By Nathan Jackson
December 27 2010

March proved to a memorable both for both the right and the wrong reasons. It started off with the death of Keith Alexander, the club mourned but on the pitch it was starting to go reasonably well. The Imps were undefeated in the month, taking points off of two of the eventually promoted clubs and Davide Somma continued his brilliant form.

March started with the tragic news of the death of Keith Alexander. Alexander had managed the Imps over two spells, most notably during the 2002-6 period in which he became the first ever manager to guide a club to four successive Playoffs, although none of them saw promotion achieved. Keith had a history of health problems and died after returning home from his Macclesfield side’s defeat at Notts County. His funeral was attended by thousands of fans and friends form the world of football at Lincoln Cathedral.

City’s first game following the death of Keith Alexander came at Rochdale, the league leaders. A minute’s applause was held for Alexander before the game and Chris Herd gave City a first half lead. Chris Dagnall equalised for the hosts with fifteen minutes to go. City fans were reasonably satisfied though with taking a point off of the leaders.

Richard Butcher returned from a loan spell at Macclesfield. Butcher was the last person other than Alexander’s wife to see the big-man alive and was clearly emotionally effected due to the death of a man whom he had worked with at several clubs. James Reid joined the Imps on a free transfer following a trial, although he wouldn’t play in City’s first team.

The World Cup was at Sincil Bank for a home game against Hereford and there was a goal that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the famous tournament. Davide Somma gave the Imps the lead with a decent finish before a half volley from 40 yards came from the right boot of Matt Saunders, it was arguably one of the best goals ever seen at Sincil Bank. Hereford did pull one back but a second for Matt Saunders secured a 3-1 win for the Imps.

Somma scored again for the Imps a few days later as the Imps gained a respectable draw against eventually promoted Dagenham, Jon Nurse had given the Daggers the lead in the first half. Matt Saunders agreed to stay at Sincil Bank for the rest of the season but there were few sad faces when Drewe Broughton was recalled by Rotherham, the striker had unsurprisingly failed to score for the Imps and had generally performed poorly. David Stephens joined on loan from Norwich.

The continuing brilliant form of Davide Somma continued in an away game at Torquay United. City made the long trip south-west and were rewarded early as Somma scored following a corner. Torquay did equalise before quickfire goals from Hughton and Somma gave City a 3-1 lead that Torquay couldn’t recover from, that despite Zebrowski scoring a late goal. Somma was starting to get noticed by a lot of other clubs and despite agreeing to stay at Lincoln until the end of the season, Leeds were already starting to receive bids for his services.

Steff Wright announced he was going to step down as City’s Chairman at the end of the season and the early favourites to replace him were Chris Travers and Bob Dorrian, the latter of which would eventually get the role.

The month ended with a visit from Northampton and much like February had ended, the Imps dominated the game and took a deserved lead, this time from a direct free kick from Matt Saunders. However, under City the Imps had developed tactics of sitting on leads and much like the game against Crewe at the end of February, this proved pivotal again as John Johnson equalised with six minutes to go, one of their few attacks on the City goal.

The month ended with Stefan Oakes leaving the Imps, he would eventually end up at Tamworth.

A Year in Review : March 2010

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 27/12/2010 00:20

theimps.ka
27/12/2010 00:20

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