Forest Green Rovers v Lincoln City, 17 December 2011

Venue: The Lawn, Nailsworth

Attendance: 969

Final score: 0-2

 

In years gone by, a reference to ‘playing away at Forest’ would have meant nothing to Lincoln fans other than a jaunt down the A46 to Nottingham.  Now, of course, things have changed, and that phrase is more likely to refer to City’s latest opponents , the eco-warriors of Forest Green Rovers.

Forest Green are having a good season, sitting on the outskirts of the playoffs, and prior to this match unbeaten in 8.  The only change to the City lineup following their cup win against Colwyn Bay was the return of Farman in goal.

The Imps started brightly, with Laurent looking particularly lively, but the game quickly became mired in midfield, and with the referee’s whistle a constant sound.

City survived a scare on the 24^th minute when Matt Taylor’s header came back off the bar.  The margins of luck are slim in football, and City would see fate turn in their favour before the half ended.

In the 40^th minute, Laurent turned Turley inside the box, but slipped over.  As he scrambled to his feet, he was dragged down by the defender, who saw shown a red card for his trouble, and City had the chance to take the lead from the spot.  Alan Power duly slotted home the kick to give City a 1-0 lead at the break.

Despite being a man down, Forest Green came out fighting in the second half, with a pacy attack.  City were able to hit out on the break, however, and when Thompson found Laurent in the 73nd minute, the Frenchman was able to put a powerful shot past Bittner to score his first for the Imps, and secure the three points.

Although the red card incident ultimately decided the game, the Imps did well to secure another three points against a team having a good season.  Although it’s too early to start celebrating anything, Holdsworth’s team is certainly showing more ability and fight than Tilson’s, and it is to be hoped that, although only 5 points clear of the relegation places, City can start looking up the table to safety rather than back over their shoulders.

On a related note, following my thoughts on my 100^th blog post here, I have decided that this will be the last of my match by match reports.  It is becoming difficult to find the time to write after every single match, and of course there isn’t always much to add to what has been written elsewhere.

FOREST GREEN ROVERS
1 James Bittner
2 Jared Hodgkiss
3 Chris Stokes
5 Jamie Turley
8 Yan Klukovski
11 Kieron Forbes
14 Matt Taylor
21 Jake Thomson
22 Eddie Oshodi
23 Michael Uwezu
24 Liam Henderson

Substitutes
19 James Rowe for Uwezu 62
7 James Norwood for Klukowski 73
10 Charlie Griffin
16 Luke Graham
30 Simon Locke

LINCOLN CITY
28 Paul Farman
13 Tony Sinclair
2 Richard Hinds
5 Josh Gowling
3 John Nutter
34 Tyrone Thompson
27 Jean-Francois Christophe
8 Alan Power
12 Conal Platt
11 Francis Laurent
7 Jamie Taylor
Substitutes
32 Luke Medley for Platt 61
15 Simon Russell for Taylor 80
36 Jake Sheridan for Laurent 90
17 Nicky Nicolau
1 Joe Anyon

Tweet

Lincoln City v Forest Green Rovers, 24th September 2011

Venue: Sincil Bank, Lincoln

Attendance: 2,076

Final score: 1-1

Expectations were raised at Sincil Bank for the visit of Forest Green Rovers, even if the crowd wasn’t.  A pitifully small home turnout hoped that the win against Gateshead would spark a City revival.  Other fans obviously require more convincing before returning.

City started in the worst possible fashion, with early Forest Green pressure turning into a very early goal.  The ball was looped high into the box from the halfway line, and Curtis McDonald rose highest to nod the ball past Anyon at his near post.  The controversy came from the fact that Tony Sinclair had been asked to leave the pitch only moments before to remove a wristband.  With Sinclair on the pitch, the goal may have been better defended.  However, I am less keen to whinge at the referee than Steve Tilson was, as a) McDonald nshould still have been beaten to the header, and b) players should damn well know what they can and can’t wear on the pitch before kickoff.

The goal was rather surreal, partly because it came so early, but also because the crowd reaction was virtually non-existent (I assume the Forest Green fans celebrated, but I really don’t remember hearing them!).  It left me wondering for a few seconds if it had really happened. 

Sadly, it had, and City were left chasing the game after such a feckless opening.  It’s fair to say that City dominated the remainder of the first half, but struggled to create enough quality to test the Forest Green keeper.  In fact, the nearest City really came to drawing level was a fairly good shout for handball in the box when a defender tried to chest the ball back to his keeper.  City were resorting to lumping the ball forwards towards Perry far too often, and the big City target man seems to become more lumbering with every passing match.

Forest Green were doing little to threaten extending their lead, and it was clear that any decent side would have turned them over quite easily on this performance.

It says something that the highlight of the first half was the Forest Green’s keeper athletically catching the ball behind his back, then taking a cheeky bow at the applause he received.

The second half continued in much the same vein, until thankfully City were able to put in a decent delivery and take advantage.  Nutter’s deep free kick perfectly found the head of the leaping Danny Hone, and it will have done the defender’s confidence no harm at all to see his downward header find the back of the net.

The crowd were buoyed by the equaliser, and City really should have gone on to win.  In reality, the best chance to win the match fell to Forest Green with 9 minutes to go, when the lively Norwood slipped through to find himself one on one, but Anyon, who had had very little to do, kept his concentration to save brilliantly.

The introduction of Sam Smith predictably did little to increase City’s chance of scoring, as I’m afraid I have to say yet again that I fail to see what he brings to the attack.  Yes, he has some energy, but he seems to have little pace, can’t beat a man and has a weak shot.  I’m hoping that one of these days he’ll play a blinder, and I’ll gladly eat humble pie, but at the moment we definitely seem to be lacking an impact striker (a la Simon Yeo) to come off the bench and turn a game.

As it was, the final whistle sounded, and City at least have 4 points out of a possible 6, and are now unbeaten in 2 matches – how’s that for positive thinking?

LINCOLN CITY
1 Joe Anyon
13 Tony Sinclair
6 Danny Hone
5 Josh Gowling
3 John Nutter
8 Alan Power
10 Ali Fuseini
27 Jean-Francois Christophe
15 Simon Russell
9 Kyle Perry
30 Gavin McCallum
Substitutes
14 Sam Smith for Perry 73
23 Josh O'Keefe for Christophe 82
16 Mitchell Nelson
17 Nicky Nicolau
19 Bradley Barraclough

FOREST GREEN ROVERS
1 James Bittner

2 Jared Hodgkiss

5 Jamie Turley

16 Luke Graham

3 Chris Stokes

20 Ali Bangura

11 Kieron Forbes

19 James Rowe

7 James Norwood

8 Yan Klukowski

17 Curtis McDonald
Substitutes
4 Wayne Turk for Bangura 52

10 Charlie Griffin for Forbes 63

18 Chris Allen for McDonald 88

12 Jeffrey Imudia

13 Matt Bulman

Tweet