By theimps.tk
April 17 2006

In the space of 48 hours, the Imps went from drawing 1-1 against Bury to winning at Wycombe by a comfortable 3-0 scoreline. A brace from Forrester and Green's 4th of the season gave the Imps a deserved win but more importantly, mixed with Peterborough's loss, moved the Imps back into the playoffs

Wycombe begun the game strongly, quickly forcing the defence to act and the Imps had gained a goal kick within seconds of the start of the match. The hosts won a free kick and Gareth McAuley’s clearance from Roger Johnson’s delivery forced the games first corner, however, the defence easily closed the door on any chance of the hosts getting an early lead.

 

City’s defence were holding firm against several deep Wycombe crosses but City then broke but City could have easily had a penalty in their first attack when Jamie Forrester gathered the ball on the right and the ball clearly struck the arm of Clint Easton, however, the inexperienced referee decided to ignore this and Wycombe cleared the ball quite comfortably.

 

The game calmed down for a few minutes but it was the Imps who created the next opportunity when Marvin Robinson’s shot was blocked on the line, the opportunity came from excellent work down the left from Jeff Hughes. The most clear cut chance so far came around the 12 minute mark when Kerr sent in a free kick and founded Gareth McAuley unmarked in the area, however, the defender failed to take his time and headed well wide of the goal. A strange decision just after that cost City an opportunity when Kerr sent in a cross that was clearly headed out for a throw in by the Wycombe defender who had no-one within 10 yards of him, yet Wycombe were awarded the throw.

 

City were again appealing for a penalty soon afterwards when Robinson tangled with Williamson and Robinson went to ground. It was probably Marvin’s reaction to the foul that cost the Imps a penalty as he did appear to make the most of the challenge. City were having a good period and Green had the next opportunity when Kerr again played him in but only a good save from Frank Talia prevented the Imps from taking a lead.

 

Marriott’s run of doing odd things against Wycombe continued when a ball came into the box with not a single Wycombe player within 10 yards, however, instead of simply catching the ball, he decided the punch it and unsurprisingly, the miss-hit it and only a last ditch tackle from McCombe prevented Senda from having an open goal to shoot into.

 

Senda however soon blocked a Green shot but it the ball was hit into an area which caused the defender a lot of pain and he collapsed onto the floor. Other than that, the rest of the first half went by quietly and the Imps went in goalless at the break.

 

Jeff Hughes and Senda were involved in the first noteworthy incident of the second half when they started arguing aggressively after a foul on one of the other players. Marvin missed arguably the best chance of the game up until that point in the game when Forrester and Kerr worked well in the midfield before setting up the striker, however, he could only drag his shot from 12 yards wide of the target. With just under an hour gone, it looked as though it was going to be a bad day for the Imps when McCombe came out worst in a challenge and was seen holding his knee in agony. He eventually recovered but was given a yellow card for the foul he had committed.

 

However, on the next attack, Hughes produced excellent work down the left, being Senda with some beautiful skill before sending a cross for Jamie Forrester to tap into the net to make it 1-0 to the Imps and it was a lead that the Imps had deserved. City at times at been on the back foot but Marriott had never been tested.

 

City were now in the ascendancy and quickly had the ball in the back of the net again but McAuley’s header was judged to be a foul on Talia and the experienced goalkeeper was down for quite sometime and Wycombe made a substitution that was dangerous for the Imps as Stefan Oakes and Jermaine Easter were replaced by Matt Bloomfield and the ever dangerous Tommy Mooney.

 

However, the substitution had the reverse intended effect as City won a corner soon afterwards but unfortunately, it came to nothing but it wouldn’t be long before the Imps were back down that end. Excellent work from the impressive Nat Brown saw him run at the defence  with Green. The defender seemed unsure whether to go towards Brown, however, by the time he finally made his mind up, Brown had passed to Green and the former Peterborough man slammed the ball home from the edge of the area with an excellent finish to make it 2-0 to the Imps.

 

Green again broke through 1 on 1 with Talia but took too much time on the ball before eventually shooting straight into Talia’s arms. It would have been the first time in Green’s City career that he had scored twice in the same match, however, this was the 18^th game that he had scored in for City in the league and we’ve only lost once before when that’s happened so the omens were good.

 

The omens were strengthened a few minutes later when Green was replaced by Mayo and the Lincoln born defender’s first touch of the ball set Jamie Forrester free down the left. He was one on one with a keeper who didn’t seem willing to come out so the on loan striker had a lot of time to debate with himself and when Talia finally committed, Forrester simply had to lob the ball over him and the ball went in on the post and it was 3-0 to the Imps.

 

The only remaining thing to comment on is the substitutions towards the end of the games and they were Frecklington and Gritton replacing Forrester and Robinson. After 3 minutes of added on time, the ref blew and the Imps won just their 5^th away game of the season and most importantly, moved back into the playoffs.