Lincoln City
Imps move up 9 places after beating Gillingham
By Nathan Jackson
August 21 2010
Lincoln City moved from 24th to 15th thanks to a 1-0 win at Gillingham. The Imps took an early lead through Hughton and despite the hosts having the majority of the ball, Anyon in the City goal rarely had anything to do as the Imps defence kept a rare clean sheet.
It was a humid day down in Kent as the Imps hoped to repeat their act from their last visit to Priestfield, a victory. Both sides were also looking for their opening victory of the season, City would have been delighted just to get a point after losing both of their opening fixtures.
The hosts got off to the brighter start with a few corners, the first of which saw Anyon punched clear off of the head of Akinfenwa. The game quietened for a while until Jarrett picked up the ball nine minutes in. The former Gillingham midfielder dribbled a bit before launching a shot goalwards. It was parried by Julian and Hughton was there to shoot across goal to score his first goal of the season, also giving City the lead for the first time since a 3-1 loss at Aldershot towards the end of last season.
City enjoyed a good spell on the ball and forced a few inevitably wasted corners. The Imps had an appeal for a penalty when a Watts shot hit the arm of a Gillingham defender, but the referee deemed it accidental and allowed play to go on.
Gillingham were starting to enjoy plenty of possession but crosses into the box found no-one as Pearce and Watts were keeping the sizeable Akinfenwa well marked. Spiller and Sinclair were booked for the hosts, although neither was probably worthy of the yellow, but it wasn't long before Ben Hutchinson joined them, the Celtic loanee refusing to give the ball back for a free kick, although Gowling should have joined him in the book for shoving the striker.
The teams went in at half time with the Imps leading and looking relatively comfortable.
Spiller tried his luck from distance within the first minute of the second half, although his effort was easily held by Anyon. Facey's weak header almost made it 2-0 at the other end and it wasn't long until Gillingham made their first substitution, bringing on Curtis Weston for Kevin Maher, a change that brought a loud cheer from the home fans.
Ian Pearce was lucky not to give away a free kick and get a potential red card as he appeared to foul Spiller from behind after the Gills man had burst through one-on-one, however, the referee ruled it not to be a foul and waved play on. More Gillingham substitutions followed as Payne and Rooney came on for Palmer and Bentley.
Gillingham continued to have the majority of play but they again weren't really testing Anyon, with the Imps coming close twice to making it 2-0 as both Ben Hutchinson and Delroy Facey wasting one-on-one chances, neither getting their shot on target.
Controversy followed several minutes from time when after falling over on the edge of the box, a Gillingham defender stamped on the back of Ben Hutchinson's head and the referee awarded a free kick, much to the annoyance of the Gillingham players and fans, whom hadn't seen the stamp.
Just as it appeared City were heading for a hard-earned victory, Akinfenwa shot against the post and with the majority of the ground thinking the ball was in, Gillingham celebrated, only to see the ball trickle harmlessly into the arms of Anyon.
4 minutes of added on time was announced and in the 5th minute of that, substitute Broughton headed a Anyon kick goalwards, it went beyond the keeper and very slowly made it's way towards goal, only to be cleared at the last minute by Sinclair. The match ended straight away after this and the Imps had secured their first points of the season.
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21/08/2010 17:37
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Reason's Pearce and Clapham, that bit of footballing no how.
Come on Sutton get us another centre back in the Pearce mould.
Quote:Normanstanley
It's a start and a quality result at a usually difficult place to pick up points!
Reason's Pearce and Clapham, that bit of footballing no how.
Come on Sutton get us another centre back in the Pearce mould.
Spot on Ns it sounded like Anderson had one of his better Lincoln games with those two along side him
Cheers Keith47424 - Hinckley Imp
theimps.ka Best Newcomer award winner 2007-2008 season.
we really need them to help the youngsters through.
Thats was biggest problem with them last week no nous at the back.
Agree with Norman we need another old wiley centre back in, if only Pearce was 5 years younger!
Sounded like a real team effort, well done boys!
Here we go again!
Will we ever get the right man?
There was some speculation about Scott Kerr, and why he wasn't even on the bench. Anyone care to clarify?
Only 26 and he does seem to suffer with doesnt he?
Mind Jamie O'Hara is even and I think he has a similar problem with his ie its goes into spasm and can either hours or weeks to settle down again.
Here we go again!
Will we ever get the right man?
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