City gain undeserved point at Christie Park

City yet again failed to produce a performance for 90 minutes, only coming to live in the final 10 minutes and undeservedly equalising through Paul Green. Morecambe had taken the lead due to typically poor defending from City and should have easily extended their lead, but at least a point is a point.

Just over 1,400 fans braved the freezing conditions at Christie Park as the Imps started the game, but it was the hosts who opened the scoring when Wainwright's ball was hit just wide by Blinkhorn. A Morecambe corner was wasted before Stuart Drummond fired wide for a Morecambe side who certainly weren't wasting their time in trying to score an opening goal. A rare City attack saw Oakes blast over from distance, not the first time he would do it during the night.

Swaibu was making his debut for the Imps and he certainly didn't look solid as he gave away a free kick in the 17^th minute. Stanley sent the ball into the box and Jim Bentley headed home when completely unmarked 6 yards out. Kovacs, Swaibu and Green all looked at each other puzzled as neither seemed to know who was supposed to be marking Bentley. Morecambe also made it 2-0 from an identical situation within a minute, Burch pulling off a spectacular save to deny Bentley.

Oakes blasted a 25 yard free kick into the crowd before another free kick was taken by Kerr, only for Kovacs to somehow miss from close range with a header, that despite being completely unmarked. Wainwright curled a shot just wide of the target. An unexpected break saw Elding go through one-on-one with Roche, only to hit his shot in-between the keeper's legs and seeing it deflect off of his thigh and out for a corner. The game went into the break with the score at 1-0.

Swaibu almost gave away another goal as he passed straight to Twiss, only to recover and make a fine saving tackle. Morecambe continued to dominate as Twiss prodded wide. Another rare City attack saw N'Guessan hit it wide before Patulea came on for Clarke. Stanley went off for the hosts, eventually being diagnosed with a broken metatarsal. Patulea just failed to connect with a John-Lewis cross before the latter was replaced by Mullarkey.

Patulea again failed to connect with a cross, this time coming from N'Guessan before the Imps finally pulled level. A ball from Brown found it's way to Green and the defender unleashed a left-footed long ranger past Roche. City almost grabbed an undeserved lead when N'Guessan hit the post but neither side could produce a winner and the Imps had left it late again, continuing a strange run indeed of the every team that's taken the lead in 2009 in a game involving City have gone on to fail to win.