This weekend saw the Imps continue their poor run of form, especially in front of goal, by losing 1-0 at home to recently relegated Aldershot Town on a cold, wet and windy Saturday afternoon in front of a decent crowd of 2,748. The solitary goal of the match came from the penalty spot when Nat Brown stupidly handled the ball, the ball was smashed home by Brett Williams.
Imps manager Gary Simpson made a surprising inclusion in his starting line up when he elected to put Yussuf up front on his own, despite not being fir enough to even make the bench in a number of weeks now. Waide Fairhurst also saw a recall as these two players replaced the suspended Tomlinson and out of form Nick Wright in the Imps attack. The Imps got the match underway attacking the South stand where the 193 visiting supporters were sat, half in Poachers corner and the other half behind the goal urging their side on.
The Imps started brilliantly with Newton making one of his trademark attacking runs down the left firing in a dangerous low cross that Yussuf was only inches away from connecting with, it really should have been a quick opening goal for the Imps, the delivery was perfect the timing of Yussuf was, as expected after a lengthy lay off, well off. Shortly after Nolan was lucky to stay out of the book after he flew into a challenge in the middle of the pitch, he received a stern telling off but no more form the referee, Adrian Holmes.
Aldershot grew into the game following the shaky start and Imps goalkeeper Paul Farman had to be on the top of his game to keep the scores at 0-0. He made three superb saves in succession from Gibbs, Stanley and Young; the Imps back line in front of him was in complete disarray and was affording far too much space to the Shots attacking players. The Imps looked second best to all the competing balls in this period of the match, both wide players for Aldershot looked dangerous going forward.
Foster received a yellow card after he slid in from behind on the touchline on Roberts, little complain from me as the sliding tackle from behind has been out ruled for the best part of 20 years now, that and the fact the ball was on the half way line nearly going out of play makes the decision to make that challenge even more ridiculous. The Imps ended the half better than the visitors, but still Pope in the Shots goal wasn`t really trouble, despite there being awful wet conditions for the ‘keepers none of the Imps players thought of testing the keeper with low skidding shots or high balls into the box from out wide. The ref brought the half to a close with the visitors looking far better going forward, but the scores were still level at 0-0.
The sides emerged from the break, with the half time schools match again being more entertaining, unchanged and Aldershot again pressed and their attacking efforts were rewarded just minutes after the second half got underway. A cross from the left hand side of the penalty area was met by the arm of Nat Brown, as clear a penalty as you are likely to see. Striker Williams stepped up and smashed the ball into the back of the next with Farman going the other way.
With the Imps now needing to score to get anything out of the game Simpson made a change with Jordan, again out of position and out of his depth, being replaced by Bohan Dixon in a straight change on the left hand side of the three attackers playing behind Yussuf. Alan Power received the Imps second yellow card for a late tackle in the middle of the pitch.
With the Imps looking once again clueless in attack, with aimless hoofed balls causing little trouble for the Aldershot back line Simpson made a second change, but it was another straight swap with Wright replacing the visibly unfit Yussuf in attack, but it did not change the strategy, if there was one, one bit with more long balls going forward towards players who are just not good in the air. This desperation became even more apparent when Boyce went up in attack to partner Wright. If the best we can do to get an equaliser is to put a centre back up front when we have around 7 strikers in the squad then we really do need to think about what we are doing.
Martin Rowlands replaced Jaydon Gibbs as Aldershot made their first change of the match, despite the Imps needing a goal the visitors didn`t have too much to deal with, no clear efforts on Popes goal came from an Imps player, corners were easily dealt with. With only minutes of the match remaining Aldershot made their second change with Matt Paterson replacing Jordan Roberts. The Imps earned a last minute free kick on the edge of the box and Newton stepped up, but his effort was well over the bar and the ref blew the final whistle to ensure the Imps poor run of form continued losing 1-0.
Another poor home performance from the Imps and for me a lot of that is down to the selection of players, Foster and Jordan in particular are playing in positions further forward than they should be, offering very little in an attacking sense. And this round pegs in square holes is really beginning to show with our lack of chances, let along goals. Things will need to change if we are to stop the slow slide down the table, players such as Fofana and Sheridan must be wondering what they have done wrong to be behind players who are frankly so poor at the moment.
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