City win without playing well....again

By Nathan Jackson
March 12 2008

Lincoln City claimed their 8th game in 11 with a not-so-hard-earned victory over Notts County. City were second best for long periods but managed to win thanks to a 15th minute Forrester effort. Other than that the Imps rarely troubled Hoult in the County goal but Marriott was even less busy, only have to make one save during the entire game.

The Imps got the game underway but it wasn't proving a spectacular game as only a Mayo effort early on was deemed as noteworthy, even though Marriott had no real problem in dealing with it. The game didn't really come to live until the 12th minute when N'Guessan forced a corner. Dodds put the ball in before N'Guessan wasted the opportunity and the ball went out for a throw in.

15 minutes in and the Imps took the lead. N'Guessan and Dodds worked together and the Frenchman crossed the ball in, Mayo only half cleared and Forrester hit the ball into the net first time and past one of Nott County's 5 ex-Imps in the 16, Russell Hoult. It was only the second time since the 2004/5 season that City have taken the lead at Notts.

Hone was booked 3 minutes later after he pulled Weir-Daley's shirt. N'Guessan had to be alert to clear when Marriott fumbled a corner. Marriott recovered a minute later though when Ryan Jarvis forced him to make two quickfire saves. Good defending from Green saw McCann fail to take advantage of the corner that resulted from the Marriott saves.

Dodds had an effort blocked before a brilliant Hone tackle denied Weir-Daley having a free run on goal. Ben Wright gave away his umpteenth free kick of the game and his challenge saw Johnson need treatment. Dodds forced Hoult into a save before Shane Clarke shot wide of the target.

Weir-Daley failed to get past Kerr soon enough before Butcher tried to lob Marriott unsuccessfully. Neither side could force another decent chance and the Imps were 1 up at the break.

The second half started slowly but then Dodds gave away a free kick on the edge of the box, even though he quite clearly won the ball. McCann sent his free kick over the wall and then the bar. City should have made it two just minutes later when Green overlapped a defender and found himself free in the box. He played it to N'Guessan and the Frenchman shot just wide despite having most of the goal to aim at.

Weir-Daley tried unsuccessfully to lob Marriott from an acute angle. Parkinson came on for Gibb and hoped to replicate a similar sort of goal that he scored against the Imps back in the 2005/6 season. Butcher shot to the left hand side of the goal but didn't challenge Marriott.

Butcher's insecurity on the ball saw Beevers dispose him, but Forrester failed to take example and took too many touches. The game was started to be controlled by County but they were failing to take advantage of their dominance. Jason Lee and his elbows were brought on for McCann before Jay Smith sent a 30 yard free kick over the bar.

A strange decision saw the referee pull the play back for a Notts County free kick, even though Lee was through on goal. The free kick was wasted though before Wright was yellow carded for yet another foul.

Neither side were able to score again and City secured yet another away win, their 5th away victory of 2008 so far.