Sunday 7 August 2011

Top 10 Lincoln City matches

I've been a fan of Lincoln City since attending my first match at home to Cardiff City back in 1985. We lost 4-0 and I was instantly hooked! Here is a list of my favourite Imps matches over the years I have been supporting them!

Lincoln 5 - 3 Scunthorpe United
League 2 play-off semi-final, 1st leg, 10th May, 2003

An amazing match in which Imps raced into a 3-1 lead but were then pegged back to 3-3 before 2 late Simon Yeo goals handed Lincoln a major advantage in this 1st leg play-off semi-final.

Peterborough United 1 - 2 Lincoln City
League 2, Christmas Eve, 2006

"Amoo, Amoo, Amoo is on fire," was the chant that rang through the away terrace after this brilliant result in which Ryan Amoo scored either side of an effort for Posh scored by Simon Yeo, who was assisted by another ex-Imp in Peter Gain. It was the perfect Christmas present for all Lincoln fans.

Lincoln City 2 - 0 Wycombe Wanderers
GM Vauxhall Conference, 2nd May, 1988

Lincoln clinched the GMVC Championship on the last day of the season with this victory. The Imps hadn't been top all season until after the penultimate game of the season when we beat Stafford Rangers 2-1 and leaders Barnet lost by the same scoreline at home to Runcorn. Lincoln's goals were scored by Phil Brown and Mark Sertori.

Lincoln City 2 - 1 Brighton & HA
Division 3 (now League 2), 1st May, 1998

City were again promoted on the last day of the season with a nervous win over Brighton when goals by Terry Fleming and Lee Thorpe provided the Imps with reason to celebrate.

Lincoln 7 -1 Rochdale
League 2, 21st Oct, 2006

After winning 5-0 at Barnet in the previous match, Lincoln confirmed their status as the highest league goalscorers at the time of playing. It was the third time in the season that Jamie Forrester had scored a hattrick, having already scored 4 at Mansfield Town and also getting a hattrick against Barnet in the previous match. Mark Stallard and Jeff Hughes each scored twice to complete the 7-1 scoreline.

Lincoln City 4 - 1 Manchester City
Coca Cola Cup, 2nd round, 1st leg, 17th Sept, 1996

One of the most amazing Lincoln performances in recent memory, John Beck's team simply overpowered Man City, who were managerless at the time, from start to finish. Even more amazing is that Man City scored after 40 seconds! Imps struck back through Terry Fleming, Steve Holmes, Gijsbert Bos and Jon Whitney. Lincoln then won the return leg 1-0 to win 5-1 on aggregate.

Southampton 2 - 2 Lincoln City
Coca Cola Cup, 3rd round, 23rd Oct, 1996

After beating Man City in the previous round, City excelled again by holding their top flight opponents to a draw after leading through Mark Hone and then salvaging a draw with a late equaliser through Gareth Ainsworth. Southampton played a full strength team so this result was a huge surprise. Even more surprising is that the next match the Saints played in they beat Man United 6-3, on the same pitch that they drew 2-2 with Lincoln only 4 days earlier.

Scarborough 0 - 2 Lincoln City
Division 3 (now League 2), 25th April, 1997

City needed a victory to keep up a late surge for the Division 3 playoffs. The atmosphere was amazing as the away fans matched the number of home fans. I believe the Imps goals that day came from Stant and Ainsworth but I could be wrong.

Lincoln City 2 - 1 Barnet
GM Vauxhall Conference, 28th Oct, 1987

This was a game that had everything; goals, fighting between players, Barnet manager (Barry Fry) being escorted off the pitch by stewards, sending offs and a penalty. In fact this game was so controversial it even made the back page of the next day's Daily Telegraph. Imps won with a freekick from Trevor Matthewson and a penalty by John McGinley.

Lincoln City 5 - 0 Grimsby Town
League 2, 25th March, 2006

An incredible show by Lincoln City that lead to the Imps being 4-0 up at the interval and Grimsby manager Russell Slade had his half-time team talk with his players on the pitch. Highlight for me was Jamie Forrester's sublime 25 yard lob over the keeper for our second goal. Lincoln's other goals came from Luke Foster, Paul Mayo, Lee Beevers and Marvin Robinson.


These 10 favourites of mine are in no particular order and I may have missed a couple of gems out. What are your favourite Lincoln matches?

Sunday 3 April 2011

Imps play-off joy at Glanford Park, 2003

2002/2003 marked the return of Keith Alexander's second managerial spell at Lincoln City. At the start of the season Lincoln had just come out of administration and had only a handful of players on the books at the club. Alexander worked miracles and put together a team that started out as clear relegation favourites but finished in the play-offs final at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff.

The play-offs semi-finals pitched Lincoln City against old rivals Scunthorpe United. The first leg played at Sincil Bank was an amazing encounter. Eight goals saw Lincoln win 5-3. All eyes were now on Glanford Park. Tickets for this match went on sale for Imps fans four days after the 5-3 win at 9am on a Wednesday morning. Play-off fever had hit the city of Lincoln. Local interest was huge! At 6am the queues stretched far back and it has been suggested that anyone who turned up about this time didn't get a ticket. My friends and I had joined the queue at 5am.

The match was an evening kick-off and the evening's entertainment started with Scunthorpe manager Brian Laws parading around the edge of the pitch with a huge Scunthorpe United flag. All this did was add fuel to the hearts of the Lincoln players and management.

2,000 away fans were packed into the away end at Glanford Park and the atmosphere was typical of a passionate local derby with so much riding on the outcome of the match. Scunthorpe seemed to have the majority of the chances in the game with Alan Marriott the busier of the keepers as The Iron looked to claw back the two goal deficit from the first leg.

With the game heading for a goalless draw Simon Yeo was provided with a perfect pass from midfield to race clear of defender Jamie McCombe, who was later to play for Lincoln. It was a one on one with Tom Evans and Yeo finished calmly from the edge of the box to send the hoardes of Lincoln fans behind the goal where Yeo had scored into dreamland.

The Imps fans celebrated like they had won the biggest football prize available. After a pre-season of much uncertainty when Lincoln City came close to cease trading, Keith Alexander had performed a miracle. The relegation favourites at the start of the season had made it to the play-off final . What an achievement!

It must not be forgotten that without the help of the 'Save The Imps' campaign and huge fund raising efforts then Lincoln wouldn't have had a league team at the start of the 2002 season.

Lincoln City went on to lose the play-off final to Bournemouth but that was a day out that most Imps fans hadn't bargained for at the start of the season.