What an insane year that was - September
By Nathan Jackson
December 29 2006
It's a mixed month for the Imps as 4 wins are coupled with 3 defeats. City also waste several chances to go top of the table. Several records are broken, a player returns from injury, several players leave, Stallard scores a stunner and Beevers somehow misses an open goal from 3 yards.
Watt joins Grantham on the morning that City are due to face Accrington Stanley. At the same time, Jeff Hughes wins his 7th cap as the Northern Irish Under 21s lose 3-2 to their German counterparts.
City are heavy favourites to beat Accrington Stanley and it gets off to a great start as Martin Gritton opens the scoring with when he pounces on a ball forward before a confident finish from the edge of the area. It was the striker’s first start of the season and his goal set the way for the match and it was 2-0 when Stallard’s hard work saw him eventually manage to get the ball in the net after stumbling several times.
It was turning into a very comfortable evening for the Imps and after Forrester played a through ball, Stallard scored City’s third with a cross goal shot. Roberts pulled one back with a deflected effort with their first shot on goal and that completed the scored as City moved up to second on the back of the incredibly relaxed evening.
City played a behind-closed-doors friendly at Aston Villa. Despite taking a 2-1 lead with goals from Bacon and Ryan, Villa eventually win 4-2 with their goals coming from Lee Hendrie (2), Milan Baros and Williams. This friendly is followed by Ayden Duffy going on loan to Worksop.
City make their final ever league visit to Gay Meadow and the game sees two players facing their former clubs. City’s Mark Stallard joined from Shrewsbury whereas Asamoah joined Gary Peters’ men after being released by Lincoln in the summer. The game is dominated by Shrewsbury and City are lucky to avoid going behind before scoring with their first shot on target of the game. The ball is played to Frecklington, he runs into the area and smashed the ball into the net to give City the lead.
Shrewsbury win a debatable first half penalty but Ben Davies hits it straight against the bar. Shrewsbury continue to dominate the game but can’t find an equaliser and City make it 6 straight away league wins, a new club record.
City now have a game against bottom of the league Macclesfield Town. City race into a 2 goal lead, starting with a back-heeled pass falling to Kerr, he races into the box, rounds the keeper and taps in. The second is controversial as Forrester appears to have failed in his efforts to keep the ball in play, however, his back header finds it’s way to Beevers, and he releases an unstoppable shot into the net. It appeared to be another comfortable win for City before Macclesfield pulled one back with a powerful header from Scott. The game ended 2-1 and City had maintained 2nd in the table. It was also a record breaking game as it gave City their longest unbeaten start to the season in their history.
In the week that follows, everyone in media is raving about City as with Wrexham’s 5-0 defeat at Accrington Stanley, the Imps remain as the only Football League team to be unbeaten so far during the season. It all seems to take it’s toll though as within 4 minutes of our game against MK Dons, the gameplan has gone out of the window.
MK win a corner and from which, the referee blows for a penalty but no-one in the ground, neither set of fans, management, and the vast majority of the players, don’t realise because no-one saw an offence that could cause a penalty, McLeod put away the spot kick. City failed to recover from this and it was quickly 2-0 as Wilbraham hit an impressive header past Marriott into the net. On the stroke of half time, Lee Frecklington scored an absolute beauty before the Imps won a penalty, Baines however saved Forrester’s effort.
Ex Notts County man, Clive Platt scored MK’s third with a header before Lee Beevers completing the scored with a effort that the keeper should have done much better with. The Imps control the rest of the match but fail to find the equaliser.
Danny Bacon joins Worksop Town on loan whereas Tom Kemp extends his loan at Tamworth. Before the away game at Wycombe, City find out that we’ve been drawn at home in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy 1st Round.
The game at Wycombe starts badly for the Imps and Tommy Mooney scores early on as he pounces first on Easter’s shot that rebounded off of the bar. City saw plenty of the ball but were playing dreadfully before just before half time, Lee Frecklington controlled a cross and turned the ball into the net with an impressive finish. Wycombe gave City a huge let off just a minute later as one of their players missed and open goal.
City go on to control the 2nd half and it’s no surprise when Mark Stallard, with an assist from Jamie Forrester, runs through their defence and slots neatly past Baptista into the net. It wasn’t long before he scored a fantastic goal as he shot and volleyed into the net. It was a good victory for City after the disappointment of the MK Dons game.
Nat Brown returns in a reserves game in which City win 3-0. Rumour has it that it was his wrist that hurt but when it was revealed in the newspapers that he knew Nikki from Big Brother, the theory came about that he had a headache from hearing her voice. Either well, it’s a welcome return for one of the previous season’s top scorers. City also appoint Mark Terry as the new commercial manager.
The annual trip to York Street follows and it’s a game that the Imps dominate but they can’t make it tell before former Imp, Francis Green’s shot takes a slight deflection and Marriott can only push it into his own net. Lee Beevers misses an open goal before Jamie Forrester has a goal disallowed for offside. City could have gone top with a win but lose 1-0.
A few days later and the visit of Bury is not a game I really wanted to talk about again. City weren’t exactly over-awed by their visitors but can’t create any chances at all and just before half time, Bury score with their first real chance on target as Barker’s shot trickles past several players and into the net to give Bury the lead. It become 2 in the second half as Hurst’s effort was saved by Marriott, however, the ball looped up into the air and landed on the wrong side of the line.
That was the final incident of September.