City missed out on the chance to move up the table by an early contender for most controversial incidents of the season.

Before we start with the report, let me just show you an example of the average Southend player during the night http://www.heartlandswim.org/images/dive%202.jpg

It had been a good start for City though. After just 20 seconds, Yeo was through on goal but his first touch let him down badly and it went out for a goal kick. Gremienk played the ball up and Futcher was adjudged to bring down Gray even though he jumped backwards onto Futcher. Gower's resulting free kick went well over.

Weaver then headed a corner straight at the Southend custodian. The goal kick, after going around for a while, wound up at the feet of Blackwood who produced a less than accurate shot but somehow, Gary Taylor-Fletcher not only managed to get it on target but also managed to curl it around Gremienk and made it 1-0 to the Imps.

Southend's manager had critisied the Imps team before the match saying we're direct and only play long ball (suprise suprise) but with City playing more like Brazil, Southend were just hitting and hoping and the ball spent more time in the air than Tony Battersby spent at a burger bar.

Dave Bently almost immediatly levelled it for the visitors after good build up work but Futcher who put in an excellent performance all round, managed to get a very important block on the shot.

Good inter-linking play between Yeo and Green saw the latter run straight through the Southend defence but his shot was comfortably saved by Gremienk.

A bit of vintage Fletcher then appeared as he skipped over the challenge of 4 difference players within the distance of 5 metres and ran towards goal. Into the area and he still had the ball but his neat chip over the on-rushing keeper went narrowly out.

Now, we get to that moment. After a mix up, the ball was put through for Wayne Gray but Marriott got their first and kicked the ball out of play but Gray seemed to stumble (without falling over) over Marriott's later at least a second after the ball was kicked out (so all though, he could have got the ball under control bollocks didn't apply) and all of a sudden, Southend have a penalty. A long delay saw every Imps player surround first year referee Gary Lewis and he assistant and at points it looked like the ref was ready to change his mind but after about 3 minutes, the penalty was finally taken by Gray and he managed to put the ball in the net. The players once again surrounded Lewis but the little prick ignored everyone.

City almost immediatly restored the lead when a long range Butcher effort went just over. Yeo was the next to have an attempt but his left shotted shot went narrowly wide of the upright.

The half time whistle came and all 3 officials gathered in the middle of the park and waited for a security aided walk to the tunnel, a tunnel guarded by Keith Alexander who was determined to make the ref know what he thought. Everyone thought he was going to really kick off but he sarcastically clapped Lewis to make the Imps crowd cheer ironically. 

The second half kicked off an it's fair to say that it wasn't exactly as event filledas the first half.

Both teams came out for the second half to cheering and chanting but then out came Lewis with the whole crowd of Imps fans booing as loudly as possibly, the linesman running the CO-OP line wasn't exactly recieving a great ovation either.

The first 5 minutes of the second half were pretty boring with neither side getting a shot. Butcher managed to get the first shot on goal after around 10 minutes but his fierce volley was comfortably saved by former Swindon keeper Gremienk.

A low drive by Fletcher was blocked by ex Norwich player, Spencer Prior with the ball falling to Yeo but his sent just dribbled of the side. That was to be Yeo's last action as he was replaced by McAuley (yes, Keith yet again put a defender up front).

Striker Drewe Broughton then was lucky to stay on the pitch as Marriott went down for the ball and got it but the former Kidderminster striker kicked Marriott in the head as Marriott fell to the floor.

So although it's yet another draw at home, we can take comfort in that we dominated for long spells and other than the penalty, Southend never really had a chance to score and failed to get on target.

HIGHLIGHT - Gary Taylor-Fletchers second goal in as many games.

LOWLIGHT - The penalty decision

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes