Defensive frailties deny City maximum haul
By theimps,tk
January 17 2009
Lincoln City were close to victory at Spotland, only to see a familiar case of bad defending deny the Imps victory. It was a game of two halves as Rochdale dominated the opening before City controlled the game after the break, coming from behind to take the lead, only to then concede late on and on a day where only one team above us won, it could prove to be a big lost two points.
The Imps were quickly on the backfoot as the hosts looked to get off to a good start. They gained a free kick early on but Kerr easily cleared the set-piece and the resulting play saw Lee Beevers burst forward, shooting well wide from distance. Horsfield has a similar effort a few minutes later but both sides looked extremely nervous. The game's first big chance came to Will Buckley after the 49th Most Promising World Prospect (The Times) was put through by Toner. He ran goalwards and found himself at an acute angle, only to see his shot go just wide of the opposing post.
Rochdale responded and won a free kick when Kovacs was adjudged to have pushed a striker. Rundle, scorer of a brilliant goal at Sincil Bank earlier in the season, ran towards goal from the left and cut inside, seeing his shot parried by Burch into the path of Le Fondre, the former Stockport man slotting home in front of the open goal.
Geoff Horsfield's shot was deflected wide but the Imps couldn't take advantage of the corner as it was easily kept out. Elding hit a direct free kick goalwards, only to see it go out for another inevitably wasted free kick. Toner hit a shot over before Stanton had to be alerted to deny N'Guessan a free header on goal.
City's best chance of the game so far arrived just before half time when Horsfield played Elding through. The on-loan striker was almost caught in two minds and Fielding claimed the ball after Elding took too long to decide. Horsfield was then guilty for wasting a good chance as he refused to shoot towards an open goal from 40 yards and that was the final chance of a first half that had belonged to Rochdale.
Mullarkey replaced Sinclair for City at half time and the Imps were level within two minutes of the second half as Elding burst through the defence. He ran confidently towards goal before squaring it, and Tom Kennedy belted it straight into his own net to bring City back into it.
It was now all City as the Imps were creating chance after chance. A few corners here and there came to nothing, whereas Burch had to be alert to deny Le Fondre. N'Guessan fired inches wide from 25 yards. McEvilly came on for the hosts, a dangerous sign for City as 'Evil' seemingly always scores against us.
Then, despite often being said to be the most inconsistent player that the Imps have, Dany N'Guessan rounded off several excellent weeks with a brilliant goal to give City the lead. He picked up the ball about 25 yards from goal and hit it near enough first time, seeing it sail in and City now had a lead that reflected their first half control. Infact, the Frenchman was unlucky not to make it 3 within a minute as he hit the post from distances.
Dagnall came on for Le Fondre after this before Toner tested Burch from distance. Hone was then substituted after receiving yet another injury, being replaced by Stefan Oakes as the midfielder casually jogged into position.
Burch produced a fine save from Buckley but was largely helpless a few minutes later as Rochdale drew level. The defence allowed substitutes Dagnall and McEvilly to link up, the latter having the ball six yards out and slotting it past Burch to give Rochdale an equaliser.
Neither side could create another decent chance and the game ended 2-2, the first draw between the sides at Spotland since 2001/2.
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Would have to say did really have much of a defence on the pitch after young Hone went off?
Lets hope we do bring in defensive cover this week if dont we go anywhere this season.
Lets hope the Hamza rumours are true.
The Horse sounded awesome today as did Beevers.
UTI
NO.28 was on his shorts I hear?
Sounds like a definite maybe LOL!