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Out scored but not really outplayed
By Nathan Jackson September 22 2004
The Imps lost 3-1 to Premiership side Birmingham in the second round of the Carling Cup. The Imps put on a great performance and at times, it was hard to tell which team came from which end of the football league spectrum.

Having not visited a Premiership ground since watching Man Utd beat Real Madrid 4-3 just over a year go, I was particully looking forward to this as were a lot of other Imps fans and the vast majority of seats in the away end were taken up. Birmingham had semi-filled their stands.

 

City got the game underway and kept the ball well but the ball eventually fell to Gronkjaer who ran down the wing before McAuley brought him down and got booked. Birmingham got the first corner of the game in the 7th minute, the ball was floated in but ended up being headed out for another corner. The second was floated in and Marriott confidently punched the ball out. It went out to Gray who crossed back in and Dwight Yorke could only head wide.

Good work down the left from Yeo resulted in Upson clearing for a corner. Peat took it and Green's volley went well into the sparsley populated Birmingham end.

City had good chance of a free kick turned down after a ball over the top by Butcher saw Yeo run after before Taylor ran out of goal and the area and it appeared that it hit the Northern Irish keeper's arm but referee, Eddie Evans (it's no coincedence that every time he's reffed us in the past 3 years, we've lost) saw it as a non-existant foul and play continued despite the protests of players and 2,500 Imps fans.

Anderton crossed the ball in well and Gronkjaer who supplied the ball for Heskey only for Marriott to come and claim the ball at his feet. Then came arguably the funniest moment of the seeason so far. A Mario Melchoit corner was cleared and fell straight to Yorke from 8 yards but his volley finished closer to the corner flag that the goal.

The half was quickly coming to the close and Lincoln were definatly holding there own and at times, it was hard to tell which team came from which end of the football league spectrum.

The second half began extremely well for City with Yeo breaking throught but didn't take his time and his shot from the edge of the area was simply caught by Taylor who didn't even have to move.

The second half wasn't as action packed as the first but the turning point in the match came in the 64th minute when a Darren Anterton ball over the top was met by Gronkjaer who ran 1-1 with Marriott and produced a very cool finish and very few people could now see City getting back into the match.

That summary proved correct as now, after an hour of evenness, you could easily tell who the Premiership side were, Lincoln weren't going to win now and you could tell that players knew it. The goal that definatly killed the game off came with 15 minutes left. Yorke chipped the ball into the box and Marriott and Morgan both went to get it but couldn't make up their minds. Gray ran in between them and slotted the ball home.

As if things weren't going City's way enough. 3 minutes later, Birmingham made it 3-0 from a Robbie Savage penalty after Morgan was adjudged to bring down Yorke.

It was now definatly over for City but at least we got a consolation. Yeo burst into the box and was brought down but tried to get back up. Evans awarded a penalty. After much arguing between Lincoln players, Yeo eventually took matters into his own hands and took the penalty himself. 3-1 to Birmingham and most Lincoln fans were happy now because we'd scored.

The whistle went and Lincoln fans gave the Imps a standing ovation.

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