the game like they had done for the first 15 minutes of the second half when they should have put the game out of reach. As the game went on City grew in confidence and saw the game out without too many scares. Most of the City players had a solid game but keeper Jo Anyon was by far the star performer. Contrast that with his opposite number who's huge gaff changed the game and maybe his sides outcome this season.
FT 1-2
This win opened up a 5 point gap inbetween City and the bottom four sides. Lincoln also have a much better goal difference than the sides in those relegation spots. There is still a hell of alot of work to do before we are safe but its just nice to celebrate two wins on the bounce. We arrived back home in Retford at just gone 1.00am, but very happy, tired, and another ground ticked off.
 Up the Imps!!