Imps Still Need Four Points

Lincoln City travelled to Stevenage at the weekend hopeful of another three points to take them to the safety margin of 50 points however things in Hertfordshire did not go to plan.

Stevenage appear to be modelled on the John Beck style of football. Brought in not for their talent but by the inch and every player must have been six foot plus and that included the substitutes. The word to describe their football in one word is direct. Why bother passing the ball when you can get it forward quickly and put pressure on the opposing defence. Beck would have recognised the style.

To be fair to Stevenage at this level of football it is an effective way of playing and it is all based on the percentage game and taking a chance on set pieces.

Graham Westley`s side were not the best team the Imps have played this season but once again the City players came out second best to a team that harried and intimidated whenever possible. Cit`s performance on the day was not the best they have played but they have played worse and won.

It was however the Imps who took the lead first after some good work from Mustapha Carayol who crossed the ball and it was the linesman who then signalled that a Stevenage player had handled the ball and it was a penalty to the Imps. Ashley Grimes who had missed his previous penalty attempt coolly stepped up to make it 1-0 to the Imps.

As the game progressed it was City who gifted Stevenage the three points with Clapham guilty for the first goal when his poor clearance went straight to the feet of Stevenage player John Mousinho who saw his blistering shot parried by Imps keeper Trevor Carson but Lawrie Wilson reacted first and buried the ball in the City net.

In the second half a double substitution for Stevenage seemed to spur the home side on and almost immediately they scored what was to prove to be the winner. A rather tame shot from Wilson should have been collected by Carson but he appeared to misread the flight of the ball and he ended up picking the ball out of the back of the net.

City did make a late effort to equalise but by then it was to late and even Trevor Carson coming up for a corner could not grab the Imps a consolation point and they returned to Lincoln still needing four points from their last nine games.

With both Stockport and Barnet losing this defeat wasn`t the disaster it could have been but the Imps are not mathematically safe just yet.