Lincoln City 4-0 Tamworth

Saturday the 18th of October 2011.

 Tamworth 4-0 Lincoln City

 Saturday 31st March 2012. 

Lincoln City 4-0 Tamworth .

 Funny old game isn't it?

 The Imps recorded a third win on the trot yesterday against a very poor Tamworth side who could well get dragged into the relegation dogfight if they don't buck their ideas up. This was also a very important win for the Imps as Newport, Stockport, and Hayes and Yeading also all won. Although Darlington, Kettering and, Bath all failed to win and all three are a little behind the bunch of teams above them. Telford who drew 3-3 with Darlington are also well in the mix.
 City now have a 5 point gap to the drop zone, a much better goal difference than Hayes and Yeading and,  have a game hand; that game in hand being against midtable Cambridge United this coming Tuesday night. 8 days ago City were level on points with Hayes so it just shows how important the last week has been for the Imps. There is still a hell of a lot of work to do over the remaining seven games but the table looks alot better than it did just over a week ago. I was billy-no-mates today as Baz had some work on, and Felice was away in France so it was a trip on the train for yours truly. In a way this made a nice change as it meant i could go into the town before the game and sink a few pints before the match. The weather has been fantastic this past week but true to form it cooled down just in time for footie at the weekend thus depriving me of beer garden weather before football. I arrived in the fair city of Lincoln at just gone 12 so headed into town for some fish and chips for breakfast/lunch from the chip shop near to the bus station (£4.80 7/10)

 I haven't been up to the top end of town for a while so i headed for the Duke of Wellington pub only to find it shut. I have no idea when it shut, but shut it is. This didn't put me off to much as i just went over the road to the Jolly brewers which strikes me as a student/real ale twats type of pub. Its actually quite good with interesting decor. While i was in there some guy came in, complete with backpack, and ordered a half pint of one of the hand pulls, scribbled down a few notes in a note book then left so i assume the pub must be listed in some good pub guide or something.

After a few pints i ambled down to the Bank and consumed a pint in the Centre spot. There were a few Tamworth fans milling around but the striking thing about their fan base was that it seemed to be made up exclusively of folk over the age of 45. Earlier in the season they had a plum tie in the FA Cup away at Everton but it looked like very few of the fans that were at Everton that day had made the trip to the Bank today. While the Imps fans were hardly out in force, the crowd was about 300 up on the previous home game which was pleasing to see and just goes to show what a couple of wins on the trot can do.

Lincoln suffered their largest defeat of the season back in October when we were beaten 4-0 in what was to be Steve Tilson's final game in charge. Thankfully i missed it as i was watching Dunkirk FC followed by the Nottingham Panthers that day. The other Retford Imps were however present to see our biggest defeat of the season. Ironically i was the only one present to witness our largest win of the season. Unlucky fellas.

One of the reasons behind City's recent upturn in fortunes has been the  signing of central defender Tom Miller. Not only has he been a calming influence at the back along side Gowling, and got the winning goal on Tuesday night, but his long throws have added a new dimension to City's attack. And it was thanks to one off these throws that City look the lead in the 8th minute. His long throw wasn't dealt with by the Tamworth back line allowed thus Peter Bore to nip in and finish well from eight yards out. Normally when a side goes a goal down you get a response but all the "Lambs" could muster were a couple of feeble long range efforts.
Pacquette was subbed early in the game due to an injury but it did little to knock City out of their stride.
The second goal in the 29th minute again came from a long throw. The keeper Hedge made a real pigs ear of dealing with it and Lamb's player Danny Thomas, under huge pressure from Gowling, diverted the ball into his own net.
With a two goal lead after 29 minutes the home fans were in great voice although their reluctance to chant the managers name showed that he still has a way to go to win over some sections of the home faithful. City saw out the rest of the half easy enough and it looked like Tamworth had given up all hope of getting anything out of the game.

HT 2-0
Lincoln killed of any chance of a Tamworth fightback just after half time with the third goal arriving via the penalty spot in the 48th minute. Gowling up from the back was dragged to the ground by Charlie Collins as the City defender tried to turn. The ref pointed to the spot and Alan Power slammed the ball into the roof of the net despite the poor gamesmanship from the Tamworth players. From then on the game petered out, although Lincoln did create the better chances.  The Tamworth centre back pairing of Francis and Oji were particularly poor all game and you always felt that City were in with a chance of adding to the score with this pair of clowns on the pitch. Lincoln added the fourth goal late on when a good counter attacking move saw Powers pass, that was intended for Danny Lloyd, intercepted by the hapless Thomas who managed to divert the ball past his own keeper for his second own goal of the game.
FT 4-0

Its not very often that Lincoln win 4-0 in fact i can't remember the last time that we did win 4-0 at the Bank. As i said earlier there is still a hell of alot of work to do before we are safe but all us Imps can enjoy this victory. Cambridge will be a tougher game but they are another side with little to play for so its decent chance for the Imps to pick up a point if not three. Four wins on the trot? Now that really would be something. I am sure that this was a one off performance for Tamworth. They wouldn't be where they are in the table and had a decent cup run if they had played this badly all season. But it does beg the question as to how bad were City when we played down at the Lambs back in October. I will have to ask the guys who went but we must have been as awful as Tamworth were today, if not more so.

I had more good news later in the evening. It's playoff time in British Ice Hockey and the Nottingham Panthers had been drawn to play the Braehead Clan over two legs. Braehead had won the first leg 3-0 in Glasgow Tuesday night leaving the Panthers in a bit of an awkward spot. The Panthers however put things right in the second leg and recorded a 5-1 win in overtime to advance to the Playoff finals weekend in Nottingham next weekend.
Two big wins in a day. I could get use to this i could. :-)