Jackson Out : City lose again

The chants calling for Peter Jackson's resignation as Lincoln City manager are becoming more frequent and a 3-0 defeat at Dagenham has done little to change many people's opinions in the favour of Jackson, especially as we could have easily lost the game by four or five goals.

City kicked off the game and started brightly with the Imps doing the majority of the attacking but failed to make a corner count. That was pretty much the only action in Dagenham's half of the pitch for quite some time. Dagenham were showing why they are having another promotion push as they pushed forward and took a deserved lead on 13 minutes as Jamie Clarke hesitated at the back, that despite having two chances to clear the ball, he was disposed and the ball fell to Nurse and the striker ran on goal and slotted coolly beyond Burch. Kerr launched an immense verbal attack on Clarke, a fully deserved verbal attack for a man described by Accrington fans as the worst player they have ever had.

Although clear cut chances were few and far between, Dagenham were still easily the better team. Ex-Imp Peter Gain's appeals for a penalty were rejected before a very rare City attack saw Connor head wide from almost outside of the area. Oakes himself shot well over on the half hour. Dagenham wasted a great chance to make it 2-0 when Scott easily ran between Kovacs and Hughton before passing to Benson, the prolific Dagenham striker hitting the ball over the bar from within the six yard area.

The final minute or two of the first half saw Dagenham hit the woodwork twice, the second from Stuart Thurgood was intended to be a cross, but would have been a decent attack either way, the other was a Nurse header that hit the top of the woodwork.

Hutchinson replaced the diabolical Clarke at half time but nothing really changed as City were still on the back foot. Several wasted chances by the hosts made City fans believe that maybe there was still hope of getting something out of the game, but City were struggling to simply get into Dagenham's half of the pitch. 

It didn't take long for Dagenham to double their lead as the impressive Griffiths kept the ball in play and played it to Green, the midfielder controlling it and launching an unstoppable curling effort into the goal. Butcher's weak effort became City's first chance on target but it was again a rare foray into the Dagenham half.

All hope of getting back into the game collapsed with the introduction of Lenny John-Lewis, replacing Stefan Oakes and it wasn't long before it was 3-0, John Nurse prodding home after Arber had headed the ball directly into his path.

Howe shot wide with his first contribution of the game but other than a long range Gain effort, there were no more decent chances for either side and Dagenham moved to the top of the table, whereas City continue to slide down the table.