Burton Albion v Lincoln City, 8 March 2011

Venue: Pirelli Stadium, Burton

Attendance: 2,051

Final score: 3-1

Burton Albion are a relative newcomer to League football, this being only their second season.  Their first season was a fairly stable one, the Brewers finishing in 13^th position.  29 games into this campaign, Burton sit precariously in 22^nd position, but with numerous games in hand over teams around them, having suffered even worse than Lincoln did with postponed games over the winter.  I’ll stick my neck out here and say with confidence that Burton will survive, and will be a good few places higher than they are now come the end of the season.

Before turning to tonight’s game though, have a look at their crest at the top of this post.  What on earth is that all about?  Why does it show some fat man frogmarching?  Why would you let kids design the crest of a professional football club?  Urgent PR makeover needed I feel.

Anyway, City fans were hoping for better then the turgid drivel that was Saturday’s bore draw against Accrington, but as it turned out they would have taken the same again over the eventual result.

Burton came out of the traps fighting, winning an early corner and forcing Julian Kelly to make a goal-line clearance.  Just as Barnet had done in City’s last away match, the good start turned into an early lead.  With just 10 minutes on the clock, a mix up between Hone and Carson allowed Winnall to pinch the ball and roll it into an unguarded net.  I feel like I’ve written about far too many defensive errors recently, particularly involving Carson, and it feels as if City are slipping back into giving away the soft goals that proved so costly earlier in the season.

The game continued in a scrappy fashion, but with the Brewers undeniably having the upper hand.  In the 37^th minute, a lob by Winnall looked to be going in, before Watts managed to head the ball back onto his own crossbar and away to safety.

It was clear that City needed to get hold of the ball to have any chance of getting back into the game, but once again the Imps wafer-thin midfield was struggling to either win or retain the ball.  It also seems that any side with a pacy right winger will do well against City, as Hunt has been turned inside out in more than one game recently.

City looked to quickly get back into the game after the break, and a Grimes dummy for O’Keefe seemed to present a great chance, but the outstretched leg of James denied the City midfielder the chance to test the goalkeeper.

The ball went down the other end, and once again City were the architects of their own downfall.  Kelly and Carayol managed to cheaply give the ball away to McGrath, who centred to give Webster a simple sidefoot finish from 6 yards.

The second goal gave Burton the confidence to go on the attack again, with City barely able to create any play in front of Burton’s goal.  City’s deficiencies are illustrated by the fact that Facey’s shot straight at the keeper on 66 minutes was the side’s first on target.

On 75 minutes, any doubts that Burton would take all three points were removed when Carayol made a clumsy challenge on Maghoma and the referee had no hesitation in giving a penalty.  Winnall duly stepped up to score his second and Burton’s third.

Ironically, when the game was beyond saving, City managed to achieve some fluency in their play.  Following a quick throw in, Grimes showed his ability to score goals from nothing by curling past keeper Legzdins from 20 yards with 8 minutes to go.

This, of course, proved to be nothing more than a consolation goal, and once again defensive errors, an absent midfield and a simple lack of fight from the first whistle to the last have cost the Imps.  Although the run of results in the new year gave City a more optimistic league position, there can be no doubt that that run is now well and truly over, and Tilson and Brush must ensure that complacency doesn’t set in, and the Imps own slack attitude doesn’t allow them to be clawed back into the relegation mire.

BURTON ALBION
23 Adam Legzdins
8 Andy Corbett
5 Tony James
7 Darren Moore
2 Paul Boertien
6 John Mcgrath
26 Adam Bolder
3 Aaron Webster
19 Jacques Maghoma
16 Russell Penn
29 Sam Winnall

Substitutes:
9 Simon Whaley for Penn (79)
30 Nialle Rodney for Webster (79)
10 Richard Walker
15 Ryan Austin
17 Jimmy Phillips
18 Greg Pearson
1 Kevin Poole

LINCOLN CITY
24 Trevor Carson
16 Julian Kelly
4 Adam Watts
6 Danny Hone
23 Stephen Hunt
14 Josh O'Keefe
31 Ali Fuseini
7 Mustapha Carayol
9 Gavin McCallum
18 Delroy Facey
29 Ashley Grimes

Substitutes:
27 Ben Hutchinson for Fuseini (62)
19 Jamie Clapham for McCallum (62)
39 Scott Spencer for Facey (76)
2 Paul Green
25 Cian Hughton
40 Patrick Kanyuka
20 Paul Musselwhite

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Agatha Christie, Assyrian treasure and face-cream conservation

The British Museum has decided to put on a small exhibition next week about some rather unusual objects, or at least objects with an unusual story to tell.  They have been in the museum since being purchased for £1.2million 25 years ago, but have never before been on display.

The objects are a series of ivories from the Assyrian city of Nimrud, excavated in the 1940’s by Max Mallowan, the second husband of Agatha Christie.  The tiny, gilded figures, originally made to decorate furniture, are miniature masterpieces of sculpture, and still bear some traces of the gilding and jeweled inlay that originally adorned them.  Some even still carry the signs of burning that signal the demise of the city 2,600 years ago.

Images from www.britishmuseum.org

Sadly (should that even be criminally?), the ivories that remained in Iraq appear to have been damaged during the Iraq war – either trampled in the looting of the museum or, with horrific irony, damaged by flooding of the bank vault they had been taken to for protection.

But no tale of (vaguely) antiquarian archaeological discovery would be complete without an element of weirdness.  In this instance, it’s the rather unusual conservation methods employed by Christie herself.  In her autobiography she writes,

“I had my own favourite tools ... an orange stick, possibly a very fine knitting needle - one season a dentist's tool which he lent, or rather gave me, and a jar of cosmetic face cream, which I found more useful than anything else for gently coaxing the dirt out of the crevices without harming the friable ivory. In fact there was such a run on my face cream that there was nothing left for my poor old face after a couple of weeks!”

Maybe I can persuade our museum conservators to try out the face cream technique – it doesn’t seem to have done the ivories any harm!  If only she’d left us the name of the brand she used, we could have got a great sponsorship deal…

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National Museum of China reopens

The National Museum of China reopened to the public this week, following a three and a half year renovation which cost an eye-watering 2.5 billion RMB (about 234 million pounds). Actually, the current 'soft opening' is for tour groups only.  Normal tourists will be able to go in after the official reopening on April 1st.

The museum, known in Chinese as the 中国国家博物馆 (Zhongguo guojia bowuguan), is an iconic structure in Beijing, occupying one side of Tiananmen Square.  See the official website here.

The museum was constructed in 1959, to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of the coming to power of the Chinese Communist Party.  It was actually an amalgamation of two museums – the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution.  These two subjects still form the basis of the new exhibitions, though the display space has nearly tripled in size to include 49 display rooms, including spaces dedicated to accepting temporary displays from Asia, Africa, Europe and America.

The collections have also expanded, with more than 390,000 objects from other museums transferred to bring the total up to 1.05 million.  Beijing is claiming that this is now the world’s biggest museum, though such statistics in the museum world are rarely quantifiable and little more than meaningless PR soundbites.  Museums should be judged on what they do with their collections and the difference they can make to the lives of their audiences rather than on numerical object counts or floor area.  What is certain is that this is a collection, and an institution, that will expect to have an impact on the world stage.  Major initial opening exhibitions with loans coming from Germany and Peru clearly mark that ambition.

It is expected that visitor figures will rise to three times those the previous museum saw – with 8 to 10 million domestic and international visitors expected per year.  The basic museum will be free to enter, with some special exhibitions charged for – a standard business model for national museums in England.

As with other recent Chinese museum projects, I fully expect the renovation to look stunning – the Chinese museum industry has proved that when it comes to throwing money at things to make them look good, it needs no lessons from anybody.  As for the interpretation of the displays, and whether the narrative is a fair reflection of history, or a biased ‘party line’, I will reserve judgement until I am able to visit and see for myself, which hopefully won’t be too far in the future.

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Lincoln City v Accrington Stanley, 5 March 2011

Venue: Sincil Bank, Lincoln

Attendance: 2,868

Final score: 0-0

Accrington Stanley.  Who are they?  Sorry, couldn’t help myself.  I’m sure Accy fans never get tired of hearing it…

I have to confess I quite like Accrington (the team, not the place necessarily) - one of those smaller clubs who have come up into the league and made a comfortable home there.  Maybe not excelling, but not failing either, and certainly not making any enemies along the way.  It’s always a pleasure to welcome them to Sincil Bank.

Accy are one place and one point above the Imps, but have played 2 games less.  Interestingly, the BBC preview for this game described Accrington as promotion chasing and City as fighting to avoid relegation – amazing what a difference a point makes!

The game began pretty much as it would continue – slow, disjointed and, to be honest, rather dull.  Grimes had the first real shot of the game on 10 minutes, but could only fire straight at keeper Cisak.

After 18 minutes, a half chance fell for Accrington’s Proctor, but he could only weakly shoot well wide from just inside the box.

As the half went on, the two sides mostly cancelled each other out, but the pattern of Accrington having most possession with Lincoln happy to try and attack on the break emerged.  In reality, neither side looked like having the quality to break down the other - both seemed happiest to simply avoid losing

Following City’s first corner on 34 minutes, McCallum tested Cisak for the first time, forcing the keeper to turn a rasping drive around the post from wide on the edge of the box.  In turn, poor play from City on the halfway line gave the ball away to Accrington, and the ball was fed wide to Craney.  His cross found Ryan, who fluffed his lines completely even though he was unmarked.

The halftime whistle brought some relief from the tedium of a match that seemed destined to peter out in a goalless draw, or be decided by a defensive howler rather than a piece of skill.

The second half continued in much the same fashion.  City started on the attack, but a Stanley break on 51 minutes saw a shot flash just past the post, though probably covered by Carson had it been on target.

The next goalmouth action occurred in the 65^th minute when Accrington striker Craney held off Adam Watts before curling a shot just past the post.

As the clock continued to tick, the home crowd’s frustrations began to grow, especially as Accrington began to look more like the side that would break the deadlock.

As it was, City had the best of the few remaining chances.  First McCallum had a volley on 82 minutes that was scuffed, but fell to O’Keefe, who saw his shot go wide.  Soon after, Fuseini put a long range shot into the side netting.

Although Accrington ended the game with the ball around the City box, the final whistle couldn’t come soon enough for the bored and increasingly cold crowd.

Ultimately, City’s problems seem to stem from the lack of a good midfield pairing to win and distribute the ball.  Fuseini, it seems to me, is not at the races at all and vanishes from games.  Neither he nor O’Keefe are the sort of tough tackling player required, especially since Scott Kerr departed for York.

LINCOLN CITY
24 Trevor Carson
16 Julian Kelly
4 Adam Watts
6 Danny Hone
23 Stephen Hunt
14 Josh O'Keefe
31 Ali Fuseini
7 Mustapha Carayol
9 Gavin McCallum
18 Delroy Facey
29 Ashley Grimes

Substitutes:
27 Ben Hutchinson for Grimes (74)
2 Paul Green
19 Jamie Clapham
25 Cian Hughton
39 Scott Spencer
40 Patrick Kanyuka
1 Joe Anyon

ACCRINGTON STANLEY
1 Alex Cisak
3 Dean Winnard
12 Phil Edwards
4 Sean Hessey
26 Joe Jacobson
14 Luke Joyce
6 Andrew Procter
7 Jimmy Ryan
8 Charlie Barnett
24 Terry Gornell
27 Ian Craney
Substitutes:
11 Sean McConville for Barnett (H/T)
10 Ray Putterill for Ryan (77)
5 Kevin Long
9 Craig Lindfield
17 Peter Murphy
23 Tom Smyth
25 Ian Dunbavin

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Lincoln City v Oxford United, 1 March 2011

Venue: Sincil Bank, Lincoln

Attendance: 2,261

Final score: 3-1

Lincoln and Oxford come into this rearranged fixture on the back of defeats at the weekend – City 4-2 at the hands of Barnet and Oxford 2-0 to Hereford.  Oxford occupy the better league position, however, sitting in 9^th place and just a point off the bottom playoff spot.

Oxford started the game more brightly, the ball spending more time in the Imps’ half than anywhere else, yet it was the Imps that took an early lead.  McCallum’s cross found O’Keefe, whose shot deflected onto the post, but the City midfielder had followed up well to tap the rebound home.

The game continued in scrappy fashion, with the ball pinging from end to end, but with neither keeper really tested.  City had a penalty appeal for handball waved away on 20 minutes.  The Imps were forced into an early change on 22 minutes when Howells pulled up holding his leg.  He was replaced by Mustafa Carayol.

On the half hour, City came close to extending their lead when Grimes got the ball in the centre circle, and threaded a good pass out wide to Facey.  The burly striker showed his pace and strength to get level with the 18 yard box before crossing low to Grimes, the striker’s powerful first time shot just missing the top corner.

On 40 minutes the visitors were level.  A fairly innocuous shot into the body of City keeper Carson somehow bobbled loose, and MacLean made no mistake in punishing the error.  It seems that Carson is either making fine fingertip saves and penalty saves recently, or making schoolboy howlers.  The Imps were hoping that they were not to be punished for giving away such a simple equalizer.

Oxford started the second half better, obviously buoyed by their goal.  After only 5 minutes, hesitancy and an inability to clear the ball saw Asa Hall given a chance to shoot, which he fortunately blasted over.

The game soon returned to it’s scrappiness of the first half, with neither side able to assert themselves, and a draw looking increasingly likely.  That was until a bizarre 5 minutes which turned the game.

On 63 minutes, Facy hooked the ball into the box, only to see Harry Worley’s attempted clearance slice into the top corner of his own net.  The crowd took a second to register what had happened, as there seemed to be no pressure on Worley.  Strangely though, City stadium announcer Alan Long announced the goal as being scored by Facey!

If that own goal was a piece of comedy, then to see a similar thing happen just 4 minutes later was simply hilarious.  Carayol tricked his way past his marker to get the ball to the touchline, and drilled a hard, low cross into the box.  This time it was Tonkin’s attempt to clear, but he instead executed an inch perfect chip over the despairing leap of Clarke to give the Imps a 3-1 lead.  It was a finish any striker would have been proud of.

City were more content to sit back as the game entered its final phase, and although Oxford had much possession, they were unable to really test Carson and the Imps easily held out for a valuable, if somewhat comically obtained, victory.

LINCOLN CITY
24. Trevor Carson
16. Julian Kelly
4. Adam Watts
6. Danny Hone
23. Stephen Hunt
14. Josh O'Keefe
31. Ali Fuseini
15. Luke Howell
9. Gavin McCallum
18. Delroy Facey
29. Ashley Grimes

Substitutes:
7 Mustapha Carayol for Howell (24)
27 Ben Hutchinson for Facey (81)
39 Scott Spencer for Grimes (89)
2 Paul Green
19 Jamie Clapham
40 Patrick Kanyuka
1 Joe Anyon

OXFORD UNITED
1. Ryan Clarke
2. Damian Batt
22. Harry Worley
6. Jake Wright
3. Anthony Tonkin
8. Simon Heslop
4. Paul Mclaren
14. Asa Hall
32. Steve MacLean
29. Tom Craddock
9. James Constable
Substitutes:
16. Simon Hackney for Craddock (74)
15. Alfie Potter for Hall (77)
10. Jack Midson for Maclean (81)
5. Djoumin Sangare
11. Simon Clist
28. Josh Payne
21. Simon Eastwood

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