By Nathan Jackson
September 25 2005

A diabolical (although rather unsurprising) poor performance from the Imps' saw them lose 2-1 and have 3 players sent off. After Torquay had come from behind to take the lead, Beevers, Morgan and Marriott all recieved needless red cards for violent conduct and the defeat was fully deserved.

Torquay kicked the game off but it was City who carved out the first opportunity when Meheta Molango forced the defence into giving away a corner. Kerr whipped in the kick only to see Mayo’s weak header easily cleared. Torquay went down the other end but Kevin Hill’s effort went straight into the arms of Marriott. City broke from this and Green’s close range effort was saved by Torquay keeper, Andy Marriott.

City could have had a penalty just minutes later when Hill bundled over Robinson when the striker was through on goal. However, the referee decided not to award City’s first penalty since March 5^th. However, the Imp’s didn’t have to wait long when Beevers got the ball from a free kick and whipped it into the box and McAuley popped up headed it past Andy to give the Imps’ a 1-0 lead and give the Northern Ireland international his first goal since the crucial double in the playoff semi finals against Macclesfield. Molango almost doubled the lead quickly but his low shot was well saved by Andy.

Torquay hit the post in the 19^th minute when Matt Hewlett had a shot (and plenty of time) from 6 yards out and the ball trickled out for a goal kick. Torquay were struggling to create anything and it was obvious why they were bottom of the league.

The first half ended with Scott Kerr and Robinson both have free kicks well saved by Andy Marriott in what will more than likely, turn out to be one of the quietest first halves of the season.

Torquay came out and shot attacked like their lives depended on scoring and it wasn’t long until they equalized. Former Bournemouth striker, Alan Connell’s shot was blocked by the Imps’ defence but none of them could clear it and Garner smashed a shot goalwards and a slight deflection took it beyond the dive of Marriott to make it 1-1 which based on the game as a whole at that point, Torquay didn’t really deserve.

City were now struggling to make any intended on going to retake the lead and only Keates’ long range effort made it look that we were slightly trying. In the 62^nd minute, Asamoah was brought on for Green. Beevers was quickly booked for dissent. Torquay quickly took the lead when James Sharp provided a cross for Connell to head back across goal and make it 2-1 to the Gulls and after all the heroics of Wednesday night, it seemed like business as usual for the Imps’.

A curious incident then followed as Robinson was leaving the pitch to be replaced by Birch. The striker turned to applaud the Imps’ fans and when he turned back around, he was greeted with a yellow card for no apparent reason. The game had seriously slowed down, Torquay tried to defend their lead against an Imps’ side who looked like they couldn’t be bothered and were still exhausted from Wednesday. However, the game picked up with just over 10 minutes to go. Beevers was breaking down the right with an impressive run before being tackled by Hewlett, the next thing we know is that Beevers is being shown the red card, apparently for a stamp after Hewlett had won the ball.

With 2 minutes to go, the 2 most senior players in the Imps’ squad decided to get 2 incredibly unnessacery red cards. A long ball was headed backwards an Imps’ defender and Connell tried to shield the ball out for a corner and it did, however, Paul Morgan showed his frustrations by kicking the unsuspecting Connell to the ground and the skipper was shown a straight red for violent conduct, his 2^nd of the season

However, it didn’t stop there, Alan Marriott ran 40 yards and arrived just as the red card was being pulled out of the pocket and he decided to kick the ball as hard as he could, at Alan Connell and if Morgan’s foul was unnessacery, this was just ridiculous. Marriott was given the red card before Morgan had even made it to the halfway line to bring the Imps’ down to only having 8 players.

Cryan went in goal and did surprisingly well and the Imps’ managed not to concede any more. It was the same old case of City trying to sit on a 1 goal lead and if half the players had put a decent effort in, we’d have easily scored at least another goal against a team who weren’t anything special and it was no surprise that they were bottom before this match, judging by their performance here.