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Inept City seemingly throwing it away
By Nathan Jackson
September 30 2006
For the first time since in the League since December, City failed to score at home and are slowly going down the table. It as an inept showing from the majority of the Imps squad and you always get the feeling that City were never going to score in a 2-0 defeat to Bury.

The first action of the game was when Nicky Eaden rather unsurprisingly mishit the ball and gave away a corner. The corner was cleared to Stallard but his ball to Frecklington was under-hit and the ball was intercepted by Challinor. Kerr was quickly booked for tripping Baker. Frecklington’s shot went behind for a corner that was then subsequently wasted.

The 20 minute mark passed before the next action of the game and then came when Bury won 2 quick corners, neither came to anything but Bury had their first shot a few minutes last when Andy Bishop hit his edge-of-the-box shot straight at Alan Marriott. Frecklington had another shot go out for a corner and from that set piece, Beevers scuffed his shot but Schmeichel palmed it out for a corner despite the fact it was going wide.

The game was pretty incident free but then 7 minutes from the break, City won a free kick around 30 yards out. Frecklington did the usual thing at Sincil Bank these days and hit it straight at the wall but the ball came back out to him, he shot first time and it went just side of the goal.

Just before half time and Paul Mayo brought down Marc Pugh on the edge of the area towards the corner flag. Kennedy took the kick and Pugh’s shot was blocked but fell to Barker who shot into the area and not one single City player tried to bloke it as it went into the goal. The was the final action of the first half.

City won a corner within the first few seconds of the 2nd half but par-for-the-course, it went straight out for a goal-kick. Yet more slack defending allowed Bishop to get through one-on-one with Marriott but the keeper was alert and cleared the ball before Bishop could reach it. A few minutes later and Marriott was busy again as Bury played the ball down the left before Glynn Hurst headed at the goal, Marriott did well to save but the ball looped in the air and headed towards goal. Not a single Imps’ defender bothered to try and stop it going over the line and despite Marriott trying his hardest, he couldn’t stop the ball going over the line for 2-0.

A huge ironic cheer sounded when Eaden, the worst player on the pitch, was replaced by Amoo. City had to wait until the 68th minute mark for their first realistic chance of the game when Forrester broke free but his powerful shot was parried by Schmeichel straight to Stallard but the keeper recovered to stop his progress as well. Gritton then replaced Kerr.

Stallard tried to score but his shot was blocked by Kennedy and then cleared. Barry-Murphy came on for the visitors as he replaced Hurst. Kennedy again blocked a chance, this time from Gritton. Amoo was booked for a foul before it was announced that Hughes had been given Man of the Match, an announcement which brought a host of boos from the Imps fans after his incredibly unimpressive performance.

Stallard’s last effort was tipped over by Schmeichel before the final whistle sounded.

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