By Nathan Jackson
April 19 2004

It was a case of good and bad news for the Imps as they won 2-0 at Carlisle but all other teams around us won meaning the Imps haven't moved up the table but are now 7 points clear. An unchanged Imps side ran out in front of a near 8,000 crowd looking to push to 3rd in the table although Carlisle were looking to get off the bottom of the table for the first time nearly all season.

City were the first on the attack but a Gary Fletcher went well wide. It was a very open game but no-one had a shot on target in the entire first half and not a lot happened other than a re-occuring injury to Morgan forced him off in the 26th minute to be replaced by Bloomer.

In the 2nd half, the Imps continued to press forward and on 48 minutes, took the lead. Good passing moves between Richardson, Fletcher and Gain resulted in Gain chipping Glennon from the edge of the 18 yard area.

Preece almost immediatly levelled but his shot brought another excellent save from Marriott.

It looked inevitable for Carlisle to get an equaliser as they threw the proverbial kitchen sink at the Imps but couldn't break through.

In the very last minute of injury time, Carlisle gained a free kick which Glennon ran up for. Futcher headed the free kick to Richardson who was held back by a Carlisle defender. Fletcher took the free kick very quickly and passed it to Bailey who shot from 70 yards and went straight in (after bouncing twice) to produce the long goal scored by an English team since David Beckham against Wimbledon.

City are still 5th after Huddersfield and Torquay both won but are now only 1 win away from securing a playoff spot whereas Carlisle must rely on other results on Saturday to avoid being relegated.