By theimps.tk
April 2 2006

Lincoln City put in an unsurprisingly poor performance against a Darlington side who weren't that good themselves. Yet again, the Imps only played for 5 minutes of the match and it cost them as an own goal and a hatrick of Jamie McCombe toe pokes into his own net condemned the Imps to a 4-2 defeat

Darlington won a free kick just seconds after kicking off but the set piece was easily cleared by Foster. City pressed forward but Beevers’ cross was easily caught by the home keeper who in turn threw to Jemal Johnson but he could only drag his effort wide of the goal. Nat Brown came close to the opener but his header from Scott Kerr’s corner went over the goal.

 

It was proving to be an end to end game and Jonjo Dickman only just failed to get onto a cross and City won a corner from the resulting run forward. The corner, like almost every other for the Imps, came to nothing. The returning Jeff Hughes linked up well with Scott Kerr in the 13^th minute when Hughes back heeled into the path of the midfielder and he was left with a chance from an acute angle and it appeared that the ball had snuck in but Sam Russell just managed to hang onto the ball.

 

The game turned quiet for a while but midway through the half, City won a free kick about 40 yards out, Kerr’s initial delivery was cleared (shock horror) but he pumped the ball back into the box where Green, not for the first time in the afternoon, fell over and acted like a kid who didn’t get what he wanted at Christmas. Foster soon went in the book for a challenge on Matt Appleby. Green again looked like he was running on ace as he fell over, again appealing for a penalty.

 

Darlington should have opened the scoring soon afterwards when Andy Cooke broke free off the Imps defence and with Marriott fairly far off his line, Cooke decided to lift the ball over Marriott but he not only lifted it over the Imps keeper, but also over the bar and off the pitch. The half ended with neither side being able to open the scoring.

 

City actually controlled the opening seconds of the second half and could have taken the lead just 7 seconds after the restart when Jamie Forrester saw his powerful shot deflected wide by McCombe headed the corner backwards, Scott Kerr played it back in and it was easily claimed by Russell. Then it came, Jamel Johnson’s cross was headed by Guy Bates and his effort, that was going well wide, was headed goalwards by Nat Brown and Marriott, who in true tradition flapped like a fish, couldn’t stop the ball and it was 1-0 to the hosts, the first goal they had scored at home against the Imps since the 2001/2 season.

 

Action slowed down for a few minutes but then, another remarkably poor corner for the Imps was cleared back out to the corner taker, Steve Robinson. He crossed it back in and Marvin Robinson headed the ball down towards goal, Russell appeared to have kept it out but then also appeared to push the ball into the net whilst he was on the ground it was all of a sudden 1-1. City had the ball in the net again a minute later when Robinson again capitalised on a Russell mistake and placed the ball into the net, however, it was ruled out because the referee thought that it had been a foul on Russell despite the fact that it was the goalkeeper who had kicked 3 City players out of the way to claim the ball.

 

A punt forward saw McCombe allow Matt Clarke to remain onside and as Marriott was flapping at the ball, the defender headed the ball goalwards and up-teps McCombe to toe poke the ball into the net. All this with just 10 minutes of the second half gone and it wasn’t going to stop there as a truly great goal was about to followed.

Kendrick intercepted a Jeff Hughes cross and passed it out to Johnson, the winger, with a passing resembles to Musampa at Manchester City, took his time and smashed a ball across goal and into the net and although Marriott’s impression of Mr Tickle (the orange one with the long wobbly arms from the Mr Men series) would have done nothing to stop it. Green then seemed rather bemused as to why he was being replaced by Gary Birch. Dickman was replaced by Anthony Peacock for the hosts and it didn’t take long for them to breach the net again.

 

Jemal Johnson broke free of Colin Cryan and the striker had enough time to slide the ball past a statuesque Marriott and guess who was there to secure a hatrick of toe pocks into his own net, yep, you guessed it, Jamie McCombe. So with just 70 minutes gone in a game that City had enjoyed the majority of, it was 4-1 to the hosts and a 3^rd defeat in 4 looked imminent, the only consolation being that nearly everyone around us was losing.

 

Hughes was replaced by Frecklington and Atieno replaced Bates for the hosts. Hold on, what’s this, surely not, wow, the players actually appear to be giving a crap. Steve Robinson crossed in the ball, Marvin Robinson touched the ball into Forrester’s path and he had the simple task of tapping the ball into an empty net. The striker almost made it 4-3 but he headed Gary Birch’s inch perfect cross wide.

 

Then came a perfect example of how little the referee was paying attention. Darlington had won a free kick and the ball was kicked forward but the referee stopped play for an off the ball incident involving Kerr. Meanwhile, Nat Brown had collected the ball and was about to kick it back to the free kick taker when for no reason, Ateino comes and head butts him. Since when was passing a ball back for a free kick worthy of the same punishment as a headbutt? Both players received yellow cards and considering that former Premiership referee, Jeff Winter was at the game, it’s a wonder what he was thinking at this referee’s shocking performance.

 

Nothing much happened in the final 10 minutes other than Forrester and McCombe both heading wide and the Imps quietly slipped to their 3^rd defeat in 4.