City flattered by thumping Barnet

By Nathan Jackson
December 15 2007

A 4-1 scoreline flattered the Imps but overall the Imps deserved to beat a poor Barnet side. City's 4 goals now means that we've scored 19 goals against Barnet in our 6 straight victories over them. Ben Wright's brace sandwiched goals from Jamie Forrester and Louis Dodds efforts as City were fairly comfortable against a Barnet side who were reduced to 10 men in the second half.

City got the game underway and almost took a quick lead as Bencharif headed a Forrester cross into the arms of Harrison. Joe O'Cearuill fouled N'Guessan, the resulting free kick seeing Wright head Green's centre just over. City easily cleared  a Barnet corner before the Imps took the lead in the 9th minute. Ben Wright pounced on good work from Forrester and N'Guessan by hitting home the latter's cross, although in fairness the goalkeeper should have done much much better.

It was a good start for City, who were scoring inside the first 10 minutes for only one of the few times this season. The following few minutes saw the Imps relatively comfortably keep the ball in the Barnet half and Lee Frecklington came close to ending a beautiful run with a beautiful goal, he shot went just wide however.

Punchon was booked for a dangerous challenge on Green before Barnet made Smith work for once. The Bees broke through to be one on one with Smith but Birchall's effort went straight to the goalkeeper and City took the ball down the other end, and one theatrical dive later from Ben Wright saw the Imps have a penalty.

Jamie Forrester stepped up to the spot and after a little delay he made it 2-0, sending the ball to the goalkeeper's right. It was City's first penalty in the league all season and the first Forrester has converted since the 2-0 win over Chester in May.

The first half slowed down somewhat with neither side forcing another decent chance, although the injury time lasted 6 minutes, 4 minutes longer than the indicated 2.

Barnet enjoyed a good start to the second half, although they were struggling to get in any chances and they were soon made to pay after Frecklington and Forrester worked well to provide Louis Dodds with a free run on goal, eventually curling the ball past Harrison to make it 3-0 to the Imps, the first time since last year's 7-1 win over Rochdale that we've had a lead of more than 2 goals in a game. Infact, it was only the third time since that game that City have scored 3 goals in a first team match.

Yakubu had a goal disallowed for offside before Frecklington's run forward saw him upended crudely by O'Cearuill, the referee showing the red card to the defender but the sending off seemed to motivate the Barnet players.

On 58 minutes Barnet scored a goal to prevent City their first clean sheet in nearly 4 months. The goal coming after a long ball wasn't dealt with by the defence and Adam Birchall slotted home.

Thomas came on for Carew and Barnet almost immediately claimed a penalty when Hone appeared to handball it in the box, thankfully for City it was ignored. The game was coming just over 7 years since City had found themselves 3-0 up against Barnet and still losing, Barnet's improving performance saw City fans getting frustrated by the Imps lack of attacking play.

Ben Smith, who eventually won the MOTM award was doing his best to keep City in the lead with a series of fine saves. N'Guessan came on for Stallard and the returning striker almost scored a stunning goal when he ran box to box, only to miss out the chance of striking the ball thanks to a horrible last touch that took the ball behind him. Frecklington had a goal disallowed for offside.

Forrester came off for John-lewis before Stallard sent a fine ball forward for Ben Wright to chase onto. The striker who had rejected a deal at Barnet to come to City in the summer managed to beat the defender and slot home for a 4-1 victory for the Imps, giving the Imps a 3rd win in 4 games.